The Fish

We have a fish pond at our place, installed by the prior owner.

As noted in this very blog, the Northern Water Snakes have been known to frequent the pond and snack on the fish.

But despite the best efforts of the snakes, and the occasional visit by a Great Blue Heron, the fish, as can bee seen above, are holding their own.

And the other day when I was cleaning the filters I inadvertently caught this:

And I'm not sure what species it is.

My internet searches led me to this page at the USGS on Carassius auratus, with an image of a wild type Goldfish. And it looks rather similar to my fish.

So is this just a young goldfish? Maybe, but all of the young fish we've seen in the pond have been black, not golden, turning bright orange (or yellow, or mottled) as they age. Black being evolutionarily advantageous as it makes the young fish difficult to see in the deep water (bigafy the first image above and see if you can find the several black fish in it).

And then I found this page, which, when you scroll down, shows a goldfish and points out that the dorsal fin is detached from the body. You'll notice that this is not the case with my fish.

However, if you look at the Wikipedia page for Goldfish and the image for Common Goldfish, you'll see it has an attached dorsal fin.

So, I know that is a freshwater fish. Living in our fish pond. And that's about it.

If you know what species it is, leave a comment and let me know.