Can you identify this alien fish?

[CountryEscape]

Pecan, is the solid white butterfly your koi? Looks like a really nice platinum ogon! Way to go.

 

[pecan]

Yep CE, I picked them up on Friday

 

[CountryEscape]

Oh ... you got 4 of them! Nice selection!

 

[blessedfamily]

Beautiful fish.

 

[pecan]

An update on this very old thread. Of the baby alien fish I found back in 2012 I have two remaining. Once is slightly bigger than the other and duller in color. The smaller of the two is almost a copper color. They are now at least 12" long from nose to tail tip and have grown much faster than all other fish in the pond. They are now almost as big as my largest Koi. But remember at the time I found these little fellers I had no Koi in the pond and never had.

I am convinced at this point they are a hi-bred Koi/Comet. They both have two sets of very small bare bells and their faces have the flatter Koi look to them.

Here they are. interesting I think and I do enjoy watching them grow.

Flashback from 2012...

And here they are today Feb 2014.

 

[addy1]

Neat looking fish, what ever they are.

 

[j.w]

Hey they turned out to be quite pretty!

 

[pecan]

I really like the one that's more copper. Very pretty when the sun hits him.

 

[Dave 54]

I'd say they looking at the facial features of these fish that they are infact goldfish koi/hybrids Pecan
But here's the mystery way back in 2012 you said that you had no koi and it was "Before", you got koi, so that beggars the question where on earth did they come from?
Interesting real life mystery
Dave

 

[Dave 54]

I've given this some thought this morning Pecan and the only thing I can come up with is you have to have had a hybrid koi/comet in your pond , but pause for thuoght here , I was always led to believe that hybrids are in acctual fact mules.
Ok so whats the problem with that ?..... the problem we have with this answer is that in all our 28 years of keeping koi weve been led to believe that Hybrids or mules are incapable of breeding.
I think the person we need to come in here is CometKeith Comets being his area of expertise and all perhaps he may have a handle on what has happened and where your alien hybrids come from.
Queston did you ever buy baby fish sold as Comets ?
However they are very nice looking fish , the face is koi the dorsal Comet/goldfish an they have barbels do they not ?

Dave

 

[pecan]

I've given this some thought this morning Pecan and the only thing I can come up with is you have to have had a hybrid koi/comet in your pond , but pause for thuoght here , I was always led to believe that hybrids are in acctual fact mules.
Ok so whats the problem ith that ?..... the problem we have with this answer is that in all our 28 years of keeping koi weve been led to believe that Hybrids or mules are incapable of breeding.
I think the person we need to come in here is CometKeith Comets being his area of expertise and all perhaps he may have a handle on what has happened and where your alien hybrids come from.
Queston did you ever buy baby fish sold as Comets ?
However they are very nice looking fish , the face is koi the dorsal Comet/goldfish an they have barbels do they not ?

Dave

We built the pond in June 2011, in late July 2011 we added 12, 4"-6" comets. They were pretty much full grown and never got much bigger.

But throughout the year of 2011 and into the spring of 2012 was when I was actively adding aquatic plants. A lot of plants. Most purchased from a local pond nursery who keep all their plants in large tanks that also house comets and koi.

These little guys appeared in early summer/ late spring 2012 if I remember correctly. So all I can figure is they hitched a ride on some plants as eggs or very small fry. I first noticed them when they were very small, they all had the lighter markings on their faces that stuck out from the dark water. I think there were about 4 of them when they were very little and 2 that survived.

That leads me to think maybe eggs rather than fry were transported on the plant roots. All the plants were transported in water.

Yes they have 4 very small barbels.

 

[Dave 54]

Vals just made a suggestion that perhaps they were butterfly koi/Comet , can you remember what other fish they had on sale where you bought them from Pecan perhaps the parent koi/Comet got mixed up somehow and there was something in particular that first attracted these fish to you ?.
Di you perhaps think that for a Comet they were different so I'll buy them?

Dave

 

[Dave 54]

We built the pond in June 2011, in late July 2011 we added 12, 4"-6" comets. They were pretty much full grown and never got much bigger.

But throughout the year of 2011 and into the spring of 2012 was when I was actively adding aquatic plants. A lot of plants. Most purchased from a local pond nursery who keep all their plants in large tanks that also house comets and koi.

These little guys appeared in early summer/ late spring 2012 if I remember correctly. So all I can figure is they hitched a ride on some plants as eggs or very small fry. I first noticed them when they were very small, they all had the lighter markings on their faces that stuck out from the dark water. I think there were about 4 of them when they were very little and 2 that survived.

That leads me to think maybe eggs rather than fry were transported on the plant roots. All the plants were transported in water.

Yes they have 4 very small barbels.

I think you may have it there however the shape of the dorsal fin even if it was a butteryfly koi isnt right , plus the barbels should be far more prminent than they acctually are .
Oh I love a good mystery dont you ?
I wonder if your going to get any babies from these fish , if so it woud be an interesting mx to say the very least , shy of you going back to where you got the plants from with photo's of the fish in queston we may never know .
Does the outlet sell butterfly koi as well as Comets ?
Going bck to when they were young they dont look anything like koi even though they have certain features , I'm wondering f we are looking at another type of carp being in the mix here Perhaps "Carassius carassius" or as we know it the Crucian Carp or "Carassius auratus gibelio" or as we know it the Prussian Carp ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CarassiusCarassius8.JPG

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Carassius_gibelio_2008_G1.jpg

Dave

 

[pecan]

The comets we bought were from a different store that only sells fish and have them separated in tanks. They were all clearly comet, no koi mixed in so I dont think the little alien fish came from the comets we had in the pond.

The place we bought the plants from had all types of comets, and koi, both butterfly and standard in their tanks with the plants. That's why I am leaning toward hitchhikers on plant roots from that place.

 

[pecan]

I think you may have it there however the shape of the dorsal fin even if it was a butteryfly koi isnt right , plus the barbels should be far more prminent than they acctually are .
Oh I love a good mystery dont you ?
I wonder if your going to get any babies from these fish , if so it woud be an interesting mx to say the very least , shy of you going back to where you got the plants from with photo's of the fish in queston we may never know .
Does the outlet sell butterfly koi as well as Comets ?
Going bck to when they were young they dont look anything like koi even though they have certain features , I'm wondering f we are looking at another type of carp being in the mix here Perhaps "Carassius carassius" or as we know it the Crucian Carp or "Carassius auratus gibelio" or as we know it the Prussian Carp ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CarassiusCarassius8.JPG

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Carassius_gibelio_2008_G1.jpg

Dave

I actually wondered about them just being a different type of carp. There are a lot of wild carp around here and there is a water way about a mile away filled with them.

Birds legs could be the transporter in that scenario.