Red Sea at night, photographer's delight! Beautiful images reveal the variety of creatures that emerge after dark in Egypt’s waters

Underwater photographer Andrey Nekraso, from the Ukraine, photographed efficient predators at night

He described night-time in the Egyptian sea as 'very quiet, peaceful and mysterious'

The Red Sea is home to more than 1,200 species of fish, 10 per cent of which are found nowhere else in the worl d


Scores of tourists travel to Egypt’s Red Sea to snorkel under the sun, but one underwater photographer has captured strange sea creatures of the night that come into their own after under the cover of darkness.



Many of the sea’s most efficient predators spend their days lazily drifting along waiting for darkness - and their chance to hunt.

Moray eels and porcupine fish that have been docile during the day suddenly spring into life.

Wide awake: As the sun goes down on the red Sea, a porcupine fish (pictured) that has been docile during the day suddenly springs into life while small shoals of fish dart for cover

Underwater photographer Andrey Nekrasov captured these images in the Red Sea off the coast of Egypt.

'Night-time in the sea is not scary. It's very quiet, peaceful and mysterious,’ he said.

'I could only hear the sound of my bubbles of exhaled air and could see only what my flashlight shined on.'

Here a diver looks at a Spanish dancer, a type of sea creature who was so named because of its whirling swimming movement and red colour which are reminiscent of the skirt movements of a flamenco dancer

Synanceia verrucosa (left) is a reef stonefish. It is a carnivorous ray-finned fish with venomous spines that lives on reef bottoms camouflaged as a rock. As its mean looks might suggest, it is the most venomous known fish in the world and can be lethal to humans. In contrast, Basket star (pictured right) are a group of brittle stars related to starfish. They generally live in deep sea habitats and in the wild can live up to 35 years

The Red Sea is a diverse ecosystem with more than 1,200 species of fish, 10 per cent of which are found nowhere else in the world.

The coastal reefs are particularly rich and attract thousands of tourists eager to go snorkelling and scuba diving every year.

Mr Nekrasov, from the Ukraine, said: ‘If you get into the water just before the sunset, you'll probably catch the sight of some marine inhabitants preparing to rest overnight while others are getting ready for hunting.

The tassled scorpionfish (pictured) is a carnivorous ray-finned fish. When in shallow waters, swimmers may accidentally tread on them which may cause painful injury from their venomous spines

The yellow boxfish (pictured) is bright yellow in colour but as it ages, the brightness fades and very old specimens will have blue-grey coloration with faded yellow. It feeds mainly on algae, but will also feed on sponges, crustaceans and molluscs

The giant moray eel (pictured) can reach up to three metres (almost 10ft) in length and weigh up to 30kg (66lbs). They sometimes hunt with coralgroupers so that they can enter narrow crevices and flush prey from niches not accessible to the groupers, in the only known instance of interspecies cooperative hunting among fish

'In the twilight, reef-dwellers seem to come out in larger numbers. Big morays, which were hiding from the daylight in their cave residences, are swimming along the reef wall moving from one cover to another or between coral blocks and nearby.

'Eventually the evening shadows deepen so that you can't make out anything without a torch and real night comes.

'This is the time for reef invertebrates. They are often hunted during the day by fish who are adapted for searching and rooting out these invertebrates from their shelters.’

The red lionfish (pictured) is a venomous coral reef fish that can grow up to 47cm in length and typically lives for 10 years. The fish has large poisonous spines that protrude from its body like a mane, giving it its common name of the lionfish

The Chinese trumpetfish (pictured) can grow up to 80cm in length and has a long, tubular snout and mouth that it can thrust forward to catch prey. It is a stealthy hunter that eats smaller fish and crustaceans and is a mostly solitary creature

Here another diver comes face to face with a masked puffer fish (pictured). The fish has what looks like a black mask over its eyes and a very unusual mating pattern. It will visit a grotto and leave thick sperm behind to produce a scent to deter predators

He explained that during the night while their predators are sleeping, they have the opportunity to stretch their fins and go for a swim as well as forage for food.

'Their diet usually consists of organic waste accumulated during the day. And as a result of their work overnight the reef becomes much cleaner when the morning comes,' he added.

The giant freshwater puffer (pictured) is carnivorous and originates from the Congo in Africa. It can grow up to 26cm (26inches) long and can inflate itself with water or air when stressed and frightened. It feeds on smaller fish and crustaceans - but if kept in captivity needs to eat crunchy food so that its teeth don't get too long

The sea goldie (pictured) is a hermaphrodite. A male retains a harem of 5 to 10 females, but when he dies one of the females will undergo sex reversal and take the place of the missing male. Reproduction occurs at sunset, between December and February in the Red Sea