Can someone help identify this fish???

[Scuba Kid]

hello.
i caught this fish about a year ago while snorkeling. i brought it home and put it in my reef tank. he was doing well for a while, but then got really aggressive towards my other fish, and even started starving one (a cunner wrasse which i also caught). ive decided its time to get rid of him, because im not going to let him starve that fish, and pick on anyone else anymore. im pretty sure its a type of damsel but i've searched and searched and ive found nothing that looks like him. they closest i found was a blue spotted damsel, but mine does not have the irridescent spots on him. i caught him when he was about an inch or less and is now about 2-2 and a half inches. i put him in a breeder tank yesterday so he'll stop harassing everyone else (he will not be there for long...im pretty sure i know someone who will take him). here is a picture:

[redpaulhus]

Offhand I'd guess one of the Stegastes sp. damsels - http://www.wetwebmedia.com/stegastes.htm - but thats just a guess looking at the body shape and coloration ( I 'lost' my guide to carib. reef fishes a few years ago to a friend who never returned it...)

Nice to see I'm not the only one keeping cunner (we call em choggies) in aquaria - quite a cool fish...

[Scuba Kid]

You keep cunners??? wow...here i thought i was the only one!
here's a pic of mine. he's a little emasciated because of the damsel, but he was eating okay this morning.

[TheOldSalt]

I'm also leaning toward Stegastes, or maybe Microspathodon.

I can't find any fish which match this one which is supposed to be in the area. Did this fish look different when it was younger?
Is it a common species in your aea, or was it an unusual find?

[redpaulhus]

Originally Posted by TheOldSalt @ 3/14/2005, 11:39 am

I'm also leaning toward Stegastes, or maybe Microspathodon.

I can't find any fish which match this one which is supposed to be in the area. Did this fish look different when it was younger?
Is it a common species in your aea, or was it an unusual find?

I'm suspecting it was a gulf stream hitchhiker -- we get quite a few 'tropicals' that end up in southern new england.

Scubakid - are you snorkeling around Newport\tiverton, or maybe along the coast between Weekapaug and Point Judith ?

I usually collect my native stuff around Cape Cod - I get little choggies (1 inch and less) in the grass beds and patches of sea lettuce, or bigger ones along the rocks of the canal. I've got a 55g tank I use for my natives. This year I'm hoping to collect a juvie sea robin. When my brother and I go seining we see all kinds of fishes - seabasses, tautog, lots of flouder species, tons of killies, silversides, pipefish, puffers, baby eels, you name it !

Here's an article I wrote for the Boston Aqurium Society newsletter:
http://www.ichthyophilia.com/columns/gc2.html

I've been thinking of trying a few spots in RI soon.

[Scuba Kid]

Redpaul: you're right about it being swept up here by the gulf stream. i usually snorkel and scuba at Ft Wetherill in Jamestown. it's a great spot to catch the tropicals.
where are u located?

OldSalt: it didnt look much different than that, except it was a brighter purple. still looks about the same....

[Scuba Kid]

redpaul: i also sometimes snorkel in the Newport area

[redpaulhus]

oops - I forgot to put my location in my profile this time around
I'm just south of Boston.

[Scuba Kid]

Rhode Island's great for snorkeling (at least i think so.) you should definetly check out the beaches on Ft Wetherill. They have great spots for native fish and if you snorkel around in the coves during the summer, you can catch juvenile Spotfin Butterfly Fish (no biiger than the size of a quarter), Boston Bean Cowfish, and thats the only damsel ive ever seen there. One really interesting fish ive seen a lot more of is the Northern Puffer. Have on in my reef tank and it's doing great!

good news about the cunner: He's been coming out of the hole he was forced into by the damsel alot today and has been doing great! i just put some frozen brine shrimp and he was eating his fill. Still looks a little emasiated and has some missing scaled/nipped fins, but i think he's going to be fine.

[Scuba Kid]

I Just read your article Red. It had some really good information in it! I've only used a sein once and didnt use it right...I think ill take your advice on using it next time. I usually snorkel with a hand net to catch my fish though.
what other fish have you caught besides the ones in the article?

