# strange fish ID



## 411er1 (Feb 3, 2014)

I went to pet co and got 2 feeder gold fish one looks like a gold fish though i have no idea what the other is any ideas


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## Chesh (Feb 17, 2012)

Welcome to our forum! 
I can't tell what it is, either - but I'm curious. Hopefully someone around here will recognize it - any chance you could get a clearer shot of him?


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## 411er1 (Feb 3, 2014)

*strange fish*

Thats the clearest picture of the fish i could get after 10min of trying to net it


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## Chesh (Feb 17, 2012)

heehee, I know the feeling! Fish photography is tricky, at best. 
hopefully someone familiar with the species will be able to solve your mystery.


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## rsskylight04 (Nov 9, 2013)

It looks very much like a bass, but without a better picture can't say with certainty. 
Its super hard to get good fish photos, but if you can give another try...?


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## Olympia (Aug 25, 2011)

rsskylight04 said:


> It looks very much like a bass, but without a better picture can't say with certainty.
> Its super hard to get good fish photos, but if you can give another try...?


My first thought was bass too. :shock: If it is how on earth did it get into a pet store?


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## Canis (Apr 15, 2013)

It definitely doesn't look like a domestic breed of fish. Wonder where it came from


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## logisticsguy (Sep 7, 2012)

Looks like it came from my supermarket  

Save the feeder fish! He may be rare or on the verge of extinction.


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## MattsBettas (Dec 18, 2012)

I've heard of contaminants (other fish) getting into fish farms (especially feeders) on occasion, and since feeders aren't really monitored carefully, just mass produced, I doubt they would pick out a fish that's different from the rest.

Sometimes the contaminants can be quite desirable. Might just be me but I would raise the fish up and see what you get.


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## panthers24 (Dec 31, 2013)

It looks like a bass to me. I have caught bass plenty of times while fishing and it looks like a bass to me but remember I am not an expert by no means.


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## thekoimaiden (Oct 19, 2011)

Bass was my guess, too. But I haven't seen many juvvies. I'd say raise it and see what it looks like.


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## rsskylight04 (Nov 9, 2013)

I've kept sunfish and rock bass, they make great aquarium fish. Yours looks like a smallmouth or possibly a largemouth bass; they are very similar when very young. If it is, it will grow a lot larger than any sunfish. If you decide to keep it and it IS a bass then be ready for it to grow fast and large...like 18-24 inches!
I too am mystified as to how this fish would be in with feeder goldfish.
This is a very interesting thread- please keep us posted and good luck!


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## mart (Dec 18, 2013)

It does kind of look like a small mouth bass. But hard to tell from the picture.
I caught a baby one once while fishing. He hit a Hopkins Spoon that was bigger than him. 
I took him home and put him in my 20 gal show tank. Fed him feeder goldfish. He was such a pig he'd put three in his mouth and have one hanging out, had to knock him on the head with the net to make him spit it out.
Raised him up and when I moved cross country, let him go in a pond near the house. Called him ol' brown fish.


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## 411er1 (Feb 3, 2014)

I dont think its a bass because it has small squares of blue runing around its body


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## panthers24 (Dec 31, 2013)

are you going to feed it or raise it to see what it becomes because it doesn't look like any feeder fish I have ever seen?

What kinds of fish eat feeder fish?


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## 411er1 (Feb 3, 2014)

*had a slitly easier fishy photo shoot hope these pics are better*

Here is sully the mystery fish


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## panthers24 (Dec 31, 2013)

If anyone at the pet store you got him at is very knowledgeable you may try showing them the pictures they may have a guess.


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## 411er1 (Feb 3, 2014)

I doubt it when i went to get the fish the tried to get me a big minnow when i said gold fish


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## panthers24 (Dec 31, 2013)

What kind of fish did you buy them to feed to?


