Javascript Disabled Detected

You currently have javascript disabled. Several functions may not work. Please re-enable javascript to access full functionality.

Saltwater Wrasse like fish ID needed, Manasquan inlet New Jersey

Started by Guest_hudsonfisherman_* , Nov 06 2014 09:51 PM

Please log in to reply

8 replies to this topic

#1 Guest_hudsonfisherman_*

Guests

Posted 06 November 2014 - 09:51 PM

These fish were photographed while scuba diving the Jetty at the Manasquan inlet at hear ebb high tide on October 26th. The water temp was 58-60 degrees. I think I've seen them around there before but this was the first time i got this close to them in decent visibility. I also found a juvenille snowy grouper hiding in the rocks on the same dive. If seeing the fish in their natural environ will help the video link is an edited down video of that dive. There are lots of other fish in it to but the ones we are trying to id now are right in the first few minutes. The ones with the stripe and the single spot on dorsal fin. My guess is a pearly wrasse but it just seems like the wrong place for them. Sorry the colors aren't better but the pictures are still frames from the video and I wasn't using any filters. Probably should have had a magenta filter on.

This is my first post on the site, I presently have a 55 gal freshwater native species tank in good health with local NJ minnows. I only changed it to fresh water this summer after many years as a saltwater native species tank with everthing from blue claw crabs to eels until the last mummichog finally died of old age and I was getting a little tiried of dealing with the salt. I also Scuba dive often, anywhere.

Thanks

Attached Files

SFISH1.png 390.7KB 7 downloads
SFISH2.png 84.35KB 7 downloads
SFISH3.png 373.77KB 5 downloads
SFISH4.png 469.47KB 3 downloads

Back to top

#2 littlen

NANFA Member

Washington, D.C.

Posted 07 November 2014 - 06:35 AM

The fish at the beginning of your video and in your stills appear to be juvenile Black sea bass (Centropristis striata). They are very lightly colored--but then again they are hanging out over sand. Furthermore, they are part of the grouper family. Nice video. The Swordfish head was freaky.

Nick L.

Back to top

#3 Guest_hudsonfisherman_*

Guests

Posted 07 November 2014 - 10:39 AM

Yup thats them ! I would never have guessed it even though I am very familiar with the adults. I looked at a lot more pictures once you suggested what they are and its amazing how much they change as the mature, the dorsal spot is pretty much gone or blended in on the adults and the stripe is much less prominent. Very cool. In the second to last photo there are three fish, the top two are Black sea bass and its interesting that the one higher in the picture seems a little more mature looking than the one immediately below it. In that same picture there is a fish near the bottom that we just refer to as angel fish and the locals know that they are often around in the fall. What is there real full name, are the angels at all ?

Yes the fish head is creepy weird especially a few days before halloween. I posted a link to this video on a new jersey fishing website ( www.njfishing.com) that I belong to and one of the other members came back and posted a picture of him weighing in that fish (with head still attached) at a Marina not to far away from where we were diving. They cleaned the fish at that marina, he keep the sword as a souvenir and they threw the head in the bay. It just reinforces the fact that anything we throw in the water anywhere ultimately will end up in the ocean. Interestingly none of the fishermen were able to ID the juvenille black sea bass and they chase after the adults all the time.

Neil

Back to top

#4 Guest_gerald_*

Guests

Posted 07 November 2014 - 10:48 AM

I'd guess cunner wrasse (center fish in 3rd pic, with spotfin butterflyfish). The sea bass's dorsal spot is near the center of the back. The wrasse's spot is farther back, and head is smaller & more pointed. What other wrasses occur in NJ in fall?

Back to top

#5 Guest_FishyJackson_*

Guests

Posted 07 November 2014 - 11:06 AM

I believe Tautog and Cunner are the only Wrasse up here, they're all better looking as juveniles

Back to top

#6 littlen

NANFA Member

Washington, D.C.

Posted 07 November 2014 - 12:05 PM

I second Gerald's opinions on Cunner and Spotfin butterfly. The Spotfins are migrants who work their way up the coast during the summer and ultimately end up--up your way. They all die off when the water cools. That is why you only see them during the fall.

Nick L.

Back to top

#7 Guest_mikez_*

Guests

Posted 10 November 2014 - 07:39 PM

no fair, I rarely get to help with id but this one would have been right in my wheelhouse.

yes, juvie black sea bass. Interesting captives if you like those predatory big mouthed fellows. considered a gamefish, length limits may apply.

Cunner is the predominant wrasse, tautaug being the other that we have in the northeast. Cunner make great captives but most frustrating is the drastic loss of color in captivity. I kept several long term and tried various diet, tank set up etc, never saw 10 % of the color in real life. They vary from the usual /green'brown gradients to red to point where I still glimpse one now and then that makes me do a double take.
Never kept tautaug, too big, like cooler water, just never felt compelled to take one. Good eaten though. Length limits probably apply.

Spotfin butterflyfish, the number one ubiquitous tropical stray in the northeast. If you only snorkeled in Sept or Oct in the northeast, you might come to believe spotfin were native to the area. That's how common they are. They must absolutely blanket the reefs with their spawn and the currents carry them far and wide. Not a fish for beginners but a hardy longlived captive if you have some experience with the touchy types. Contrary to the cunner, spotfins show 100% the color seen in the wild. White yellow and black may not be neon, but they're mighty purty when they lite up.

Back to top

#8 Guest_hudsonfisherman_*

Guests

Posted 11 November 2014 - 12:20 AM

Hey Mike, all additional info is appreciated. I've been surprised that my fishing and diving friends didn't know what these fish were. They've been like me saying yeah i've seen them around but don't really know what they are. The juvenille sea bass and the cunner where interchageably called Bergalls from time to time by many people since I was a kid. I was never sure that a bergall was a "real" fish. Now I know, the bergalls are cunner and the other bergalls are juvenille black sea bass ! Coincidentally, 2 evenings ago someone posted a fish ID question on a scuba forum and don't you know it was a juvenille centropristis striata but someone else had jumped in with the correct ID before I had a chance to show off my new found knowledge ! And it was from a guy in Jersey too, he must have dove the coast lately and seen them too. I know how you feel. I see you are from new england area, grew up in jersey myself, parents owned a summer place in Manasquan. A few years ago I visited newport RI for the first time and hope to dive fort Wetherhill sometime soon.

I'm trying to get some good pictures of the assortment of minnows? that I have in the freshwater native tank I started this summer. Not sure if I should start a new thread with that or just continue on this one.
Thanks,
Neil

Back to top

#9 Guest_mikez_*

Guests

Posted 11 November 2014 - 08:56 AM

The tropical strays have fascinated me since I first read about them in a fish mag in the 80's and coincidentally found one myself in the same season. Nobody knew anything about them back then, outside limited acadamia, but even they knew little.

Since then a number of groups and individuals have been gathering more data. The New England Aquarium in Boston and their associated dive club have been pioneers and the central main exhibit in the aquarium contains numerous butterflies and damsals that were collected locally as strays. Back in the day, a very helpful biologist at the aquarium spent a great deal of time with me on the phone figuring out how to tame the butterflies and succeed at keeping them captive. Long before the internet. Wish I could remember her name to thank her.

BTW, my crowning glory in tropical stray-dom came the day students from University of Rhode Island were conducting a creel survey of fishermen and I produced a bucket with spotfin and foureye butterflyfish and bicolor damsals. I had to get out my fieldguide and convince them I wasn't spoofing. Bet it was the most exciting creel survey they ever saw.