Destin jetty fish i.d.?

[Dave C]

I've seen these fish for years around the Destin jetties. I always thought of them as "little barracuda", although I really didn't think that was what they were. They are about 6" long and always swim around rapidly in schools near the surface, so it's hard to get a good look at them. More recently, I started to think that they are actually a species of barracuda. This year, I finally got a better photo for i.d. purposes:

Based on the fish i.d. books I have, I am now thinking these may be "guaguanche", Sphyraena guachancho, a small species of barracuda which supposedly is common in the Gulf of Mexico. Any other opinions of this?

 

[DennisW]

I would say they are Southern Sennets. These fish do not have a gold or yellow midbody line, unless the coloring of the midbody line is diminished by this picture. The Guaguanche has a gold or yellow midbody line. Just my 2psi.

 

[Dave C]

Well, I am not sure, but I looked into this more, and I think these fish most likely are guaguanche. I agree with DennisW that based on photos in Humann, the fish I have pictured look more like Humann's sennet photo because they do not have the yellow stripe of the guaguanche. However, Dr. Bob Shipp's "Guide to the Fishes of the Gulf of Mexico", which I personally think is the best resource for Gulf fish of the FL Panhandle, AL, and MS (the book focuses on this area), says that guaguanche are the most common barracuda species in the northern Gulf, and that sennet are rarely found. (I think this book may be out of print, although Shipp's website says "that a new version is coming soon". I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in fish of the FL Panhandle; it's written for the layman and provides much natural history info about the fish in addition to being just an idenitification guide.) The more scientific "Fishes of the Gulf of Mexico" by Hoese and Moore also says that guaguanche are most common, and that when they are young, guaguanche are hard to separate from sennet. (Maybe juvenile guaguanche do not have the yellow stripe.) Finally, I found a photo of guaguanche on "Fishbase" that does not have the yellow stripe that Humann shows:
Pictures Summary
Based on this, I'm tentatively saying these are guaguanche.
By the way, I am biologist, which explains why this kind of thing intrigues me. Maybe it's boring to most people!

 

[CaveMD]

also a former biologist, I'm saying Sphyraena picudilla, it looks just like one


http://www.silber.com.br/barracuda/info/info26.jpg
http://comps.fotosearch.com/comp/AGE/AGE029/southern-sennet-sphyraena_~C63-359488.jpg