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## 411er1 (Feb 3, 2014)

I didnt buy them to feed to a fish i put them in a hundred gallon tank cause i wanted fish that would grow large when thier to big im going to transfer them into a pond though


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## panthers24 (Dec 31, 2013)

oh ok. I am not sure if it could live in an aquarium but we used to have a koi in our fish pond that we thought was very preety.

What types of fish do you have in the aquarium?


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## 411er1 (Feb 3, 2014)

I have ornate rainbows, 3gold fish, alge eaters, mystery fish


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## 411er1 (Feb 3, 2014)

The bigest fish currently is 1 1/2 inches


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## Olympia (Aug 25, 2011)

Well, I'd say it can't hurt to let him grow up and see what he is? 
(If he is a bass he may eat the others though as he grows!)


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## 411er1 (Feb 3, 2014)

I kknow but thats what the pond is for more space an all the bugs he can eat


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## panthers24 (Dec 31, 2013)

it looks like a bass to me from the picture but I can't imagine how a bass ends up with feeder fish? I have never even been in a pet store that sold bass. Hopefully you will keep posting pictures as he grows


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## 411er1 (Feb 3, 2014)

Yeah i will


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## panthers24 (Dec 31, 2013)

Who knows he may turn out to be something completely different than a bass. I guess only time will tell.


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## eatmice2010 (Jan 1, 2013)

From the looks I would say he is either in the bass family or a type of cichlid


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## 411er1 (Feb 3, 2014)

I was reading up and they do use ciclid fry as feeders maybe he is one of those fry


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## mart (Dec 18, 2013)

Here is a description of the types of Bass. If you can find him matching any of this then it's a bass, if not, then it's still a mystery.

Spotted bass have a fairly large mouth that extends to the eye but not beyond the rear edge when the mouth is closed. This characteristic distinguishes it from the largemouth bass where the back of the mouth does extend past the eye. Spotted bass also have a rough patch of small teeth on the center of their tongue largemouth bass do not have this. Young spotted and smallmouth bass have an orange color in the center of their tail, juvenile largemouth bass do not. Spotted bass have a similar coloration compared to a largemouth bass. Both have a black stripe that extends laterally down the side of the body instead of the vertical bars of a smallmouth bass. Spotted and largemouth bass are also lighter colored than smallmouth bass with more of a green or silvery background color instead of the bronze or brown color of a smallmouth bass. Spotted bass have rows of spots on their lower sides below the dark lateral stripe, these are faint or absent on largemouth bass.


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## rsskylight04 (Nov 9, 2013)

Nice post mart. 
Spotted bass are extremely rare, but anything is possible. If this fish has a verticle black bar on the end of his tail, then I say 100% smallmouth bass. Only very young smallmouth have the bar, it disappears as the fish grows. Baby largemouth usualy have a "striped watermellon" pattern. So much variation though I shouldn't say 100%.


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## panthers24 (Dec 31, 2013)

I am still going with bass but still can't see how a pond fish made its way into a pet store especially with feeder fish because it doesn't look like any feeder fish I have ever seen


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## rsskylight04 (Nov 9, 2013)

I agree with you panther. Especially considering that most fishfarms are in south florida, and smallmouth bass are virtually nonexistent there! Largemouths are common in fla but smallmouths... no way!
Of course there is a chance that this fish is some sort of cichlid and not a bass at all.
Very interesting!


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## panthers24 (Dec 31, 2013)

We don't have a ton of small mouth up here in Ohio either it is mainly largemouth which is what everybody stocks there pond with here.

I would think that an employee would have seen it and noticed that it didn't look right and remove it.


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## mart (Dec 18, 2013)

Do you still have the fish?
Can you tell anything yet if you do?
How about a new picture?


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## 411er1 (Feb 3, 2014)

*strange fish*

The fish is doing well i had a few problems with my tank almost fixed though. He hasnt grown much but his faint stripes are a bit more visible i feel that if i add a light to the tank it will get even more visible


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## mart (Dec 18, 2013)

411er1 said:


> The fish is doing well i had a few problems with my tank almost fixed though. He hasnt grown much but his faint stripes are a bit more visible i feel that if i add a light to the tank it will get even more visible


Cool! Can't wait to see what he is.


