More Mystery Fish

[dwashbur]

These guys were fingerling size. We found a school of them in shallow water along the pipeline to the Metridium Field yesterday. Anybody got an ID?

 

[Chuck Tribolet]

Some kind of juvenile rockfish.

 

[dwashbur]

I wasn't entirely sure. Something about the shape was bugging me. But looking at the lower jaw and such, I think you're right. We REEF surveyors call them YOY, for "Young of Year."

 

[dannobee]

When Chuck said "Some kind of juvenile rockfish," he's not being vague without reason. Even the rockfish scientists can't reliably tell the difference.

 

[Chuck Tribolet]

When Chuck said "Some kind of juvenile rockfish," he's not being vague without reason. Even the rockfish scientists can't reliably tell the difference.

Somebody once said "the way to ID juvenile rockfish is to put them in a tank and let
them grow up."

I don't even try to ID them.

 

[dwashbur]

Yeah, I know. That's why REEF just calls them YOYs. My problem was that for some reason, the first couple of times I looked at them they didn't look like rockfish. But the more I study the picture, the more they do. YOYs it is.