Fish ID help

[Sully3]

#1 creole wrasse
#2 not sure
#3 possibly a yellowmouth grouper
#4 spotted goatfish
#5 orangespotted filefish
#6-9 spotted scorpionfish
#10 yellow chub
#11 juvenile bluehead

 

[doctormike]

#1 creole wrasse
#2 not sure
#3 possibly a yellowmouth grouper
#4 spotted goatfish
#5 orangespotted filefish
#6-9 spotted scorpionfish
#10 yellow chub
#11 juvenile bluehead

Thanks so much.... what a great community! I really appreciate everyone's help...

Mike

 

[livi120]

#2 is saying something in the Porgy family to me. Maybe Longspine Porgy.

A side note on #3, there seems to be some going back and forth in some other ID forums about whether or not yellowmouth groupers and scamps can be told apart because of the yellow on the mouth corners. In other words some ID resources I've seen say scamps have no yellow others say they do. But I think #3 is one of those 2.

 

[doctormike]

#2 is saying something in the Porgy family to me. Maybe Longspine Porgy.

A side note on #3, there seems to be some going back and forth in some other ID forums about whether or not yellowmouth groupers and scamps can be told apart because of the yellow on the mouth corners. In other words some ID resources I've seen say scamps have no yellow others say they do. But I think #3 is one of those 2.

Great, thanks!

Mike

 

[deborahdelamar]

A side note on #3, there seems to be some going back and forth in some other ID forums about whether or not yellowmouth groupers and scamps can be told apart because of the yellow on the mouth corners.

To add to the confusion, black grouper sometimes display yellow mouth corners. Yet each grouper has one or more distinct features other than the yellow that the others don't have.

Easiest for divers, scamp vs. yellowmouth is body pattern: The scamp's spot pattern is kind of like "paw prints" -- like the Iams logo only compressed -- the spots are good sized and organized into groups with "white space" between. The yellowmouth's dot pattern is random smaller dots with little space between. (A yellowmouth with the block body pattern is very easy to recognize for what it is.)

To ID via whole-fish photo like this one, confirm by counting the tail rays. The scamp's tail generally has 11 whereas the yellowmouth has 12.

 

[drdiver1952]

#2 is definitely in the porgy family. I think it is a pinfish.

 

[ryan115]

I would say 100% that fish #3 is not a yellowmouth but a scamp Mycteroperca phenax I spend quite a bit of time looking at the two fish at work. The easiest thing I can give to tell apart the two species are the elongated caudal rays. A scamp will have very long top and bottom rays that get shorter as you come to the center, and there are no extensions at all in the middle of the caudal. While yellowmouth will have the long top and bottom and then equal length extensions along all other caudal rays, giving it more of a comb appearence.

 

[deborahdelamar]

I usually bow to Ryan's expertise when it comes to determining fin size/perspective of a photographed fish -- especially one his home turf. He has the luxury of studying specimens side-by-side -- which most of us don't -- and that would really help.

If he's 100%, that's a solid ID.
It's such a matter of degree here...

Yellowmouth:

Scamp:

 

[SubMariner]

Hi...!

I'm usually pretty thorough with my fish ID (see my online database), but I haven't been able to identify these guys despite a good bit of research. Take a look and see if you recognize any of them. I'm looking for the specific species of the scorpionfish. Click on the thumbnails to see where they were taken...

http://www.rothschilddesign.com/fishid/index.html

Thanks!

Mike

1. Juvenile Creole Wrasse
2. Squirrelfish, possibly Longjaw
3. Yellowmouth Grouper or Scamp
4. Juvenile Spotted goatfish
5. Juvenile Spotted filefish
6-9 Spotted scorpionfish
10. Bermuda Chub

Ooops... edit... forgot #11: looks like a Juvenile Bluehead (Wrasse).

BTW, I highly recommend Paul Humann's books/CDs. Even the older ones are fantastic! :thumbs-up:

 

[livi120]

I'm sticking with a porgy of some kind. No squirrelfish with those little biddy eyes.