Have you seen a fish with horizontal white and black stripe tail?

[scubaAlan]

Looking for some help on id of a fish I had seen at Route 35 "Train bridge" in point pleasant beach new jersey. Dove on april 27, temp-49 degree,time-10:45 am,end of high tide-tide was turning, depth-20 feet,viz-5-6 feet. Not much sea life around(in terms of fish)at this time of the year. I saw 1 winter flounder about 10 inch long. I was about to acend from underneath the bridge when I spotted a wierd looking fish swimming towards me. The fish had a fan like tail that had alternating white and black stripe on it. The head of the fish had the shape of a whale shark. The length of the fish was about 10 to 12 inch long. Tried to look up fish in my fish id book(peterson field guide) with no luck. Hope somebody can help me out. Thanks

 

[Rick Murchison]

Might be a juvenile Ling/Cobia/Lemonfish Rachycentron canadum
Rick

 

[scubaAlan]

Thank you for your help rick! I Will look further into the indentity of this fish with this new info. And I thought I had discovered a new species of fish. Oh well! It was great seeing something that is different from the usual fish of this area(tog/black sea bass/flounder). All these are very tummy though. I wish I had a underwater camera to document what I had seen. Will post the fish id if discovered. Thanks again!

 

[scubaAlan]

Hi Rick! I finally got a change to look up photo's of juvenile ling and cobia(lemon fish). The fish I had seen only had horizontal white and black stripes on it tail and a white body. The description of a juvenile cobia sounded like what I had seen,until I actually saw a photo of it. It look nothing like what I had seen. It look like juvenile cobia has stripes that run the length of it body. My seach goes on. Later

 

[Rick Murchison]

The fish I had seen only had horizontal white and black stripes on it tail and a white body.

White body... definitely something new to me
Rick

 

[scubaAlan]

Maybe I was a little narc at 20 feet! Going diving at same location monday + tuesday-Maybe I'll see it again. Most likely not!

 

[Scuba.Pete]

Could it be this guy (Northern Stargazer):

Found here

-Jeremy