# One Ugly Fish ID help required



## Buff (Dec 31, 2005)

Well this one has me stumped, have got a few weird and wonderful over the years but this has me be-jiggered







.

Was flicking a SP on a heavy head on the bottom around the Port River Brighton Cement terminal in 7m of water here in SA and got a good hit but soon was dragged into a snag, gave some slack line and out from the snag it came.
It had a lot of weight and gave a few shakes but was soon on the deck and was it UGLY (no its not the Mother Inlaw)










A Face only a Mother could love (No not mine







)









Some nasty Gill Raker's on the bugger

















The closest thing I can find on the Australian Museum Fish web site is the Family _Scorpaenidae_









With a _Notesthes robusta_ Common name: Bullrout, the closest match
http://www.amonline.net.au/fishes/fishf ... obusta.htm










Glad I had Lip Grippers for this bugger as the Bullrout is in the same family are the Scorpion fish

Quote regarding the Bullrout


> This fish should only be handled with extreme care. The dorsal, anal and pelvic spines all have venom glands. A puncture wound from one of these spines can be excruciatingly painful.


Whether it is or not I dont know ???
Any Ideas :?:


----------



## pescado (May 17, 2007)

Seems you got everyone stumped with that one Buff, including me!

If its a bullrout its a bloody big one, ill have a look at Grants over the weekend and get back to ya ;-)


----------



## HiRAEdd (Nov 12, 2005)

It looks an awful lot like what I call a "Wirra". I've only ever caught them around the 10 - 15cm mark and they're basically a pest/bait stealer but that's a monster in comparison.


----------



## PenrithFisho (Jun 9, 2008)

It's what we call a red rock lobster. I shoot plenty of them in spearfishing comps and they are actually on the scoring sheets. I'm not sure what they are are actually called. We just call them red rockies. It's deffinately not a wirrah cod if thats what you were implying


----------



## bazzoo (Oct 17, 2006)

its a bullrout , and there not very nice fish to sting you , those spikes on the head really give you some larry dooley if you get stung


----------



## chris58 (Nov 25, 2007)

there a great fish to eat i cant recomend the fish highly enough!! your mother inlaw will love you for presenting her with a tasty seafood dinner just for her. ;-) 
if not you may like to mail the fish to me i KNOW my X-missus would love to have some seafood shoved down her throught.. :lol:


----------



## Davey G (Jan 15, 2006)

whatever it is its got zacahrys disease.....

its head looks 'zachary' like its butt....

:shock:


----------



## MrFaulty (May 15, 2008)

Penrithfisho, you are on some serious pills if you reckon that is a red rocky. I'm inclined to agree that it is a bullrout on steroids! lucky you didn't drop him in your lap.


----------



## worleybird (Aug 31, 2008)

Buff,
I'm not sure about that. Definitely not a red rock cod. (maybe a mottled white and brown cod ;-) ). It also seems massive for a bullrout. They shouldn't grow that big. It does look like a member of the 'Scorpaeniformes' order. Which are the scorpion fish and flatheads. If I were to guess I would say he was a member of the Sebastidae faimily which are the sea perches, rockcods and rockfishes. 
http://fishbase.org/identification/specieslist.cfm?famcode=573&areacode=&spines=&fins=&c_code=

The above link is a fish id database but i couldn't find the individual fish. 
Buff- if you can remember a bit more about it you might be able to work through the ID stuff on the above site to get a species name but it's quite possible that the site doesn't have a pic of the individual species you caught.


----------



## joey (Jul 5, 2008)

have you got that thing sitting on your lap???


----------



## mangrovejackhunter (Jan 12, 2009)

I am not sure what type of fish it is, but if i bought it in I would instanly think a cod, a bullrout or stonefish have many more danger spears on them, it looks very similar to a cod, I would have eaten it, but I live a little dangerously, did you eat him???


----------



## LatelyLux (May 6, 2008)

Based on the shape of the body and mouth I would say a cod of some sort. I don't think it is a red rock cod as I have caught heaps of smaller ones of those, but it definately looks related to them with those spines. I have never heard of a bullrout getting any where near that big.

Brett


----------



## Buff (Dec 31, 2005)

Thanks guys for bringing this post back up  
I had completely forgotten about it and as yet haven't gotten around to getting the the Adelaide Museum (have been there several time since but after hours doing work on there AV equipment) got to pull finger out and get a ID on the ugly bugger (the fish not me :lol: :lol: ;-) )

@ mangrovejackhunter
Didn't eat or keep him, just too ugly for either :twisted: :lol: ;-)


----------



## bilby (Sep 2, 2008)

Yeah i'm with Hiraedd i reckon its a "wirra" i caught one years ago at Lakes Entrance in about 4mtrs near a rock wall. It had me beat when i got it, so i went up to the local fisheries guy there and he identified it for me, from memory i think the thing i got had more vertical markings, but it looks very similar.
Cheers Bill.


----------



## Clawhammer (Jan 17, 2008)

What did Grants Guide to Fishes have to say?


----------



## storm74 (May 8, 2009)

What about a cowcod!


----------