[TheOldSalt]

Well, if it's a "hurricane hitchhiker" then we have a lot more options.
Bright purple, you say?
It's a major longshot, but how does Chromis limbaughi grab ya'll?
( that one is not much like other Chromis, and probably really belongs in Microspathodon or Stegastes )

There are numerous damsels down here which are very poorly known. It's probably one of those, but wouldn't it be kewl if you had a limbaughi, which came all the way from the other side of the Panama canal?

I like collecting my own fish, too, and I'm glad I live down here where there are so many good species. One favorite of mine is
Serranus subligarius, The Belted Sandperch. It's a Bass of a lovely brick maroon color which has a white vertical band running through it's middle. I don't know why it's not a popular aquarium species, becaue it's small, tame, interesting, and, get this, a self-fertilizing hermaphrodite. You can raise these in aquaria with ease, even if you only start with a single specimen!

Good luck identifying this fish, ScubaKid. I guess I don't have enough damsel-intensive material to help you on this one, but maybe someone else does.

[redpaulhus]

Scubakid - I also get some fish that just won't live in a tank - peanut bunker (menhaden), juvie herring, tinker mackrel (leatherbacks), plus all the other stuff I listed above that isn't in the article (tautog, pipefish, etc).
I've been thinking of poking around some jetties for sculpin or toadfish. My current native tank is a 55g, so I've got some room to play with

Oldsalt - where's "down here" ?
I started collecting natives when I lived along the Indian River Lagoon in FL (melbourne) - I used to collect all kinds of neat stuff in the estuary and in the inlets (big hogchokers, mojarra, grunts, juvie seatrout, juvie snook, etc) - most of which I had to release ASAP since they were gamefish - the coolest fish I ever collected was a little clingfish (Gobiesox strumosus I think).

[TheOldSalt]

I live way down here near the Alabama-Florida state line.
The penninsula has more tropicals, but the panhandle has it's fair share as well.

I can regularly find a great many species.

Pearly Razorfish
Beau Gregory Damsels
Cocoa and other Damsels
Blackbarred Soldierfish
Priacanthus Bigeyes
Hi-Hats and Jackknife
Red Cardinals
Belted Bass
5 different butterflies
3 tangs
4 or 5 wrasses
5 angels
a few filefish
3 triggers
3 parrots
Walking Batfish
2 jawfish
a few small eels
Toadfish
Sea Robins
Flying Gurnards
Needlefish & silversides
Lots of groupers
Pupfish

Sargassum clumps of course bring in seahorses & pipefishes of types not normally seen here, and we have others normally, and sargassum frogfish and filefish of course also come.

These are just a few. There are probably around 75 species in total in this area normally, and after a hurricane we get probably twice that. Sweet!

Alas, the water doesn't get comfortably warm here until May or June, while it's already warm in time for spring break further south.

[Scuba Kid]

ive caught a few types around here....
tropicals would be that damsel, spotfin butterflies, planehead filefish, boston bean cowfish (not quite sure if its tropical), and this one weird goby i saw once. i was never able to catch it, although i chased it for a good hour. thats how i came across my northern puffer. as for natives, ive gotten sculpin, pipefish, cunner, tautog, black sea bass, northern puffer, eel (i once came across a 4 footer!), and a ton of other stuff.

as for the damsel, thankis old salt, but i dont think thats it. close, but just not it. i dont think im gonna find out what it is. however, i think im going to change my mind about getting rid of it. i might transfer it to another tank if i can persuade my mom to get another one :P

thanks anyways

[Scuba Kid]

btw oldsalt,

u are very lucky to live where u are! i love the fish here, but i wouldnt mind seeing some of those and collecting a few!

[smartin78]

I think you are all so very lucky. I live in MISSOURI. The middle of the continent. The only wild fish I ever see are all freshwater and it is very hard to eww and ahh over a bass or a catfish although I have seen a few very interesting FW stream fish such as the North American darter. My girl friend is from the NJ shore, the first thing she asked me when she moved here was how do you go to get to the water. I laughed and said what do you mean the river or the lake. Anwyway her dad is into scuba and said he will teach me when we go to visit her parents this summer. I can not wait but I will not be able to collect anything for my tank. Oh well it is fun to listen to everone elses stories and dream of a day that I live near the shore.