Posted by Frank O on July 05, 2002 at 22:48:26:
For you marine taxonomists out there ...
I've been noticing a couple of types of perch-type fish with dark bars that I'm trying to make sure I have straightened out. This morning I jumped into the water at Little Corona (20-foot-plus vis, what a treat) and thought I had parachuted into the Grand Central Station of the fish world, with a bunch of small fish apparently being terrorized by a large school of large (15-inch-long) perch type fish. These looked a lot like the photo of the zebraperch in Gottshall's "Pacific Coast Inshore Fishes." Overall they were light gray or silvery, with 9 or 10 darkish vertical bars, a dark spot just rear of the gill and another dark spot just below the pectoral fin.
The other fish was a perch-type fish also with 9 or 10 dark vertical bars, but the fish overall was quite dark gray and the bars were much darker. I wasn't able to make out any spots or other distinguishing features. The closest thing I could find in the books is the black perch in Humann's "Coastal Fish ID California to Alaska," except that what I saw looked darker than this, and I don't recall the fish I saw having big lips or the blue stripe along the base of the anal fin as Humann notes for that species. Any thoughts on what this could be?
Also this morning at Little Corona I noticed a few loosely damsel-type fish, medium to small, that were jet black all over with strikingly white lips. Haven't found these in any books yet. Are these a juvenile phase of something? Thanks in advance for any thoughts.