Caribbean fish questions

Dear all,

I would like your help in identifying the following Caribbean fish

This one was uploaded to fishdb.co.uk as a neon goby from Antigua. The lines on the body match but the spot on its nose doesn't. I personally think it looks most like a yellowprow goby but Humann&Deloach report it to be found in Florida, Jamaica and the western Caribbean. That seems to exclude Antigua. They also picture it with a yellow stripe although the text say the stripe can be white.

Basically I don't see any other good match and I haven't seen this one in the wild myself.

The color pattern of this filefish fits the orangespotted filefish but I've never seen the little fleshy spikes on that species. This is a juvenile so perhaps only the juveniles have it. Please comment

Bart

Image One:

I would agree on the yellowprow, there is a lack of color in the image and it could very well be a yellow stripe.

Image Two:

Not a good image but it is a Slender Filefish, they can produce those "bits" as part of there camo:

http://www.digitaldiver.biz/cpg/displayimage.php?pos=-29[/img][/url]

Thanks Kriptap.

I never even noticed the filefish on the second image while shooting. It was hidden at the edge of the image so this is a crop of that area. When I saw it I got excited thinking, like you, it was a slender filefish. I had been hunting for one but only saw them when I didn't have my camera with me

I changed my mind because the colour pattern was a much better match for the orangespotted filefish and, more importantly, the length of the snout and steepness of the forehead don't look "slendery" to me. Unfortunately, the shot doesn't clearly show the tail base to check for the white marking that is characteristic for the orangespotted filefish. Are you a 100% on this one?

I just got across another ambivalent shot, a "damsel in transition", I guess either a longfin or beaugregory. I suspect the latter given the dark spot at the pectoral fin base. Again apologies for image quality.

Bart

Hi Bart,

The goby picture caught my attention. It is not the yellowprow (Elacatinus xanthiprora). Gobies of this genus are divided in two groups, some have a sharknose (a pointed snout and inferior mouth) and others don't (a terminal mouth). The one in your photo clearly does, and the yellowprow doesn't. So my conclusion is that he one in your photo is a relatively rare species, Elacatinus illecebrosum, sorry I don't know the common name. There is no photo of it in the Humman book, but you can get more info here:

http://gobiidae.com/species_pages/elacatin...llecebrosum.htm

The second one to me looks like a juvenile orangespotted filefish (Cantherhines pullus).

Oh, and you are correct about the damselfish, the black spot at the base of the pectoral is diagnostic of the beaugregory.

Luiz

Wow, a picture of a species that isn't even in the "bible" (well, I now see it's listed as a "similar species" to the linesnout goby and Humann&Deloach call it a barsnout goby).

All credit should go to Doug Horspool who submitted the image. He stated it was taken in Antigua which would be a first report from the eastern Caribbean islands. I will try to let him know about his special shot.

Thanks Luiz!

While I'm at it, here is one more.

I've assigned this as a dusky blenny (Malacoctenus gilli) based on the ocellated spot (or more a square patch to my eyes) on the mid dorsal area. But it's not a perfect match. Again I've never seen this species before and only saw it once on this holiday so I'd like to see it confirmed or corrected. This one is from the north shore of Cuba.

Bart

Hi Bart, I think this is another species that is not in the book, Malacoctenus erdmani, the imitator blenny. I've seen one once and it looks a lot like it. The one I saw was also from Cuba. Unfortunately, with these guys we can't be sure without counting fin rays and measuring the specimens, so it is a 50/50 shot between these two species.

Luiz

Thanks again Luiz,

I've been hunting the web for a picture of the imitator blenny but without luck, not even in fishbase. I'm amazed that these fish are not better documented, aparently they are not all that rare if I can stumble over two of them within a week. Is the problem that they are too hard to tell apart by eye so only the more common ones get listed?

My problem with all fish ID books, however much I like them, is that they can never capture all the variety due to age, sex, mood, time of day, location etc. And if you can't see the diversity within a species it is hard to know the true characteristic features that define the species. Books would just get too thick and expensive but hard drives are cheap and digital cameras can provide lots of pictures.

So what if all wetpixelers and likeminded hobbyists could combine their collective wealth of images and select a set of representative images for each species. I think we would have a fantastic resource. I'm therefore sending all my pictures to Dave Cullen's FishDB and the site has just passed 750 images of nearly 350 species. It's really just scratching the surface but it has only just started, more contributors have been joining, and for some photogenic species the number of images is already getting so large it needs culling. Anyway if anyone wants to help out, check out the website and contact Dave to find out the easiest way to submit images.

Bart

As it turns out the barsnout goby was not photographed in Antigua but in Cozumel, which makes much more sense.

Bart