Rockling?

Caught 2 rockling in rockpools last night, the smaller one has 5 beards, sorted, the bigger one had 3 beards, but I'm not sure if it is the 3 beard or if its a shore rockling?

3 pics of the bigger one below, the last pic is the 5 beard.

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Its a shore rockling, 3brds are creamy in colour with darker spots.

Thanks for that, I kinda thought the mottled markings on its flank were like pics of shore rockling I'd seen before but then the 3 beards made me wonder. It was only about 17 cm long, very young one. The 5 beard was half the length.

Thanks again.

hi cathal. i did a wee bit of research on them a while back. have a read man
http://www.sea-angling-ireland.org/bulletin%20board/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=20077&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&hilit=id+rockling
hope this helps.

Al thanks for that, good work, just 2 things.... the last 4 photos in your very good post, their titles dont indicate if they are 3B or shore? I'm sure its explained in the text, I'll have to look again.

Do you think my one above is a wee shore rockling, ie the one with the 3 beards. It more than likely is, but if you think its a shore rockling and not 3b, can you tell me what makes it so. I want to get the hang of this, sorry to ask for more feedback.

They are amazin lookin fish when they get bigger. I got a lovely 5 beard last night (about 17cm long), just hokin in pools, also blenny and scorpion (all long spined, T.bubalis,--- Short spine, M.scorpius eludes me so far).

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no problem at all man. your pics above are a shore rockling and a 5 beardy. from my own experience a true 3 bearded rockling is that orange colour with chocolate markings. but like i said in the post even the bloody scientists can't seem to agree . i would have said the pics in my post were shore rockling (a,b,c,d) but i sourced the pics 3 + 4 from marine sites and they were varified by marine biologists as 3 bearded rockling and they are all the same fish in pics a,b,c,d and 3 + 4. to be honest there is'nt a lot known about those wee fish and furthur study over a longer period would need to be done. i think the mistakes made when identifying them stems from the fact that the 3 beardy and shorey all have 3 barbules, so it's a common enough error. but an easy rule of thumb is to keep in mind that the shore rockling are a lot smaller than the 3 beardys . shore rockling rarely grow over 30cms where as the 3 beardys grow up to around 3lb. below are some pics of the 3 beardy's we got at the start of 2010. hope this helps

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Thanks again Al, those are great 3 beards, lovely fish. I'm seeing alot of small rockling in rockpools but they are very hard to catch with net, very elusive and wont sit still til they are concealed by rocks, dont like the headlight. So far I think Ive caught shore and 5 b only, but a young 3 beard will come in time, hopefully they have those distinguishing colours and markings when juvenile, or it will be easy to mistake them for shore rockling.

Thanks again, you have some portfolio of fish pics!

no probs man. the juveniles are just a smaller version of the adults but can sometimes be a darker shade of orange to an almost red, but they are easily identified as when they are small they have a large head compared to thier bodys. where as a juvenile shore rockling of the same size would have a head that seems to be proportionate to it's length if you get what i mean

hello lads, i found something that you might be interested in.......

i dont like to think that i am opening a can of worms.... again,... but i found an interesting 'fact' in a book called British Sea Fishes 2001 by Dr Frances Dipper.
The book describes:
Shore Rockling: "mouth is small and the corners of the jaw hardly extend past the eyes"
3 Bearded Rockling: "the mouth is large and reaches well behind the eyes"

EUREKAAAA

the book also describes that the shore rockling is generally smaller in size - this compares well to the statement made by Al above: shore rockling rarely grow over 30cms where as the 3 beardys grow up to around 3lb - but there is still ambiguity on the colouration and patterns on the skin of the fish. I have found that it might be safe to say that the 3b rockling has large dark blotches whereas the shore rockling has a mottled back... I THINK! (bold statement) but then again, some have neither obvious blothes OR obvious mottling!

some fish will be immediately obvious as to what species it is e.g. a 45cm, 3lb, rockling with large spots is definately a 3bearded rockling!! but sometimes where it really is hard to tell which species it is then an experienced good guess will have to be forwarded by using combinations of all those characteristics as listed above.

if you are still not sure then leave it to the true taxonimists

in the meantime just eat them! - they are part of the cod family and in my opinion taste nicer than cod!!!!

hope this helps

welcome to the debate . like i said even the bloody scientists can't seem to agree
thow good info from that book, "British Sea Fishes 2001 by Dr Frances Dipper."
i'll have to have a look for that one, always like to expand my refrence books collection
i did hear the 3 beardys were a good eat, but i would'nt have the heart to bump one on the head for the pot thow as we only have 3 marks where we regularly catch them of specimen size. it would be kinda like shooting yourself in the foot for the future as these wee guys are ferociously territorial and can usually be found in the same spot every year . we've been catching the same fish from from the same spots for 2 years now and it's interesting to see how much weight the same fish have put on 12 months later. 2 in particular have put on almost 9ozs from last year. and before some smarta*se jumps in asking how could we possibly know they are the same fish, the 2 in particular i'm talking about were deformed as one had a split beard that forked and the other was disfigured with a hump on his back and when we matched the photos all the markings were in the same places

thats brilliant Al. very interesting
yip, will definitely have to rethink about knocking the next one on the head!

[quote="Al and Jordan and before some smarta*se jumps in asking how could we possibly know they are the same fish, the 2 in particular i'm talking about were deformed as one had a split beard that forked and the other was disfigured with a hump on his back and when we matched the photos all the markings were in the same places [/quote]

any chance of a pic of the split beard lad, he might have been a forkbeard you got

very good john almost had me reaching for the refrence books there

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there is a greater forkbeard or the tadpole fish also called the lesser forkbeard
i like the split beard lad if i got the one with the hump i would have dispatched him straight away i thing this was mentioned before if my mind serves me right

yeah john , i was looking at the greater forkbeard in our refrence books, would love to get one of those. and we fish a spot where ronald from the site has had the tadpole fish from in the past. but the wee buggers still seem to evade us there . but sure there's always this summer to look forward to i suppose
and as for oul humpty dumpty, i remember the post last year about dispatching him due to his deformity, but that wee guy is still going strong in 2011 so mr darwin can stick that one in his pipe and smoke it