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Frankenstein Fish

rynner2

rynner2

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Mystery of the one-in-a-million 'Frankenstein fish'
An angler has claimed to have caught a one-in-a-million “Frankenstein fish” which appears to be up of three different species.
By Hannah Furness
11:56PM BST 28 May 2012

Mark Sawyer, 53, said he was fishing for carp when he hooked the odd-looking specimen, which he initially thought was a common brown goldfish.
But on closer inspection he found it appeared to have the head of a roach, the body and tail of a brown goldfish and the rear fin of a bream.

Mr Sawyer, who works as the tackle editor for trade magazine the Angling Times, photographed it before throwing it back into Magpie Lake in Cambridge.
He said: "I have shown the picture to a number of marine boffins who say it is definitely the result of mixed parentage.
"I have caught thousands and thousands of fish but have never seen anything like it before. It is a proper oddity.
"The head resembles more of a roach, its lips aren't quite right. It has the body of a normal goldfish, its anal fin resembles a bream and the tail is of a fan-tailed goldfish."

Dr Paul Garner, a fisheries ecologist, described the fish as truly one-off and said: "I have never seen one in the UK before. It must be at least a one-in-a-million fish and the odds of actually catching it are even greater than that.
"Fan-tailed goldfish aren't indigenous to this country and they are not stocked in our fisheries or lakes.
"This means that the parent of this fish would have had to have been released into a fishery, probably by somebody who had it in their garden pond as a pet.
"At some point that fish has mated with a common carp and this hybrid fish in the result.

"The head in more carp but the back end and extended fins and tail belong to fan-tailed goldfish.
"Goldfish and carp and from the same family of fish and it would not be uncommon for them to come together.
"What is very unusual, however, is for a fisherman to catch one of their offspring."

Another fish expert, Dr Mark Everard, said he thought the odd specimen is the result of a fan-tailed goldfish and a normal goldfish mating and had probably been released into the lake from a private aquarium.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstop ... -fish.html

(Edited to remove repeated text passage..)
 
If it breeds true, it could be the start of a new species.

Mind you, most hybrids are sterile.
 
You have to wonder at the wisdom of throwing it back into the ecosystem, though, don't you, where most likely it'll breeed lots of other little frankenfish.
 
Would that be a bad thing?
I mean, how else do new species arise?
 
I'm not sure if it's a bad thing or not. New species? Well, who knows, but when some guy catches a fish he can clearly see to be a freak hybrid, and not one that had eveloped through any 'natural' process, my instinct is to err on the side of caution in the frist instance and not simply put it back.

When people introduced cane toads to Australia, someone probably said 'how can this be a bad thing', and now the place is overrun with them and the Aussies can't kill them fast enough. I know it's a slightly different situation, but you can draw a parallel nontheless.
 
There seems to be some confusion going on as to what a fantail goldfish is. A true fantail carries a genetic mutation that causes it to have two complete tails.

I see no sign of that in this fish; it's clearly carrying a 'long fin' mutation, common in many fish species, and called 'comet' in goldies.

It's an odd looking fish to be sure, but there are so many carp species that can hybridise (leather/mirror/koi/crucian/common carp and goldfish can all hybridise to some extent, with some of the hybrids being fertile) and that have been introduced to our rivers over the years that it's not surprising fish like this turn up.

I'm more surprised that the 'experts' seem surprised, tbh!
 
I've heard that goldfish can grow to unusual sizes out of the bowl - and after a few generations revert to normal carp when released. Are we sure this isn't just a released goldfish's kid?
 
Oh, it's not far from me...
 
The whole 'Catches weird fish, but then throws it back. Take his word for it...' seems somewhat... suspect...
 
Jerry_B said:
The whole 'Catches weird fish, but then throws it back. Take his word for it...' seems somewhat... suspect...
Click to expand...
Not at all. Eg:
'Largest' porbeagle shark caught off Cornwall

Two sea anglers have been praised for releasing what could be be the largest shark ever caught in British waters.
...
Dr David Gibson of the National Marine Aquarium said it would have been "morally unethical" to kill the fish to claim the official record.
etc...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-18270997
Click to expand...
The shark was video'd: Mark Sawyer's 'weird fish' was photographed: both fish returned to water.
 
Sergeant_Pluck said:
I'm not sure if it's a bad thing or not. New species? Well, who knows, but when some guy catches a fish he can clearly see to be a freak hybrid, and not one that had eveloped through any 'natural' process, my instinct is to err on the side of caution in the frist instance and not simply put it back.

When people introduced cane toads to Australia, someone probably said 'how can this be a bad thing', and now the place is overrun with them and the Aussies can't kill them fast enough. I know it's a slightly different situation, but you can draw a parallel nontheless.
Click to expand...

I don't think you can draw a parallel - the cane toad was introduced into a totally alien ecosystem by humans for a specific purpose.

Even if this is a "freak hybrid", that's still a "natural process", surely? Unless there's any evidence of industrial pollution, or deliberate genetic manipulation.
 
Yep, Carlos, I'll concede the point. Half-concede it anyway, given that a fan-tailed goldfish isn't indigenous to the UK (and therefore as alien as the cane toad in Oz.) As someone else said, it's an artifical pond, so it's unlikely any great spread of frankenfish is likely.

On the other hand, the cynic in me says there's nothing stopping someone catching it again and introducing it into a nearby river, out of sheer bloody-mindedness. It wouldn't be the first freak species to somehow make it out of a seemingly enclosed environment.
 
Roach and Rudd hybridise anyway, many a confused angler has caught a uk record, but both are Scardinius. Goldfish are Cyprinids too, soo, a roach x rudd hybrid bred with a goldfish, or what I feels is more likely, a Crucian Carp :?:

Edit: I looked at the picture after, and I'm fairly certain it's a fan tail Crucian carp

fantail.jpg
 
rynner2 said:
The shark was video'd: Mark Sawyer's 'weird fish' was photographed: both fish returned to water.
Click to expand...

Which one out of the two would be easier to keep and display...? ;) Seems to me to be somewhat odd not to keep the smaller of the two, given that it's allegedly an oddity.
 
Just a couple of points. Had he not returned the fish he may have gotten in trouble with the owners of the fishery as the fish is there property.

Looking at the map there does seem to be ditches or small streams close by so its not imposable for the fish to get into the wild if the area floods.

If the fish did escape into the wild id be fairly sure that predators would love to get their teeth into a fish with such a tempting tail.

Edit: As far as a fake is concerned. Mr Sawyer works for THE top fishing publication in the uk and to be caught out with a fake fish picture would really damage their credibility. The angling times is usually the first to break news of new record catches ect, which is taken very seriously in the angling world.

Matt
 
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