Florida saltwater ID's
#1 Guest_FishyJackson_*
Posted 14 October 2014 - 12:53 PM
1) This first pic is from Mote Aquarium, is the fish on the left a Swordspine Snook?
20141013_112034.jpg 104.38KB 3 downloads
2) This next one may not be solvable, I wasn't able to catch it or get good footage of it, but If you check out the link to the 7 second youtube video below, the fish can be seen towards the middle/right middle of the screen. It's body shape is like a Killifish, it was dark/black but seemed to have light blotches, it's head was whitish. I saw one of these fish the last time I was down here, each time it was solitary unlike the rest of the fish there in the Mangroves. It was nibbling at the coral/rocks, and had no interest in the little piece of squid I was trying to catch it on.
3) I caught one of these Gobies before and it was believed to be a Frillfin Goby, but that was with a lousy picture. I caught a few this time and got a better pic. These Gobies are really interesting little creatures, they are more common than I thought, there were a ton of them back there. I think these are Frillfin but want to confirm.
Frillfin.jpg 56.71KB 3 downloads
Frillfin Goby.jpg 65.92KB 1 downloads
4) Sheepshead Minnow?
20141013_163733.jpg 103.96KB 2 downloads
#2 Guest_FishyJackson_*
Posted 14 October 2014 - 12:56 PM
20141013_151845.jpg 96.02KB 1 downloads
20141013_151939.jpg 137.82KB 0 downloads
#3 Guest_FishyJackson_*
Posted 14 October 2014 - 01:14 PM
Mojarra Head.jpg 145.99KB 3 downloads
20141012_173225.jpg 81.95KB 3 downloads
#4 Guest_Kanus_*
Posted 15 October 2014 - 07:25 AM
#5 Guest_zooxanthellae_*
Posted 15 October 2014 - 10:35 AM
I think number 4 may be Floridicthys carpio. Can't help you much past that unfortunately.
#1. I have never actually seen a swordspine, but from the descriptions the second anal spine should be longer than any anal rays. It doesn't appear that way from the photo, so I'm not sure.
#2. I dont actually see any fish in that video, sorry.
#3. This looks an awful lot like a frillfin to me, and the counts are correct, but I am not seeing any free pectoral rays (which lend the frilfin its name). Did you see any when you caught it?
#4. I was thinking the same thing as Kanus here. It is at least worth looking into as a possibility.
#5. This is definitely a stingray, and at first glance I would say an Atlantic Stingray, Dasyatis sabina.
#6. I can't help you here, you were right to photograph the head, as the identification can hinge on scale counts and arrangements on the head. Unfortunately I can't make out any of the scales in your photograph! Do you have any others?
#6 Guest_FishyJackson_*
Posted 15 October 2014 - 01:09 PM
#4- Goldspotted Killifish- That looks like a strong possibility, I have a slight better pic on my phone that I will crop and upload later and maybe we can confirm it. There just arent obvious gold spots in my pictures, maybe they had faded out of the water, but after reading a description of that species the dark irregular bands on the lower side seem to match up to my fish.
#5- After checking out pics of juvenile Atlantic Stingrays I am convinced that was exactly what it was. Glad I didnt listen to the guy who felt it necessary to confidently state that it was just a harmless Skate.
#1- I think it's a Tarpon Snook actually, Mote Aquarium was real good about properly labeling all the fish but I'm pretty certain that wasn't a regular Common Snook.
I preserved the Killifish, one of the Gobies and one of the Mojarras. I left them in the freezer down there in the condo in case further investigations are required.
#3- I don't recall if there were any free pectoral rays, but these Gobies seem to dominate the Goby scene in the Mangroves in Sarasota. I caught probably 8 or 10 of them and didnt see any other species. I saw one of those Sarasota PDF files last night that had a bunch of species from a survey sampling of Sarasota Bay (I cant find the file now) and I didnt see Frillfin Goby in it, but that may not mean anything. Maybe Code Goby?
#6- I think it's possible some of them might be Tidewater Mojarras, but these things give me a headache trying to figure them out.
#7 Guest_fritz_*
Posted 15 October 2014 - 02:54 PM
5 - definitely an Atlantic stingray
6 - to get the scales to be more visible, try and dry them off as much as you can. maybe by blowing on the head. Can't tell anything from head photo
the second, whole body photo doesn't look like a silver jenny and could be a tidewater.
#8 Guest_FishyJackson_*
Posted 15 October 2014 - 05:49 PM
Here is another pic of the possible Goldspotted Killifish, still hard to tell if there are gold spots but I do think you guys are right, does this pic help?
Goldspotted Killifish.jpg 48.63KB 0 downloads
#9 Guest_associatedboy_*
Posted 16 October 2014 - 12:48 AM
#10 Guest_associatedboy_*
Posted 16 October 2014 - 12:55 AM
#11 Guest_FishyJackson_*
Posted 16 October 2014 - 09:59 AM
#12
Posted 16 October 2014 - 12:59 PM
#13 Guest_Kanus_*
Posted 16 October 2014 - 06:57 PM
#14 Guest_Skipjack_*
Posted 16 October 2014 - 07:32 PM
#15 Guest_associatedboy_*
Posted 17 October 2014 - 09:34 AM
#16
Posted 17 October 2014 - 10:39 AM
#17 Guest_mzokan_*
Posted 17 October 2014 - 02:47 PM
The goby is definitely Bathygobius. They split up several of the western Atlantic species, but based on color pattern yours looks like soporator. The free pectoral rays can be hard to see when they are stuck together when out of water.
As for the mojarra, with the whole body photo you can rule out gula because yours is more slender in terms of body depth. The premaxillary pit appears to extend quite far forward and not V-shaped, which rules out argenteus. So its between harengulus and jonesi -- its hard to be certain from the photo, but like Fritz, I'll lean harengulus
#18 Guest_FishyJackson_*
Posted 17 October 2014 - 05:15 PM
#19 Guest_FishyJackson_*
Posted 07 November 2014 - 09:48 AM
I want to see if you guys think this is same species as in the pic in post#3 and if you still think it's definitely not Gula. I took a pic of the top of the head but doesn't really seem like it would be too helpful in it's current state with the salt
20141106_233541.jpg 43.45KB 1 downloads
20141106_233358.jpg 37.62KB 1 downloads
#20 Guest_mzokan_*
Posted 08 November 2014 - 04:21 PM
0 user(s) are reading this topic
0 members, 0 guests, 0 anonymous users