A Sea Bass spit this up on a south shore Long Island dock. Can anyone tell what this is? Thanks guys
20150912_083655.jpg 103.14KB 2 downloads
Posted 13 September 2015 - 09:39 PM
A Sea Bass spit this up on a south shore Long Island dock. Can anyone tell what this is? Thanks guys
20150912_083655.jpg 103.14KB 2 downloads
Posted 13 September 2015 - 10:03 PM
Wow, that is quite the challenge. At least the photo is not blurry!
The member formerly known as Skipjack
Posted 14 September 2015 - 12:04 PM
It looks like some sort of hawkfish to me. Do you have them in the area?
Posted 14 September 2015 - 12:46 PM
Wow, that is quite the challenge. At least the photo is not blurry!
Kevin Wilson
Posted 14 September 2015 - 10:04 PM
Posted 18 September 2015 - 04:38 PM
In my humble opinion, I don't think that hawkfish have ocular spines, so I doubt it's a hawkfish.
Fish with spiny skulls scream Scorpaenidae (Scorpionfish and Rockfishes) to me. The decomposition makes it difficult to tell what family it's in much less a genus.
From this excerpt from a key to the fishes of Hawaii, both hawkfish and scorpionfish traits follow the key until you get here:
47a A spiny or at least roughened ridge running across cheek below eye and joining preopercle at nearly a right angle; backwardly projecting spines on top of head behind eyes.�[Fig. 364] Scorpaenidae
b No spiny ridge running horizontally across cheek below eye; no backward projecting spines on top of head behind eyes. 48
Link to the key: http://www.online-ke...t.php?key_no=25
It doesn't look like a lionfish to me though because the shape of the mouth and snout don't match at all. It could be a native, maybe one that was carried North via the Gulf Stream. There are something like 26 species of scorpionfish listed in FishBase for the Central Western Atlantic.
Kevin Wilson
Posted 21 September 2015 - 12:05 AM
I thought it was pink at first, but after a closer look, I've realized that it's only pink because most of its skin has been digested.
Mottled brown and black says "scorpionfish" to me, also. I reconsider my guess.
Posted 23 September 2015 - 06:15 PM
Thanks guys, I knew it was a tough one due to it having been digested. A knowledgeable fish man suggested it was a baby Spot Croaker, but never know what the Gulf Stream will bring up here
Posted 07 October 2015 - 03:56 PM
...A knowledgeable fish man suggested it was a baby Spot Croaker...
Definitely not a spot (Leiostomus xanthurus) or a [Atlantic] croaker (Micropogonias undulatus) - two different species of fish. Those two species have an inferior mouth (snout sticks out past the mouth), whereas the fish you pictured has a terminal mouth (mouth extends all the way to the end of the head).
Posted 07 October 2015 - 03:58 PM
^ Haha...unfortunately, I don't know what your mystery fish is...I don't venture into the salt nearly enough.
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