Christmas Photo Puzzle 2023

Christmas Photo Puzzle 2023 by gentle lemur posted 24 Dec 2023 at 8:26 AM

When P G Wodehouse created his characters he made Bertie Wooster well-intentioned, but the silliest of asses, so that he could blunder into horrible situations from which only Jeeves could rescue him. For added comedy value, the author fixed just one idea in Bertie's head - 'Fish is good for brain'.

In this puzzle I have used my photos of a wide range of creatures, as usual, to illustrate a mysterious theme, as usual – but as I am convinced that the great author was absolutely right, I have added plenty of extra fish, for the benefit of ZooChatters' brains.

Photos 1 to 12 show creatures from various groups, but facing them are the fishes in photos A to K. The final space, L, is for the tie-breaker.

The aim of the puzzle is to pair up each of the fishes with one of the other animals.

You need to name all the species, as far as you can, and then start to discover the links between the pairs. Once you work out the theme of the puzzle, it should help you with the less obvious pairings (names can only get you so far, a little research or lateral thinking may be required).

As in previous puzzles, I expect that some teamwork will be required to complete the solution, which is fine – but this time I have added a tie-breaker to decide the final champion.

Puzzlers should choose a type of fish for space L, to pair with the 12th creature – but this must not be a random choice without rhyme or reason – so the tie-breaker will be a sentence or two of reasoning or a short rhyme, explaining your choice.

Please don't waste time
On an elaborate rhyme
A quick limerick should do the trick
But couplet, or a clerihew
Will do​

I aim to open this thread for solutions at noon on New Year's Day (UTC), and when all the pairs have been solved, I will judge the tie-breakers.

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and pleasant puzzling!

 

This thread is now open for answers.

 

A very hesitant attempt, perhaps more reminiscent of Lord Emsworth (with an IQ "some thirty points below that of an absent minded jellyfish") than than the inimitable Jeeves:

1. Chestnut-bellied sandgrouse and K. Sand tiger shark
2. Chinese goral
3. ?
4. Buffy fish owl
5. King cobra
6. Secretarybird (Sagittarius is the Latin for archer) and J. Banded archerfish
7. Sea otter
8. Lion-tailed macaque and I. Red lionfish
9. Goat (though I'm afraid I can't name the breed) and A. Bicolour goatfish
10. (African?) bullfrog and C - Painted frogfish
11. Komodo dragon and D. Asian arowana (aka dragonfish)
12. Great argus and H. Indian dwarf mudskipper (a very tentative link, but the mudskipper's scientific name of Periophthalmus brings to mind the many-eyed Argus from Greek mythology)

The only other species I might be able to identify are F (white-spotted cichlid) and possibly G (some sort of panchax?) but I am not quite sure where either might fit in?

 

Number 2 is a Japanese serow methinks, in case that helps . Some pretty tough links to find there though - really cool thought process.

 

I could be mistaken, but I am fairly certain that C is a Leaf Scorpionfish, although I am not sure how that connects to any of the other animals.

 

3 is a scorpionfly, linking with C for the scorpionfish

 

The African bullfrog could also link with the Sand tiger shark hence its scientific name being Carcharias taurus

9 is a Domestic sheep, but a ram and E is a Ram cichlid

Then the Japanese serow will fit with the Bicolour goatfish with the serow being a caprine

 

I think I've found a link between them all as well

 

So far some of the suggested links are correct, but others are wrong. Once you have sorted out several correct links, you should be able to work out the theme.
Remember that some of the links involve names, but some involve other features - think laterally

 

Thinking about the potential theme, however, I'm now beginning to wonder whether the argus should instead be linked with the cichlids in picture F. Both images do contain twins, after all...

 

I must admit I'm certainly struggling, I feel as though I have all but two species and two links

 

Spotted sandgrouse & Spotted wobbegong

Japanese serow & Bicolour goatfish

Scorpionfly & Leaf scorpionfish

Buffy fish owl

King cobra

Secretary bird & Banded archerfish

Sea otter & Tie breaker

Lion-tailed macaque & Red lionfish

Domestic sheep, ram & Ram cichlid

African bullfrog & Sand tiger shark

Komodo dragon & Asian arowana

Great argus & White-spotted cichlid

I must admit my sandgrouse ID skills are not the strongest

The ones I can't link are the sandgrouse & wobbegong and the buffy fish owl. I have a possible link for the king cobra.

 

We have a total of 7 correct pairings, plus some ingenious pairings which could possibly be correct, but are not what I had in mind. I am a little surprised that no-one has twigged the theme yet: I know it's not obvious, but it is a well-known idea and it is linked in some way to all these creatures. I will give everyone two little clues.
1 Which creature is visible in one of the images, but has not been mentioned in this thread yet?
2 Application of a little Latin might trigger a solution to the theme and so give you a handle on the harder pairings and the tie-breaker.

 

The theme will be constellations, perhaps?

The creature surely isn't the sally lightfoot crab the sea otter is consuming?

 

Thanks for the clue! The link would then be constellations
It would seem we have Capricornus, Scorpius, Cancer, Sagittarius, Leo, Aries, Draco and some others I'm not sure of

 

I believe we also have Hydrus, Gemini & Cepheus

 

Getting closer . . . .

 

I forgot about the quiz; but surely if there are 12 pairs involving constellations then the theme is The Zodiac!