Little silver fish in the Gulf of Mexico

[itziar]

What can this fish be? Found just below several buoys in Veracruz, Gulf of Mexico, November 16th 2009, at midday, T = 26 C. Size about 2-3 inch long, part of a small group. They Moved constantly in nervous swim. The most outstanding marking was the white stripe from eye to tail, apparent in the photograph.

I cannot even make a guess about the family, so any help will be more than welcome. Any clues, anybody?

 

[Sully3]

looks like a key anchovy

 

[itziar]

Hmmm... I thought of anchovies at first, but upon looking at pictures, the tail of the mystery fish looks much rounder than the marked biforked tails of anchovies, doesn´t it?
Anchoa cayorum, Key anchovy : fisheries, bait

 

[designbysue]

Tried to color correct but not sure at all of this one.

 

[Wookie]

I showed it to my favorite GOM fish ID specialist. Stumped him.

 

[donnyb]

Shape resembles a cardinalfish...
Could also possibly be a juvenile of a sea bass of some sort...
But I don't have any reference materials on the Gulf fishes.

 

[deborahdelamar]

The size, behavior, eye, fins & markings speak to it being a key, striped, or bigeye anchovy. Definitely not a juvenile grouper. Wrong size, location, behavior & eye for a cardinalfish.

Anchovies can open their tails a bit. At 2-3" this would be a young fish, likely with good condition on the tail -- it hasn't gotten frayed yet! Camera angle may contribute to the tail roundness as well as the shortened body in the photo.

I'm with Sully on this one.

 

[donnyb]

Wrong size, location, behavior & eye for a cardinalfish.

Um, I was referring to these cardinalfish:
Akvariumas.com
Also pg 225 of Humann's Reef fish: FL,Caribbean,Bahamas

However I can definitely see this as a fat anchovy.
Just the camera angle throwing us off.

 

[itziar]

Here another picture of the group:

The tails do not seem to be a matter of projection, but if anchovies can open their tails later in time, that is a good option. My husband seems to disagree on the size, and claims they were about 1 inch long...

Any futher confirmation with this picture?

 

[donnyb]

Those do not look like cardinalfish.
I like the anchovy theory.
Notice the mouth has a downward angle.
They are able to open them quite wide when feeding in a school.