Fish ID Help

[Big Mike]

A friend snagged this fish in the Potomac yesterday. Obviously your first inclination is a common carp but it just doesn’t look right. Body is more like a crappie and I don’t see barbels. About 12” long so could be a juvenile carp. Any thoughts?




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[bignose]

It's hard to tell without seeing the face.
My first thought is that it is a feral, natural colored goldfish by the scales.

[Mark]

It's hard to tell without seeing the face.
My first thought is that it is a feral, natural colored goldfish by the scales.

That's my initial impression too, Stu.

[HJS]

I'm going with bignose on this one.

[Big Mike]

Thanks for the input. Could be an all time leaderboard new category.

[bignose]

B822283414Z.1_20160106185645_000_GCK1K14G7.2_Gallery.jpg

Feral Goldfish from Google.
Looks about right.

You can't believe how big they can grow.

[Mark]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]26118[/ATTACH]

Feral Goldfish from Google.
Looks about right.

You can't believe how big they can grow.

I have two feeder goldfish that I bought 8 years ago for 13 cents each. They were tiny then. I suspect they were the two luckiest fish in that tank. During the ensuing years, I have fed THEM, not fed them TO anything. Now they are as large as some of the white perch I catch. I estimate they have grown 500 to 600 percent. In fact, I recently moved their tank (they've outgrown several) to a different part of the house. I didn't realize just how big they were until I placed them in a 5 gallon bucket during their move. They were as long as the diameter of the bucket.

It's interesting how the color faded similarly on the two feral goldfish photos on this thread. Perhaps that was nature's way to protect them. LM bass can be different shades depending on their environment. Other fish species can do the same. Probably due to genetics more then environment, one of my two feeder fish turned from orange to brilliant white. That change happened gradually over years. The other has remained a deep orange.

And Stu, many thanks for the goldfish advice you have given me over the years. Stu breeds fancy goldfish and has shared good hints with me to keep my common goldfish healthy.

[bignose]

The "natural" color of wild goldfish is as you see in the picture. Kind of a an iron color.
Several hundred years of selective breeding has resulted in multiple color patterns, and body shapes. All genetic mutants.

I tried to breed them for several years, but of the thousands of offspring, very few survived, the juvenile mortality rate is extremely high, and none of the ones who did were of display quality.

As they age, goldfish can change colors as you have observed.

Left to themselves if returned to the wild, most of these exotic genetic mutations will not survive.
Those that do, revert back to the wild stage in a couple of generations.

Very occasionally a common orange colored goldfish will either survive release, or grow large enough not to be a target for predatory fish.

Check on Goggle to see some of these, they can be very impressive.

Check out the article: "Goldfish make themselves at home in the Chesapeake" in the Chesapeake Bay Program from 2019.

[DanMarino]

Stu, didn't you catch some in that Columbia pond that was over-run with goldfish?

[bignose]

There have been several small local ponds with an infestation of "released pets."
Most notably was one of the ponds in Sewell's Orchard.

See the Sunpaper article via Google from 2004: "Goldfish threaten pond life"

I was informed by Parks and Recs that there were only 50 or so goldfish in the pond, but I observed a spawn where the entire pond had a five foot wide ring of spawning fish around the edge. I was able to simply pick them up with a bare hand as they were kinda "preoccupied." In my estimation there were well over 5,000 fish involved.
Some were 18+" inches long.

Rumor has it that this pond and the next one down (they are connected) were poisoned with rotenone in the mid 2000s.
Neither has fished worth a darn since then.

IMG_0544.jpg


IMG_0549.jpg

Here are a couple of my tanks.