Strange fish spotted

[tcorfey]

I took my family up to Horr Pond - Ja-She creek last weekend as part of a two week camping trip. After crossing the little walking bridge and going further up the creek in our canoe we came to a side cove, that was a dead end but we went in to it anyway. It was pretty deep at least 10-15 feet but the water was so clear we could clearly see the bottom and as we went further in to the back of the cove a large fish darted out and stopped then took off again. This fish was about the size and shape of a 5-lb Largemouth bass but it was solid black from the head to the dorsal fin then had vivid rainbow stripes in blue, green, red and yellow in the area of the dorsal fin then from the back of the dorsal fin to it's tail it was again solid black. I have never seen a freshwater fish with those markings before and I can not seem to find it listed anywhere. At the time I told my son that we had just seen a unicorn but does anyone know what it might be?

[Lance Gray]

Sounds like a fish from the fish store that somebody let go. I have no idea - but it's not native.

In Willows in a farm pond we had huge goldfish. I mean huge 8-10 pounds. The owner of the pond said - that his daughter placed them in the pond years ago - she wanted her fish to be free. That is what the owner said. The eat flies just as good as the panfish and bass.

Try to catch it!!!

[David Lee]

Likely a Koi . Great sport on a Fly !!

D.~

[mafic]

It was pretty deep at least 10-15 feet but the water was so clear we could clearly see the bottom and as we went further in to the back of the cove a large fish darted out and stopped then took off again. This fish was about the size and shape of a 5-lb Largemouth bass but it was solid black from the head to the dorsal fin then had vivid rainbow stripes in blue, green, red and yellow in the area of the dorsal fin then from the back of the dorsal fin to it's tail it was again solid black.

There are a couple fish native to the sierra nevada/shasta watershed that could possibly fit the description.

1. Mountain sucker - the Sierra Nevada version has a red/yellow stripe, and a black back.
2. Tahoe sucker - similar red/yellow coloring as mountain sucker, with a black back.
3. Lahontan redside - a bit smaller than your description, but the coloring is about right.

I hope that was a native species, but if its not... could have been anything.

The California Academy of Sciences has an Amazing field guide to the Sierra Nevada, which is what i used to come up with the answers above. It includes all sorts of aquatic species found in our local range which is helpful for fly fishing.

[tcorfey]

I should have mentioned that the rainbow colored stripes where vertical not horizontal like on a Lahontan redside.

I filed a report with DFG/CDFW for the North region to see if they know anything about. I have scoured the internet but have not found a picture similar to the fish we saw.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Wild.......could be a new fish?

[tcorfey]

I got a call back from DFG today. He asked me a bunch of questions and said he had brought it up at their meeting on Monday. Nobody has seen or heard of a fish like that before. A few years ago they did a shock count on that area and there was nothing in the notes about a fish like that either. We discussed a number of possible species and he had me describe exactly how the fish acted. The gentlemen seemed somewhat intrigued and told me that he would try to get up there this summer with his snorkeling gear, and would keep my telephone number to call me if he found anything.

[tcorfey]

Follow up to my earlier post.

While researching fish farms I came across a fish farm in CA called

http://www.californiacichlids.com

Which led me to this website, Where I found this picture

http://www.cichlidforums.com/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/5903/title/male-jack-dempsey-and-green-terror/cat/508

This fish is very similar to the fish we saw at Na-she creek except the fish we saw was black where this fish is colored orange and the bars on the side where in a rainbow of colors as described in my original post. Actually if you took the fish in the picture and inverted the colors of orange with black and the black with orange it would be very similar. Also the fish we saw was quite large and this one is quite small.

I have not heard anything back since a DFG employee called me and we discussed the fish sighting but, I am still intrigued by what we saw so I thought I would follow up..

Evidently this fish is from a lake in Africa. Kind of strange.

[JohnD]

Cichlids are fairly common fresh-water tank fish. Some, like Oscars can get quite large. They're very aggressive, but likely won't make it thru the winter.
http://aqualandpetsplus.com/Aquala48.jpg

[Nor*Cal]

perhaps somebody dumped a pet like they do in Ellis Lake, Marysville, CA

Cheers,