In Reply to: My Favorite Fish posted by Merry on September 03, 2014 at 11:43:35:

Nice portraits, Mer. Here's what Uncle Milt says about the color variation, k;-)

Indeed, they come in an array of colors and patterns and no one knows (I think) why that is. The first question is 1) are they capable of changing color and/or pattern? Giant kelpfish, particularly the females, can do that, albeit slowly. If they can, then the differences in color/pattern has some sort of selective value. If they can't, then is the color genetically fixed - that might be case. Lastly, there could be a food-related role, as you have noted, though this seems to me to be the least appealing hypothesis.