Please help me ID this fish!

barbaro18

Hello all!

I am an expat living in southern China. This past summer I built a turtle pond in my backyard and caught some feeder fish from a neighboring lake. Now I am shutting the pond down for the winter and preparing my turtles to brumate. I have caught what was left of the feeder fish in the pond and placed them in a tank inside until spring when I will be restarting the pond. I noticed this little guy which was different from all the other feeder fishes that I caught. I am assuming that it is native from southern China and was wondering what it was. I am turning to the expertise of the members of this community for help identifying this little guy. It stays at the bottom all the time and moves very little.




Any help is appreciated! Thanks a lot

krish

wow..I am no fish expert at all, but it kinda looks like a bichir...thats pretty cool! (feel free to correct me anyone)

barbaro18

Thanks for your answer! I am no fish expert either and yes the pattern on the fish, combined with the more dorsal eyes looks like a bichir. But this one has two distinct dorsal fins and a tail fin (unlike most bichir which have a long dorsal fin merging with the tail). It is swimming around more now, I guess it needed some time to adjust. I also noticed that it can swim and stand straight up. Also, I noticed that it has a (third) "ventral wing" underneath on which it can rest. You can see better on this new picture. It measures about 7cm.

thekoimaiden

The two dorsals mean it is not a bichir. I believe it is some kind of Perciforme as it looks very similar to the darters we have here in the states. I don't know if anyone here could give you a definitive ID on it. You could try taking these picture to a local ichthyologist or biology professor at a university. Unfortunately the fish that I studied were all from the eastern US. The most I can give you is an order for the fish.

You have some very good photos of a fish that might never have been photographed like this before. You would be amazed at how few photographs there are of fish that aren't normal aquarium fish or game fish.

Quantum

looks like some type of goby or gudgeon, similar to stiphodon gobies, but maybe a little heavier bodied

thekoimaiden

After doing some more digging around, I think what you have is type of sculpin (family: Cottidae). I still believe that a local ichthyologist or biologist would be able to give you a better ID.

barbaro18

Thanks all for your replies!

I this it is definitively a goby. After further reading, I think it could be a Round Goby (Neogobius melanostomus) which is actually an invasive species in North America... oh well!

That does look quite similar no?

thekoimaiden

They do look alike. Do you see a large black spot on the end of the first dorsal? I looked up that species of FishBase.org and found that it's native range is in Europe and the middle east. I believe it was also introduced to China as well as the US. Here is the fishbase profile on it.

barbaro18

Nope, no black spot!

Thanks for your help! I might take the pictures to the university as I live right in front of it, but it is a pretty common fish here from my observations in the lakes.

krish

youre welcome! (even though i didn't really help at all and sort of threw you guys off thinking it was a bichir ) But whatever!