Sydney Harbour Remora Or Cobia. And Penguins 23/10

[zen801]

I hope that i am not a total fool and have called this fish wrong. In fact i really dont know please advise fishraiders.

Left from roseville about 8am with a mate from Adelaide who basically has never fished before. Went out to Quarantine but it was totally dead. Decided to do a drift around harbour entrance and managed a flounder , ray and nice flattie about 50cm. Then to our surprise after a short little struggle this lost little Remora took a pillie. Got him into the boat for a quick pic then back into the water. He darted off without any hesitation.

Whilst drifting we saw about three separate groups of penguins with about 3 to 4 in each group. They looked pretty happy and we could tell they were doing better than us with the fish. At one stage we looked down at the side of the boat and there was a bait ball of fish about 1.5m round getting herded by the penguins who were taking turns to help themselves.

Good short little fishing trip. Ps. I thought it was a cobia at first until fellow fishraiders pointed me in the right direction.

Edited October 23, 2006 by zenman

[James]

sure is

sure isn t

Edited October 23, 2006 by James

[Gibbofisho]

afraid its a remora, cobia tail is forked.

I think, please don't berrate me.

[netic]

could be a sign of things to come, hopefully will see many more over the summer

After reading gibbo's post i think it is a striped remora, i stand corrected

Edited October 23, 2006 by netic

[Captain Pugwash]

see if this helps

[Gibbofisho]

could be a sign of things to come, hopefully will see many more over the summer

After reading gibbo's post i think it is a striped remora, i stand corrected

its the hight of the pectoral fins that made me think it might be a striped remora/suckerfish

at that size, cobia and striped suckerfish are almost indistingishable, aprt fromthe pec fins, also the extra little dorsal near its tail.

I could still be very wrong.

[Martin]

Looks like a Cobia to me.

Great to see them making an apperance. You get the odd one every now and then and I think it was last year a fishraider member also caught one in the Harbour that was 4 or 5 kgs while chasing kings.

I have caught them off Broken Bay (not very big) and Port Stephens in the past on the odd time.

Congrats and well done on letting him go to pack on a few more pounds.

Cheers

Martin

[netic]

and this is a pic of a remora (google)

Edited October 23, 2006 by netic

[Gibbofisho]

i think i'll wait for flattieman, to settle this one.

[searabbit]

i also think its a cobia, you would be able to tell if it was a remore by a suction cup on its head. which would be unmistakable on remora of that size.

[ACZ]

i thinks its a cobia to me.....wouldn a remora have suction pads on the top of it head?

[coollamon]

I think that it is a juvinile Cobia for sure

[zen801]

i also think its a cobia, you would be able to tell if it was a remore by a suction cup on its head. which would be unmistakable on remora of that size.

Thankf for reply searabbit. Definately no suction cup on top of head. Cheers.

[netic]

Zenman, mate you have really got everyones fish files going hard

[James]

thought i was right

Edited October 23, 2006 by James

[zen801]

Zenman, mate you have really got everyones fish files going hard

Thanks Netic. Yeah seems to have. I have another pic i might post that may help.

[Martin]

Looks as though its up for debate. I must admit that a Cobia generally does have a forked tail, however in a juvinile I am not sure if it is developed.

I found this little description

Cobia somewhat resemble and are most closely related to the Remora of the family Echeneidae. However, they lack the dorsal sucker of the Remora, their body is far stouter and their tail is far more developed, and forked instead of rounded. Juvenile Cobia are patterned with conspicuous bands of black and white. Their tails are rounded rather than forked as in the adults.

Did the fish have the sucker at the top of its head which is the tell tale of a Remora?

A few pics to add to the discussion

Cheers

Martin

[zen801]

Looks as though its up for debate. I must admit that a Cobia generally does have a forked tail, however in a juvinile I am not sure if it is developed.

I found this little description

Cobia somewhat resemble and are most closely related to the Remora of the family Echeneidae. However, they lack the dorsal sucker of the Remora, their body is far stouter and their tail is far more developed, and forked instead of rounded. Juvenile Cobia are patterned with conspicuous bands of black and white. Their tails are rounded rather than forked as in the adults.

Did the fish have the sucker at the top of its head which is the tell tale of a Remora?

A few pics to add to the discussion

Cheers

Martin

Martin,

Thanks for info. No it didnt have a sucker at top of head that i noticed. I will post another pic on site for debate.

[searabbit]

junvenile cobia caught at the brooklyn road bridge.

[KingsRule]

I'd call that for a baby cobia, well done on pretty rare harbour capture

No suction on top of that fish's head

Remora's 'sucker' looks like this, also your fish has a much rounder head on top .

Well done again.

Edited October 23, 2006 by KingsRule

[Guest IFishSick.]

Definately a Cobia

[netic]

Well after seeing the 2nd pic i have no doubt its a cobia, but i think flattieman will have to verify as he is the raider fish fact library

[James]

junvenile cobia caught at the brooklyn road bridge.

at the bridges thats amazing

[Flattieman]

That's a juvenile cobia, zenman. Well done on the fantastic, rare catch in the Harbour!!!

Flattieman.

[namesay]

Could you tell all the cobia in sydney harbour to stay around for a few days as I am planning on going fishing on wednesday!

That is one good sign that the water is warming up. I caught a cobe last summer around Palmy. It was about 15kg! There certainly were a few cobes last summer around palmy so here's hoping.cheers Kelvin

[Jewhunter]

Yep Cobe for sure.

I caught a remora from the shore on Stradbroke Island & the colouration was very similar but it had the unmistakeable sucker pad on top of its head. Bloody good size to, around 1.5kgs.

No wonder the nearby beach was closed for a couple of days due to the large tiger sharks cruising around!

Makes me wonder if it peeled off one of them to snaffle the bait!

Cheers,

Grant.