hitchhicker fish

[Mihai]

I can bet you don't hear this too often. Actually I can barely believe it myself: five days after I collected some macroalgae from the NC coast I discovered that I have a hitchhicker blenny. And it's not tiny: it's about 2" long. I must have handled him at least four times (collection to bag, bag to bucket, bucket to acclimatization, acclimatization to refugium) and yet I never saw it.

After that I double checked everything to make sure I don't have a hitchhicker seagul .

Anyway, I'm curious if you can tell me who's the guy.
It's very skittish (no wonder I didn't saw it for five days), and hard to photograph (my camera uses a light to help with the autofocus and that messes up everything).

On its back it has vertical brown bands over a sand colored body.
Two bands stand out and are a bit more reddish than the others (somewhere on the tummy).

He's a nice guy, eats the shrimp food I'm feeding him with.
Hint: he's not a seaweed blenny.

Thanks,
Mihai

 

[wade1]

Hard to tell really... red lip blennies are common here. Have you tried searching the internet for NC fishes? I found a site a while back that listed alot of them.

Wade

 

[Mihai]

OK, two new pics... anybody?

Wade, I found the site of the diver with movies with fishes in NC: only 2 blennies, none of those same as mine...

Thanks,
Mihai

 

[wade1]

I wonder if what you have is not a blenny at all, but rather a juvenile lizardfish. The more I look at it, the more I think its not a blenny. Especially if you look at the mouth some.

Here is an adult:

Wade

 

[Anonymous]

Hmm.. His eyes look set a little higher though, the lizardfish's eyes look more flat. Also, the striping on the potential "goby" has more stripes to the dorsel fin. Eh.. just my stupid opinion.
~wings~

 

[wade1]

Hence the "juvenile" mentioned... most juvenile fish do not look like the adults. Its posturing is reminiscent, but who knows... I'm not that good at fish ID.

 

[Anonymous]

Me neither! ... it's still very cool how it was picked up as a hitchhiker though.
~wings~

 

[Mihai]

It might be a juvenile something else (lizard fish included). I guess that I'll just have to wait see what it grows into.

Regarding the hitchhiking, it must have been hidden in a dense patch of red algae that I collected (almost all of which is gone by now :-( ). everything else was too small to hold him (including a big broken conch shell).

M.

 

[Mihai]

OK, I established that it's not a blenny, but rather a goby as it has its dorsal fin notched. But I have still no idea on what species. Three weeks after I got him is still very skittish.

M.

 

[Fozza]

He kinda looks like my Pinkspotted goby when he's extremely pissed off.

 

[John_Brandt]

Mihai, just a bit better pictures please and we will nail this one.

His pelvic fins appear to be fused into a "suction disc". This screams.....GOBY.

 

[Mihai]

I'm trying really hard John, but it's super-skittish. It might be a while until I get a better picture; however it's not a hurry: he seems really comfy in my refugium and he eats well, so he'll stick around.

Thanks,
Mihai

 

[Mihai]

He kinda looks like my Pinkspotted goby when he's extremely pissed off.

It does look like it. But no spots on mine :-(
M.

 

[Fozza]

When my pinkspotted is angry, his pink colour total disappears and looks almost identical. (I move rockwork and what not alot in my gobies tank, for other projects, so he gets alittle pee'd at me).

However you said he's eatting well and has no reason to be annoyed. So I don't think he's a pinkspotted, i'll keep searching though.

 

[Fozza]

I think its an Istigobius decoratus.

It has the line of black spots below the lateral line. The book I have says these fish can have varying markings, but the spots never alter.

Only problem is however these guys come from Central Indo-Pacific. So how did it turn up in North Carolina!

 

[Mihai]

Negative. It's not that decorated. I. decoratus has also dots in a pattern on it, mine doesn't :-(.

I'll make sure to post any new pictures if I catch him - I saw him yesterday for a full 3 seconds!

M.

 

[Fozza]

I'll keep looking up for more possibilities. Determined to get this one

 

[seabisquit2]

±I happened to have caught one of these afew weeks ago in Destin, Florida.

 

[Mihai]

You don't have a decent picture of him do you? I keep seeing him 2-3 seconds at a time every three days or so. I can't take a picture even in my dreams .

M.

 

[wade1]

Tried feeding little meaty particles into the water column to get a good view of it?