Please ID my fish. It is not in any of my books.

[chris_h]

I saw a fish that I had never seen before at the LFS so I figured it was rare. I asked how much. they and told my 12 dollars so I bought it. I have had it for 2 weeks and I cant get any great picture but I have some pics at http://www.seidata.com/~geheaton/chris's.tank/Doc2.html

Any ideas what species it is? It usually hides but will dart out for food.

 

[REEF-ER]

its a dottyback of some type, though i dont know the specific species. they are a cave and crevice dwelling fish, which would explain wh it hides and then darts out for food. hope my reply could help, or at least point you in the right direction

 

[Anonymous]

Pseudochromis blurridae??

 

[chris_h]

I was guessing that it was a dottyback. I checked the Pseudochromis section of all of my books and it is not in them. It was not even in Dr. Burgess's huge atlas.

 

[Anonymous]

Most likely Pseudochromis fuscus

Found a closer pic in Baench than in Burgess, however can't find a pic of the red dots on the pectoral fins. However the pictures show that this fish is highly variable in color not to mention that dottybacks in general are variable from male to female species.

Most telltail feature that I can't discern from your photos is whether or not your fish has blue dots on each scale on the body, which is prevalent in many descriptions of P. fuscus.

 

[Super Len]

Hmmm.

It looks like a female Pseudochromis olivaceous (or P.linda) to me. P.fucus is a possibility.

Of course, Tom is right: many Pseudochromis spp. have highly variable colors within the same species (usually demarcated by geographical location). And sexes are usually dramatically dichromatic/dimorphic.

[ November 29, 2001: Message edited by: Leonard v2.01b ]</p>

 

[danmhippo]

P. Fuscus is highly possible. Fuscus comes with several color variations from yellow orange to green. Another possibility is P. pesi. Both p. pesi and olivaceus has a dark color with gold ridge operculum spot. Whereas p. fuscus has none.

Chris, does yours has a circular operculum spot?

 

[Super Len]

a circular operculum spot = a dark circle behind/on it's lower gills slits.

 

[chris_h]

It has no operculum spot.

I found a pic of fuscus. It does have the stripes of blue spots, but is that enought to identify it? Mine is completly blue except the white tale, it has blue eyes, and it has a red spot on the fins. In Burgess's Atlas, fuscus is completly brown,it has no white tale , and no red spots.

 

[31-2c]

I take it the LFS didn't even attempt to identify it?

 

[chris_h]

They did not try to, but they have no reason to. They knew what catagory of fish it was, and that is the important thing.

Do you think $12 was a good deal.

 

[danmhippo]

$12 on something that you can't quite identify?

As long as it's not going to be a trouble maker, I'd say it is fine. Keep your fingers crossed.

 

[Circa]

Ya I think it was worth it, whatever this fish is its probably not to commen and you can say you have something like that in your tank. It most likely will be hiding so it won't cause much trouble....

 

[chris_h]

I got a very good look at it today and the way I described it was not correct. It is completly blue but the stripes of spots are a pale (almost white) redish brown color. And it is more of a bluer blue than it appears in the picture becouse in the picture it is half way in the shadow