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Florida saltwater fish ID help needed

Started by Guest_BenCantrell_* , Dec 23 2013 01:26 PM

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13 replies to this topic

#1 Guest_BenCantrell_*

Guests

Posted 23 December 2013 - 01:26 PM

I had a great fishing trip to Florida last week, but before I post a report I need some help with IDs.

The first is a parrotfish from the keys. It had a variety of colors immediately after being caught, but quickly changed color to primarily blue. I caught redtail, stoplight, redband, and striped as well, but I'm not sure about this one.

Parrotfish pic #1
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Parrotfish pic #2
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Next are some mojarras from the keys. The first two pictures are the same fish. The third and fourth pictures are different fish. The first fish looks too slender to be a silver jenny, but that still leaves several options, and I'm having a hard time narrowing it down.

Mojarra #1 pic #1
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Mojarra #1 pic #2
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Mojarra #2
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Mojarra #3
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The last two fish are from Tampa. My guess is scaled sardine for the first and false pilchard for the second.

Sardine #1
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Sardine #2

Thanks for the help!

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#2 littlen

NANFA Member

Washington, D.C.

Posted 23 December 2013 - 01:42 PM

Looks like a Blue Parrot....Scarus coeruleus.

Nick L.

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#3 littlen

NANFA Member

Washington, D.C.

Posted 23 December 2013 - 01:50 PM

I would agree with it being a Silver Jenny. Just came back from Antigua and had to 'shoo' them out of the way to see anything else while snorkeling. Them, and the cursed, Sergeant Majors.

Nick L.

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#4 Guest_BenCantrell_*

Guests

Posted 24 December 2013 - 12:02 AM

Looks like a Blue Parrot....Scarus coeruleus.

I don't think it's a blue parrotfish, because their only color is blue, and they have a more pronounced hump on their head and different tail shape.

A friend suggested queen parrotfish, and I admit it does seem to fit the best.

I would agree with it being a Silver Jenny.

The Mojarra #1 fish looks too slender bodied to be a silver jenny. My best guess would be spotfin mojarra. Mojarra #2 and Mojarra #3 could be silver jennies though I suppose.

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#5 littlen

NANFA Member

Washington, D.C.

Posted 24 December 2013 - 06:35 AM

I could live with it being a Queen, although without seeing all of the colors it was originally expressing when first captured--it is hard to say. I'm still on the fence with it being a Blue. Blues can get upwards of 3' which your fish clearly isn't. So being at an intermediate stage, it could still have some juvenile coloration---that when stressed, fades. The large hump comes with age/maturity as with some cichlids. So I wouldn't base the decision on the hump. As for the Mojarra, I have no idea. Spotfin works for me too. "Long, silver fish, Al Capone lips"....mojarra!

Nick L.

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#6 Guest_fritz_*

Guests

Posted 02 January 2014 - 02:21 PM

I agree with the queen parrotfish and the scaled sardine and false pilchard. But I find it impossible to accurately ID mojarras from a side view photo. The important characters are on top of the head/snout.

Attached Files

mojarra key.pdf 552.42KB 15 downloads

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#7 Guest_BenCantrell_*

Guests

Posted 03 January 2014 - 03:32 AM

Thanks for the ID help, it's much appreciated.

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#8 littlen

NANFA Member

Washington, D.C.

Posted 03 January 2014 - 06:40 AM

To each their own, but I'm going with a Blue parrot. I showed the pics to a few peers in the industry who agree--but pictures of a stressed fish can certainly be misleading. A cool group of fish nontheless.

Now Ben, if you start microfishing for Neon gobies and the likes, I'll be impressed!

Nick L.

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#9 Guest_BenCantrell_*

Guests

Posted 03 January 2014 - 10:12 AM

Here are a couple more photos we took. These two are different fish from the one above.

Parrotfish #2
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This is how tired someone looks after sleeping on a bridge overnight, haha.

Parrotfish #3
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I also have this head photo of the fish in the original post.

Parrotfish #1 pic #3
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#10 littlen

NANFA Member

Washington, D.C.

Posted 03 January 2014 - 10:16 AM

Great looking fish/pictures. How deep of water were you in? It would seem that there must have been some reef structure around that bridge to attract the parrots. Any other species caught aside from the pics you've posted in this thread?

Nick L.

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#11 Guest_BenCantrell_*

Guests

Posted 03 January 2014 - 10:28 AM

Thanks Nick! We caught a lot of different fish besides the parrotfish. Occasionally I'd notice filefish (scrawled and planehead both) hanging out with the parrotfish in question, but other than that the catches were more or less random.

All of the fish in this post are from that bridge.
http://bencantrellfi...-4-keys-on.html

And the fish in the first half of this post are from that bridge.
http://bencantrellfi...art-5-keys.html

From shore we could see some big boulders on the bottom, but once we were out on the bridge we couldn't see any structure. We had very few snags when we fished on the bottom, so there didn't seem to be too much reef structure, at least within casting range of the bridge.

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#12 littlen

NANFA Member

Washington, D.C.

Posted 03 January 2014 - 10:56 AM

Nice array of fish! The smaller wrasse species look great. The Slippery Dick is an awesome fish, for the name...but because we had a PG name for it when the public would inquire. "Elusive Richard".

For what others can do with photo tank/reference pics....you can do with "in hand"/ "out of water" shots. Very cool. If you aren't already--we have to get you snorkeling or diving so that you can see all those guys underwater.

Nick L.

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#13 Guest_BenCantrell_*

Guests

Posted 03 January 2014 - 05:41 PM

If you aren't already--we have to get you snorkeling or diving so that you can see all those guys underwater.

That would be awesome. I've only snorkeled once in my life, and that was 12 years ago.

Some of us hook & line nutjobs were debating about whether or not completely underwater catches would count. You could tie a length of line with a microfishing hook to the end of an ice fishing rod, swim down to a reef (snorkeling would be cooler than diving because you'd have to hold your breath), and then microfish for those small gobies and other reef fish that you'd never be able to catch otherwise. You could then take a fish in hand photo while underwater. Bonus points if you didn't have to head to the surface to take a breath before taking photos.