Fish ID ?

[esox48]

Kind of embarrassed to be asking this question since I am a fishery biologist. I just purchased a new house and it came with a rather large tank, 600 plus gallons, which is the reason I bought the house. This tank is a freshwater tank, and there is a particular fish in this tank that I can not ID. If I had a digatal camera or scanner I would show a picture. Anyway, the previous owner said it was a snake head, but I dont not believe it to be true. The fish I have does not have a swim bladder, resides on the bottom and hides in the many caves. The fish is long and slender, maybe 5-6inches. The head is round and a wide mouth. the jar bone does not extend past the eye. The pectoral fins are lobed same with the caudal fin. The dorsal fin runs almost the entire length of the body with a wide gap in the middle. The fish is a greenish blue, but the tail fin has orange color in-between the caudal bones. AT first the fish reminds me of large goby, but the fish is way to cigar shaped to be a goby. If anyone has an idea or guess as to what this might be, I would appreciate it. I have looked in every book I have own and do not see this fish.

[OrionGirl]

Sounds like a birchir...
http://www.aquariacentral.com/species/db.cgi?db=fresh&uid=default&ID=0409&view_records=1

[esox48]

Oniongirl, Thats close, the head is identical, but missing the gap in the doral fin, and the tail is lobed exactly like the pec fins.

[VoodooChild]

Perhaps a bowfin (Amia calva) or a lungfish?

[goldfries]

it's oRiongirl.......haha, not oNiongirl.

btw the Birchir looks erm.........scary, but interesting.

[beviking]

I was going to suggest Bowfin also.

No offense intended, but, I LIKE OnionGirl! Sounds like a super hero! Fights bad guys with her eye watering stench. Or super villain? Can we lobby to have her change her name??;)

[esox48]

Sorry about the Oniongirl typo, ri a quick glance looks like an "n". But no it is not a Bowfin either. I am pretty positive this fish is not native to North America. I am going to try and get a camera over the weekend to put a photo of it up here. Any other guess, the bercher is close, but not quite.

[OrionGirl]

No offense--OnionGirl is actually a novel by one of my favorite authors, and then of course there's the reference in Shrek...There are several people here who make the same 'typo'... :)

Did you look for other poly species? Pretty sure the senegalus isn't the only one, so that could be it. Otherwise, it may be that your specimen has some small fin damage? Healed over, but leaving a small gap?

[esox48]

I have been looking at other poly sp, but having no luck, I am trying to search out family characteristics, but so far everything I have been finding is talking about internal morphology, dont really want to open my fish to make a positive ID. The dorsal does not a appear to be damaged, and the tail is not even close to the poly's I have seen. These fish would have evolved totally different evironments, which means its probally not even in the same family, but is probally in the same Order. The fish probally is related, since it does gulp air every now and then. I think I am going to start looking at African and Austrailian lung fishes.

[OrionGirl]

Well, african lung fishes are smooth--no scaliness to them. And big--one that was 8-10 inches would be a juvenile. The fins are highly evolved and look more like thick whiskers than fins. They are also hugely carnivore--anything that can fit in their mouth will be a snack.

I recently had a 33" specimen spend the night in my house...He looked nothing like a birchir.

Don't know much about the Australian lung fish, though.

[esox48]

I dont think its either one of those either but this quest is really brothering me, so I am looking at everything. Oniongirl, are you interested in fish as a hobby or do you work in the industry?

[rjl420]

Just wanted to chime in and mention that the reason you may not be finding to many results for bichirs is because it hasn't been spelled right anywhere in this thread. ;) somehow this thread has become all about spelling, but I thought it would help a lot. I spent about 3 months looking for info on "bikers" because that is how they were tagged at my LFS. So I symathize with you for not being able to find anything.

I'll have to agree with it being a good chance of being a Polypterus of some kind.

maybe an Ornate:

http://www.whozoo.org/Anlife99/eduardo/bichir84.jpg

or a Delhizi:

http://www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/Fishindx/Fishpics/delhezi3.jpg


Some of the best pics i've found for iding polys is this Geocities site (http://www.geocities.co.jp/HeartLand-Icho/6288/porip/polypmember.htm) and some general info by species can be found here (http://www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/Fishindx/poly-del.htm)

[OrionGirl]

I'm in the industry, I guess...I work at the G&F, but as a computer geek. Osmosis has brought me up to a certain level of competence, but mostly on native warm, cool, and cold water fishes.

I am embarrassed about the prostetic r...I knew it was bicher, and used the correct spelling when searching FishBase. Sheesh.

[rjl420]

it happens :)

[VoodooChild]

What is he eating? With color like that, it's still iffy as to whether or not if it's a lungfish. It'd be an African if it was. I think there's only 3 in the U.S. and only a handful outside of Australia.

[esox48]

Oriongirl, I have determined that my fish is a goby.
do you know were there is a good site to see different types of fresh or brackish gobies. Everything I have been looking at today has been mostly saltwater.

[OrionGirl]

Fish base is a great online resource... http://www.fishbase.org/search.cfm It's a bit slow, so be patient.

You can use either the scientific or common name. It will list the water types the fish is found in, and have links to a ton of additional information.

[carpguy]

Here is a great goby site (http://uri.sakura.ne.jp/~dd/goby.htm) complete with more pics than you can shake a stick at.

HTH