Fish ID.

[tyler1503]

Hey guys
Found a little fish in my tank. I think he hitchhiked his way in on some new live rock. Could I get an ID please?
He seems to be in a larval stage.
He about 2 inches long and about 1/8 inch across. Very eel like in shape. He's clear all over except his little black eyes and internal organs.
I got him eating hikari frozen rotifers luckily
Sorry for the bad photos.

 

[kschweer]

No clue but that's really cool. Keep us updated as it develops. Best of luck!

 

[tyler1503]

Thanks! I'm pretty excited to watch him grow and colour up
To be honest I'm surprised I got it to eat without hatching baby brine shrimp. From what I've read it's near impossible for a fish in it's larval stage to accept prepared foods.

 

[reif119]

Could it be a royal gamma?

 

[reif119]

Could it be a royal gamma?

Nooooo it's not never mind

 

[saltyhog]

Curious Wormfish?

 

[reif119]

Barracuda (;

 

[Preyou]

Looks like a dartfish to me....

 

[tyler1503]

Thanks everyone! I appreciate all the input
After a very quick look at the mentioned species, none are a perfect match. The closest one so far I think was sarcasm, but barracuda is the closest lol.
It has a body like the barracuda, with the long sleek body and dorsal fin and caudal fin positions and shapes. But has a rounded head just like the worm fish (which is an awesome looking fish by the way!) and dart fish.
I'm thinking it's an ocean fish, not a reef fish. It's 2 inches long already in it's larval stage (I'm only assuming it's still in it's larval stage) so I think it's going to grow up to be a large fish and the body and fin shape suggests it's built for speed.
I think I may just have to wait for it to mature a little.

 

[NanaReefer]

Following out of curiosity Never seen a fish hitch hike in on rock before.

 

[FLipp]

pretty sure its a dartfish.

 

[eatbreakfast]

pretty sure its a dartfish.

I dont know what it is, but is most certainly not a dartfish because the dorsal is wrong. Fish of the Genus Pteleotris have a split dorsal and while the 2nd part of the dorsal starts fairly far on the back, they extend for a much greater part of the fish than this fish does.

 

[xrayjeeper83]

Following for the answer. Hope he makes it

 

[Preyou]

Take a look at this dartfish.... It looks very similar, no?

 

[eatbreakfast]

Take a look at this dartfish.... It looks very similar, no?

Except that the dorsalon the OP pic starts much closer to the caudal than the P. evides, and is not nearly as long as the scissortail either.

 

[tyler1503]

Following out of curiosity Never seen a fish hitch hike in on rock before.

The first moray I ever kept at home was a 4-5 inch long zebra. While I was working at the LFS, we sold some guy some live rock and within a week or so he came back in with that little eel. We were all assuming it was a hitchhiker as the owner didn't put him in there. I read elsewhere about a bloke who found a snowflake eel too

My guy has the head of the dartfish, but not the body. His fins are in a different position and he is much more "stretched" out.

Thanks everyone I look forward to watching this one pan out! Who knows, within a couple of weeks he may be big enough to actually see lol.

 

[fishroomlady]

very cool Tyler! keep updating!

 

[tyler1503]

I already have an update!
I just fed the tank and noticed he's developing very small patches of colour on the head there's 2 small spots, one above each eye and a third centred above them, like an equilateral triangle. They're about the size of a pin head. I think (I'm colourblind so it may not be exactly this colour) they're dark brown, like a chocolate colour with a light tannish brown ring around each.
I'm not sure if he's developing this colour with age, or if he was always this colour and is just feeling a bit more at home so some stress related colour loss is slowly returning. He ate some of my DIY coral food and some rotifers again and attempted to eat some DIY fish food but the pieces were too big again, he even tried to eat a grain of sand lol. Silly fish.

 

[pickupman66]

Wow. It can't be a dart fish as its already 2" long and is still larval.

 

[First reef]

Could it be a Engineer goby.