Hi MonsterFishFolks!
Great site! I'm new here and you folks seem like the only ones who may be able to help ID a fish for me (Google was useless), that looks similar to, but may not be a Northern Snakehead. It walks overland here in Fl, and I thought it was just a NS, but the pics I've seen of the NS don't jibe with "my" fish. I saw one live when he was taking a stroll last Fall, and last Winter's cold spell sent ~80+ to 100 of them seeking shelter amongst a stand of trees, where they died from the cold anyway. I have several partial skulls (no lower mandible) and skeletons, but had forgotten to go get them for too long and decomposition made a full one impossible to find.
While coloring was decidedly NS-like, and ~12-16" size is consistent with them, the fish I saw had the mouth on the bottom, not fully at the anterior end. Also, the NS pics I've seen show the pectoral fins shorter than the head, and consisting of only fairly thin rays. THIS fish's pecs have a long, curved bone as long as the head and ~1/4 - 3/8" diameter, that fits into a well-developed ball-and-socket joint in the back of the head. Does anyone here know where I can find a pic of a NS skeleton to compare?
None of the universities' or museums' reference collections are on-line. I've usually found that the simplest answer to a question is the correct one, but strange things sometimes happened. If it's something freaky, I'll have to catch one for a pet and one for dinner.
--Thanks in advance for any help you may be able to offer,
--Steve
Great site! I'm new here and you folks seem like the only ones who may be able to help ID a fish for me (Google was useless), that looks similar to, but may not be a Northern Snakehead. It walks overland here in Fl, and I thought it was just a NS, but the pics I've seen of the NS don't jibe with "my" fish. I saw one live when he was taking a stroll last Fall, and last Winter's cold spell sent ~80+ to 100 of them seeking shelter amongst a stand of trees, where they died from the cold anyway. I have several partial skulls (no lower mandible) and skeletons, but had forgotten to go get them for too long and decomposition made a full one impossible to find.
While coloring was decidedly NS-like, and ~12-16" size is consistent with them, the fish I saw had the mouth on the bottom, not fully at the anterior end. Also, the NS pics I've seen show the pectoral fins shorter than the head, and consisting of only fairly thin rays. THIS fish's pecs have a long, curved bone as long as the head and ~1/4 - 3/8" diameter, that fits into a well-developed ball-and-socket joint in the back of the head. Does anyone here know where I can find a pic of a NS skeleton to compare?
None of the universities' or museums' reference collections are on-line. I've usually found that the simplest answer to a question is the correct one, but strange things sometimes happened. If it's something freaky, I'll have to catch one for a pet and one for dinner.
--Thanks in advance for any help you may be able to offer,
--Steve