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## rsskylight04 (Nov 9, 2013)

What are you feeding him? My sunfish really loved earthworms but would take flakes too.


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## 411er1 (Feb 3, 2014)

Tropical flaks, dried shrimp and granuals
I also drop in the occational algae tab for my algae eaters but the other fish eat as well


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## rsskylight04 (Nov 9, 2013)

Good luck with him.


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## copperarabian (Apr 27, 2011)

looked like a green sun fish to me, when I worked at petsmart we periodically got them and I've seen them at petco too. I kept one in my 75g pond for a year. They don't get massive, and are BEAUTIFUL. 










adult


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## rsskylight04 (Nov 9, 2013)

I've kept various sunfish species, including green sunfish. They are very beautiful and make great aquarium fish. He could be a greenie.


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## eatmice2010 (Jan 1, 2013)

Whoa what!? Your stores sell them as pets...... That awesome. If you wanna sunfish you have to go fishing here.


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## rsskylight04 (Nov 9, 2013)

eatmice2010 said:


> Whoa what!? Your stores sell them as pets...... That awesome. If you wanna sunfish you have to go fishing here.


No, my fish shops don't sell sunfish. I got them in a minnow trap I used to use to catch bait for fishing. Got all sorts of fish- pickerel, trout, bass, perch suckers, shiners and of course the omni-present sunfish. I'm putting in an 8' round pond in the spring and this thread has me thinking about going native!


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## 411er1 (Feb 3, 2014)

He may be a juv sunfish they look similar


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## eatmice2010 (Jan 1, 2013)

rsskylight04 said:


> No, my fish shops don't sell sunfish. I got them in a minnow trap I I'd to use to catch bait for fishing. Got all sorts of fish- pickerel, trout, bass, perch suckers, shiners and of course the omni-present sunfish. I'm putting in an 8' round pond in the spring and this thread has me thinking about going native!


Oh ok lol I was about to say my stores are slacking. Ya that's how it is here, but as of lately ive been catching baby bo-fin, bluegill, and pike in the ditch in by the street in the front of my house (i live in the woods- nearest neighbor 1 mile), but still it's a waste high ditch in the front of my house and there's no lakes neer my house, just a swamp, but they both dry up. It's weird but cool.


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## rsskylight04 (Nov 9, 2013)

Some species of smaller pickerel can live and grow in aquarium too.


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## Aquatail (Jun 29, 2012)

Please let us know how it goes with the little guy! ^_^


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## rsskylight04 (Nov 9, 2013)

Aquatail said:


> Please let us know how it goes with the little guy! ^_^


Yes! Please don't stop posting ok?


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## mart (Dec 18, 2013)

copperarabian said:


> looked like a green sun fish to me, when I worked at petsmart we periodically got them and I've seen them at petco too. I kept one in my 75g pond for a year. They don't get massive, and are BEAUTIFUL.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


That green sunfish is what we call a War Mouth Bass.


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## 411er1 (Feb 3, 2014)

Im sorry to say my mystery fishhas died he jummped out of the tank durring a black out rip mystery fish

I can say now though he probly was some kind of river fish the kept his blue tint and was starting to get a more prominate black spot just behind his eyes i guess he may have been a bass


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## 411er1 (Feb 3, 2014)

Good news though i have gotten a white lobster for my aqarium 
Bad news it ate two fish
Good news they were the fat slow moving fish
Also good news i got a new 20gal fish tank with everything included for 14 dollars it should be ready for fish by this weekend


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## rsskylight04 (Nov 9, 2013)

Thanks for the update, sorry you lost your fish.
Great deal on the 20 gal! Now the fun part...stocking.
Good luck!


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