Mystery fish please help!

[Treehugnmama]

Yay I love fishing I will keep trying! I thought he looked like a cichlid too but I do not think a cichlid would survice canadian winter would it?

 

[j.w]

Wondering if it could be a Bluegill?

 

[bagsmom]

I saw the blue gill spot too! I know that bass and other fish like that are cichlids and they are found in lakes in North America. So maybe it is a sturdy northern type of cichlid.

 

[MajorDan]

Whatever it is, it needs to go. Could be any of the eating machines in the sunfish family including small mouth and large mouth bass.

 

[MitchM]

That's a great guess, @j.w

 

[Treehugnmama]

I know he has to go I want to turn my inground pool into a fishing pond lol but I won't

He did a good job keeping fry down. Im not sure what to do with him. If i dont know a 100 percent he is a local fish it would be irresponsible to release him into the wild

 

[island_pondscum]

If it looks somewhat like a goldfish in shape, I have the same in my pond. I've got a pair, which I also didn't put in the pond. According to my local nursery they come in with their aquatic plants, most likely as fry or even eggs. Mine topped out about 5" and don't seem to bother the other fish, though. They were unable to identify the fish and I haven't had any luck with that, either.

 

[Treehugnmama]

We do buy floating plants...could be.

 

[Michael from Daytona]

He looks like some sort of a cichlid, to me! I wonder if he came in on a bird's foot, or if he actually is that teeny little baby fish from the bag of goldfish. I think in pet stores, fry can accidentally move from one tank to another. It is a cool mystery!

I don't think cichlids can handle cold weather. They are strictly tropical. I live in Florida and tried a couple pretty ones in my koi ponds. Found them floating last February when the weather hit the high 30s for a couple of nights. Everybody else (koi and comets) did fine. The description of two "circles" on the sides is intriguing. Of course, sunfish have this but they also have pronounced spiny dorsal fins, which the overhead photo does not support. Bluegills have smaller "spots" and can be quite aggressive, but the one respondent's hunch that it could be a bass I found intriguing. Bass grow fast, are voracious predators and would not hesitate to eat any goldfish small enough to fit in their mouths. Goldfish are far more attractive than bass in a pond any day. I say get that monster out of there.

 

[Treehugnmama]

All last year we thought he was a sunfish except he was missing spiny dorsal fin.

Luckily he has a small mouth still but he doubled in size over the winter and all of last years fry are gone.

What do I do with said "monster"

 

[bagsmom]

I sheepishly retract my idea that bass are North American cichlids. I did more reading and what I saw initially was about a peacock bass, which is from South America. I'm guilty of reading incorrect info on the internet and believing it -- shame on me!!!!!! I should know better! Now I want you to catch that fish and ID him for sure! You can do an episode of a Jeremy Wade-like show and catch him to find out "What is this fish?" Instead of Dark Waters, you could call it "Small Waters." Or "Pond Monsters!"

 

[JamieB]

Set up a tank, large tote, etc to house Monster till you ID it. If it’s native, local water way he goes. If not, talk to local pet store and see if they’d like it, or can find a home for it.

 

[Sisha]

Your fish looks just like my black goldfish. The fins are clear, silver belly and dark top. My large ones are all skittish and I only see them when the sun is in the right place and I'm looking that direction when they come up. Sometimes I may not see Blacky my 10" one for weeks. I've found the black ones get taken first when predators hit and they know it so they are quick at feed time and hide the rest of the time. I like having black ones, they add mystery haha.

 

[Sparky]

I’ll vote for smallmouth bass simply for the growth rate. They are very hardy and upper level predators.

 

[Reefmonkey]

I doubt it's a smallmouth or a largemouth bass, which are both genus Micropterus. If it's a centrarchid, most likely it's a sunfish in genus Lepomis. You not seeing the spines of its anterior dorsal fin might not mean they aren't there, just that it keeps them folded most of the time, as many fish do. From the looks of it, it could also be a cichlid, and there are a few species, like tilapia and Texas cichlids, that can survive some colder temps (into the 40s - we have a lot of invasive cichlids that seem to survive our winters here in Texas), but given you're saying he's survived Ontario winters in a shallow koi pond, I'm guessing he's not a cichlid, and I am going to go with a sunfish. In that case, I wouldn't be too worried about having him in your pond, I have a sunfish in my pond and he doesn't seem to go after even my small mosquitofish, I think he prefers all the water bugs instead.