Wierd Fish !

[MarinerKenny]

A few of us went fishing on Saltburn Pier yesterday afternoon, and 2 of these little critters were caught :

We didn\'t know what it was so took the pic. Looking on the internet today to see if I could fathom out what they are, I decided that it must be an Eelpout, But it also looks similar to a small spotted wolf fish - anyone confirm what it is ?

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/BMLSS/zoarces.htm




[Edited on 5/4/2004 by MarinerKenny]

 

[MarinerKenny]

can\'t get the pic to load - tried all sorts to get it up !
Then all text under the link worked like a link, and to top it all off, it won\'t even let me delete the post :casstet:

Oh well, I\'m off to work !

 

[TC]

Kenny, when you post pix using the uploader, you need to put the whole of the address in, e.g.

http://nesa.cibs.org.uk

followed by

/seadevil.gif


ALSO: there should be NO spaces between any of the characters.

 

[TC]

Lol Kenny,

I was busy changing it at the time you were trying to delete it

 

[MarinerKenny]

Tony, I did that to start with with no joy, and have been tinkering to try and get it up. When I clicked properties on the white box/Red cross (no pic) it had http://nesa.cibs.org.uk/http://nesa.cibs.org.uk/seadevil.jpg !
so when you delete one if the nesa bits, it just leaves you with seadevil.jpg :casstet:
I will have another look tomorrow morning after work

 

[MarinerKenny]

Cheers Tony
\'I\'ll get me coat !\'

 

[LING_BASHER]

It looks more like a common blenny,if so there is loads of them in and around the Tyne mouth.

 

[Doc]

Zoarces viviparus, commonly know as the viviparous blenny, or mother of eels as it bears its young live, but more commonly its known as the eelpout, you were right first time fella!!!!

Looking at that specimen, I would hazard a guess that its recently produced a brood. They are quite common in northern estuaries and inshore along the rocky edges.


[Edited on 5/4/2004 by Doc]

[Edited on 5/4/2004 by Doc]

 

[MarinerKenny]

Cheers lads,
The record for the Eelpout from the shore stands at 13oz - this one was at least 5lb I tell you ! LOL would have been interesting to see what the actual weight of it was, to see if it was anywhere near the 13oz

 

[jason]

kenny you still being a bit quiet about your day on the cheiftan - come on tell us about it or do we have to bribe you.

 

[MarinerKenny]

Well Jason, I am always up for bribes - what did you have in mind ?
I could do with a S**t load of pirks for starters !
Nowt much to tell - hence I haven\'t told anything.
Drop - Snag, Drop - Snag, Drop - Snag
The \'Braided\' - and I use the word braided loosely, line that I was using (White & Blue Stuff that came pre-loaded on my reel) was utter crap - as soon as you droped the line it would drift away from the wreck ! Nothing I could do about it - the diameter of it was big enough to start with, but then it would absorb water aswell then get even bigger !
The reel is now stripped ready to load with some decent braid.
As the reel came with that Parcel String pre-loaded I thoiught that I might aswell give it a go - gamble just didn\'t pay off.
Got a nice Coalie though

I am just glad that loads of fish weren\'t coming over the side otherwise I would have been gutted.

 

[jason]

Still it is better than being at home mate. Hope you still had a good day. There is another boat out of hartlepool called flammer11 he has a web address www.flamer11.co.uk he charges around the 20 quid mark for a trip worth a try.

Kind regards
Jason

 

[peter.m]

Have got to say that it doesn\'t look like a blenny to me!
Don\'t know what it is.

 

[TC]

This might clear things up........

http://scilib.ucsd.edu/sio/nsf/fguide/chordata13.html

 

[blackvelvet]

oh!! well done TC you are a clever chappie.
blackvelvet

 

[macky]

mariner kenny

what sort of length was the fish???

i dont think it is a type of blenny as it has a more flatter head, i would go with the eels pout.

macky

 

[Doc]

OK OK, time to put this one to bed.

Its an Eelpout, or sometimes commonly called the viviparous blenny. Latin name: (Zoarces viviparus).

Its no more a blenny than it is a sandeel although all three belong to the same order of fish; Perciformes

Order: Perciformes
Family: Zoarcidae
Genus: Zoarces
Species: viviparus

There are a number of species of eelpout in the northern Hemishpere, the commonest in Uk waters are;
Sars Eelpout: Lycenchelys sarsii
Esmarks Eelpout: Lycodes esmarkii
Vahls Eeelpout: Lycodes vahlii
Viviparous blenny: Zoarces viviparus

Quite why Zoarces\'s common name is blenny I don\'t know, but the MCS species directory, Whitehead et al (UNESCO) and most other texts relate to it as the viviparus blenny.

TC\'s pictured fish (Lycodichthys dearbornii) is a southern hemisphere species restricted to the Antarctic Ocean, predominantly on the slope of the Ross Sea shelf.

 

[DaveMason]

Nigel,

Are you sure about that ? You sounded a bit uncertain - anyone would think you were a marine biologist or something

 

[Norman]

so long as you don`t teach doc anything about pirk insertion as you did with tony then it`ll be all ok on the day

 

[Topecatcher]

Hey I\'ll have you know Nige spends a lot of time studying fish...................................mainly mine lol
Tried inserting a pirk into the top of Docs head once but it bounced off....................................too shiney
Do we need a metal detector for the weigh in then Norman?????????