Need help ID'ing native (baby?) fish

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Edj05

Edj05

The Kraken
Nov 29, 2008
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6
New Jersey
I'm not sure if this is the right forum for my question, but I'm looking to ID a small marine fish I saw the other day at a beach in Berkeley Twp (NJ). It looked to me like a baby, but for all I know it may simply be a minnow or some other similarly small fish. Any help would be appreciated! The attached picture is the only one I currently have on the computer.

littlefishsmm.jpg
 
N

Narwhal72

AC Members
Aug 13, 2009
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Not likely a chromis as there is only one species in the Atlantic ocean and it's too early in the season for postlarval tropical species to be found in New Jersey (waters too cold).

My guess is a postlarval pomfret or butterfish or something similar. The fish looks to have matching dorsal and ventral fins and the compressed body shape to match but the photo is hard to tell. These are commonly found along the beaches of New Jersey.

Keep in mind that postlarval fish often look different from adults. Only way to tell would be to grow it up some.

Andy
 
N

Narwhal72

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Aug 13, 2009
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You are correct that there is more than one species of Chromis in the Caribbean. I was wrong. But I wouldn't say there are plenty of them. Of the 86 species of Chromis only 3 are found in the Caribbean. Chromis cyanea, Chromis multilineata, and Chromis insolata (Sunshine fish). The one I am most familiar with is the Blue Reef Chromis (Chromis cyanea). The first two are very common reef fish but none of them have any orange coloration. This isn't unusual as the Atlantic ocean is much younger and smaller geologically than the Pacific and while there are representatives of most fish families in both oceans there isn't the diversity of species in the Atlantic like you have in the Pacific.

Only Chromis cyanea is actually found in the trade.

Regardless, the fin shape and head to body length ratio do not match Chromis.
Andy
 
SubRosa

SubRosa

AC Members
Jul 3, 2009
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Bushkill said:
The orange in the tail area made me think Chromis, but anything is a guess because of the size and the various color changes they go through.

There are plenty of Carribean Chromis species:
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-11/hcs3/

The wild weather patterns we've seen can send some fish of this size for a pretty wild ride.
Click to expand...
Caribbean fish are common off NJ later in the season, but not in June. It's a temperate native for sure, Butterfish is the most likely candidate.
 
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