Can you identify this alien fish?

[Dave 54]

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.

I think your right Pecan anyway its been an interesting thread and search for answers did you check out the two links a very long shot I know but you never know , its the extremely small barbels and straight dorsal that is gtting me thinking they are not pure koi/butterfly
I've PM'd CometKeith to see if he could shed any more light on the subject ......
Dave

 

[pecan]

I think your right Pecan anyway its been an interesting thread and search for answers did you check out the two links a very long shot I know but you never know , its the extremely small barbels and straight dorsal that is gtting me thinking they are not pure koi/butterfly
I've PM'd CometKeith to see if he could shed any more light on the subject ......
Dave

I agree about them not being pure Koi for sure. They are interesting and I enjoy them whatever they are

Here is a picture up close where you can see the two left barbells and how small they are, but they are there.

 

[Dave 54]

Still digging for information on possible hybridization at the moment Pecan Bear with me :-

http://en.academic.ru/dic.nsf/enwiki/4475756

Unfortunately the carp family is quite a large family that you may well have a varient of

http://en.academic.ru/dic.nsf/enwiki/11598195

Dave

 

[pecan]

The thing I found interesting is each one of the fry had the exact same facial markings. A light mask of sorts. I've not seen the exact same markings like this on either comet or koi. Most fry either all have a unique look, or they are all brown.

 

[Dave 54]

I think you'll find that if you look at ghost koi you'll see these facial markings they are quite common so it may well be one sid of the family is of ghost koi origin but what of the other ?

http://www.hampshirecarp.co.uk/ornamental-fish/ghosts/

Dave

 

[pecan]

I just looked back at my posts and I got the time line wrong. These guys appeared within two months of the new pond being built (7/2011). Which was a year before I added koi.

 

[CometKeith]

Hi Pecan, I just got back from a trip and saw Dave's question. I have received plants with eggs before that matured into new types of fish for my pond. Last year I had a bunch of rosy red minnows show up on their own and this was something I never had before!