Photos of a vibrantly colored fish that looks too striking to be real have gone viral on Japanese social media, leading many to wonder if it was the result of too much digital editing.

Last Friday, the popular YouTube fishing channel Gang Azusa took to Twitter to post a very intriguing image of their latest catch: a striking fish that almost looked painted. People began to ask if it was real or just a case of excessive Photoshop, but it wasn’t until Azusa posted a video on YouTube of them catching the fish that the photos went viral. The images show the alien-looking fish in all its glory, leaving many viewers open-mouthed at the idea that such a creature actually exists.

photo: Azusa Fishing Gang/twitterApparently, the painted-looking fish is known as ‘Kinubella’ (キヌベラ) in Japan, and ‘surge wrasse’ (thalassoma purpureum) in the Western world. It lives in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans, where it inhabits reefs and rocky coasts. Despite its toxic-looking color, the wrasse is edible, although it is of lesser importance for commercial fishing and more valuable as an aquarium fish.Since the original photo of the fish was posted on the Fishing Gang Azusa Twitter page, it has received more than 200,000 likes and 37,000 retweets. People just can’t get over how strange it looks, with many claiming it belongs in James Cameron’s Avatar.