Need better identification!

[MuskieBait]

(07-21-2013 05:50 PM)smcs28 Wrote:  Not sure why people want to use Wikipedia. It is not an accredited source and ANYONE can change the information on it. (it is not recognized in schools, colleges or universities. Apparently if it is used as a "source" for a paper you fail) Not the best source for information. I would suggest finding a site that is an accredited resource.

Because not everyone is willing to read a research article on species ID, or not everyone has the scientific background to do so.

If you like, feel free to sort through this document to identify an unknown saltwater fish from the Central Eastern Pacific using this guide. It won't be too helpful if you don't even have an idea which family the fish belong to.

http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/kt896nb2qd/

You can also try FishBase if you like...again, without knowing the family of fish to narrow certain choices down, you would be terribly lost.

http://www.fishbase.org/

At least with the Wiki page, a less experienced person can click though the links to check and narrow down their choices.

Here's a test.

What family of fish does this species belong to? Is it freshwater or saltwater? Local or exotic? Northern or southern? Which body of water can you find it in?



Or you can spend money of physical copies of fish guides. But most will not come cheap. I was just using this guide online today to ID the species of these fish based the the dentition shown in a fried fish head (shown below). Not all the pages are available on the online version, but luckily the pages that I needed were there.

Fishes of the Gulf of Mexico, Vol. 2

http://books.google.com.au/books?id=-e3g...&q&f=false

Of if it is so easy, maybe you can help me ID these fish heads and tell me at least which family of fish they belong to. You will definitely encounter these fish in December while fishing in the Caribbean (there, I at least gave you a hint of their probable location). Please support your ID with a reputable, published reference and the specific morphological structures you used to ID these fish.



** Yes, I do know the answer before quizzing you. It's not that hard at all actually.

Have fun.