what is this mystery fish?

[andruboz]

its about an inch long. the pic is blurry but it doesnt have a sucker type mouth . darts along the bottom walking a bit on its fins. it showed up in a bag of ghost shrimp from my lfs.

[Ashes]

Definitely some sort of loach.

[Z Man]

Looks like some species of Goby to me.

[Sumpin'fishy]

I would think Goby, as well. They often sit up on their fins like that.

[FuzMugly]

I have no idea what kind of fish that is, but I had one this summer. My little brothers caught it for me in the stream that runs behind my house. I put it in my 20 gal until this fall when I released him. I(t was very interesting to watch the little thing swim because it was if he was flapping his fins and when he got off the bottom he would gently float back down. I would be very interested to find out what kind of fish this is!

[andruboz]

perhaps fuzmugly is right and wrong. right that it may be some sort of bait fish raised in mass by the same people who raised the ghost shrimp for the lfs. and wrong for putting it back out into the environment as most of my reading lately says thats a no-no.

[jiggerpolebill]

i think its some sort of native goby myself

[vilhelm]

can it be some kind of darter? "Etheostoma.sp" you have that sort of fish in your nature,corect?

[Sting]

At first glance it looks like something along the liens of a dojo loach, or something like a weather loach, but a closer look says that loaches' dorsla fins don't look like that. A goby is the only other logical answer, giving it's sppearance, but I'm not really sure, I've never kept Freshwater Gobies so I wouldn't be able to tell you exactly.

[FuzMugly]

Andruboz: I simply returned the fish to the stream in which my brothers caught it in. I did not buy it at a store or anything like that.

[mwood322]

Characidium species perhaps. Also called Darter Tetras. I saw some last year around this time. Bottom feeder from fast moving streams, south american, related to Tetras.

http://www.aquajapan.com/encyc/characin/characidae/characidium/sp0002_e.html

--Mia

[PredatorFish]

That looks like a darter to me. They are found in streams and in the shallow areas of lakes. There are many species native to the US. I can tell you that it probably ended up in the lfs by accident.

[rjl420]

Looks like a female Rhinogobius Wui. here is a link:


http://www.petfish.net/wui.htm

[Rocketman]

Hey. Looks like the DoJo Loach I sawin my LFS about 3 hours ago.

Exactly like it, actually. Those were about 2 inches long and looked as if they had been cut off at the tail.

[Bantam]

i'd agree with sting, it doesn't look quite right for it to be a dojo loach. its fins are different and its 'tail' seems to taper more than a dojo although its hard to tell from a pic.

[Stephen]

Congrats... You've got yourself a healthy looking Johnny Darter (http://www.cnr.vt.edu/efish/families/johnnydart.html). Click the name and you'll find some info about them. I maybe should hold off on the congrats. I've kept them before and it's difficult to get them to eat. I only had luck with live brine shrimp and small aquatic insects, and that took a very long time to accept. They live in streams and rivers here in Va. As well as other places in the US. I'd suggest finding an outdoor pond for it to call home. I've kept all sizes of these fish and like I said before they were VERY difficult to feed. Even young johnny's took a long time to learn to eat.

For more info of Darters and Other Native Fish click HERE (http://www.cnr.vt.edu/efish/).

[andruboz]

i am pretty sure firefighter got it right. thanks.