View Full Version : Fish ID
Carptracker
12-30-2009, 08:37 PM
Little help - Trying to ID a fish. It was caught deep, off Del Mar, on Christmas eve. My son and I each caught one. I don't know how to post a picture here or I would. It looks a bit like a surfperch, maybe a rubberlip surfperch, but the lips are not like I think a rubberlip should look. The fish is very dark on top and on the sides, but lightening towards the bottom and white right on the belly. Scales are fairly large and they stand out sharply, with the outer margin of each scale very dark. Mouth is fairly small and weak, and points straight forward, not towards the bottom. The ones we caught might have been about 6" long.
Blacksmith Perch maybe? I could be wrong.
As for photos:
http://fishingnetwork.net/forum4/showthread.php?t=16012
Hope this helps a little bit.
smokehound
12-31-2009, 01:56 PM
Im goin with blacksmith too, or opaleye... You would know if it were a surfperch species.
victor101
12-31-2009, 03:20 PM
Sounds like a blacksmith.... http://images.search.yahoo.com/images/view?back=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.search.yahoo.com%2Fs earch%2Fimages%3Fp%3Dblacksmith%2Bperch%26ei%3DUTF-8%26fr%3Dyfp-t-701&w=216&h=144&imgurl=www.oceanlight.com%2Fthumbs%2F05172.jpg&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.oceanlight.com%2Fspotlight.p hp%3Fil%3D5172&size=7k&name=05172+jpg&p=blacksmith+perch&oid=9541b8db2b7fb4a8&fr2=&no=1&tt=19&sigr=11f2b5anf&sigi=113mo6t94&sigb=12lacjrrv
Ambassadorhawg
12-31-2009, 08:12 PM
Did you know that Blacksmiths are actually a "chromis", a type of damselfish???? Generally, we think of damselfish as living in warm tropical seas...but we have them here, too. Garabaldis are also a type of damselfish and we even have pink and purple stony corals growing here in our temperate seas!
Carptracker
01-01-2010, 07:58 PM
Blacksmith Perch maybe? I could be wrong.
As for photos:
http://fishingnetwork.net/forum4/showthread.php?t=16012
Hope this helps a little bit.
Thanks, that was great! I looked blacksmith perch up on fishbase, and got nothing, but under "blacksmith" with no "perch" I found it, with a picture. Definately the same fish. Chromis punctipennis to be exact. Fantastic. I went fishing in SOCAL for the first time on Christmas eve and added 9 fish to my life list. This is the only one I was not able to identify, until now. Definitely the right fish, from the picture. When you said damselfish, I knew I had been searching the wrong family immediately. Now that you mention it, it does look like a damselfish. Cool.
smokehound
01-04-2010, 11:04 PM
Did you know that Blacksmiths are actually a "chromis", a type of damselfish???? Generally, we think of damselfish as living in warm tropical seas...but we have them here, too. Garabaldis are also a type of damselfish and we even have pink and purple stony corals growing here in our temperate seas!In fact, DamselFish, Cichlids, Surfperches, Parrotfishes and Wrasses are all extremely close relatives.
(cichlids are fishes like Tilapia, and freshwter angelfish, Discus, oscars, etc.)