Malta Fishing Forum

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20081124/local/new-fish-species-found-in-maltese-waters

check it out

its quite a strange fish, but mand such strange fish are caught in our waters that are not indigenous.  a single fish caught does not mean that we'll start having such fish in our seas, it may have been just a mistake the fish did while migrating.  however if repeated catches persist it may be concluded that the fish is visitn#ing our seas on purpose, probably due to tropicalization.

the same has happened with puffer fish

I remember when I caught the 1st s cornet fish. I did nt knew what they were. Now a days in less then 3 years we keep seeing them around even tiny ones of 4 cm. Last one we saw where in the sout with a lenght of over 1.5mtr nt the one before was in sliema with a size of 10cm

Once I was talking with a guy and he told me that 2 years before I had caught my 1st one he had used to catch

The majority are due to global shippping movements. When ships offload containers they take on ballast (sea water) and this includes marine life that is sucked in by their pumps. When they reach a foreign port which could be thousands of miles away and take on containers or a load like oil etc, they pump out their water ballast along with the marine life!

I'm not worrying.....something new to catch!

Another new fish species spotted this week near Delimara Power Plant is the Atlantic Tripletail (Lobotes Surinamensis). The fish can be found floating like a tree leave with other floating objects when young.

This is the fish:


This is a pic found on the net. My friend is going to send me a pic of this fish. I will post it later.

My fish instinct, me being a spearo is

'Yahoo, more species of fish to shoot, so diferent techniques to adapt'.

But if I think twice I ask myself, 'Is this beneficial to our seas, or is disturbing the natural balance?'

Quote from: baghira on December 21, 2008, 21:42:57 CET
My fish instinct, me being a spearo is

'Yahoo, more species of fish to shoot, so diferent techniques to adapt'.

But if I think twice I ask myself, 'Is this beneficial to our seas, or is disturbing the natural balance?'

imho, the natural balance has long been disturbed....... and notby the fish hehe

if anyone catches them alive please call me on 99894006 of office 27001603 i have the facilities to keep and study them
as regards to the first fish the pompano i have been seing them for many years not lucky enough to catch one yet

Finally my friend sent me the pic of the Atlantic Tripletail.



It can grow up to 19Kg!!

19KG  :o ... that's a nice size.

It grows up to 19Kg. Not the one shown in the pic!
That's  small one.

Quote from: Arti2 on January 15, 2009, 14:44:35 CET
It grows up to 19Kg. Not the one shown in the pic!
That's  small one.

I didnt refer to the one on the pic  :) ...... but growing up to 19KG is a nice size. I've googled them and they seem to do a nice fish dish. Hope they invade us like the cudas did  ;D ............ (forsi imisna xi wahda gorg  :D)

Wow I'd like to see Buddhagrass coming out of the water with a few 19kg fish on his belt........he will be bent double, both with the weight of the fish as well as with joy.......
Atlantic triple tail WELCOME TO MALTA.

Quote from: shanook on January 15, 2009, 16:50:03 CET
Wow I'd like to see Buddhagrass coming out of the water with a few 19kg fish on his belt........he will be bent double, both with the weight of the fish as well as with joy.......
Atlantic triple tail WELCOME TO MALTA.

Oh yeah baby ... right on  ;)

Its look isnt that inviting huh!!

its better if we know what it tastes like. The_gaffer called the scabbard fish (ugly son of a bitch) but it tastes very good. So lets hope that its taste are better than its looks otherwise it will be thumbs down.

imma din s sena kull ma rajt xi tnejn trumpet fish u s sena l ohra dejjem kont nara xi tmienja kull meta ninzel. rajtuhom li naqsu din s sena?

Jien fix-xitwa ltajt ma' qtajja ta l-fuq minn 30, imma kienu zghar dejjem.

Today me and my firend caught an Atlantic Tripletail and took it alive to Torri ta' San Lucjan.I hope they can keep it alive.Very strange fish.

Have you shot a photo?

Jaqqqqqq
This year I meat a very big one and I caught it.
When I took it home and tried to clean it, it smelt like (maghtab)......
The day after I had to throw it away...... Jaqqqqqqqqqq

No charles but it's the same one in the first page of this topic.Atlantic Tripletail (Lobotes Surinamensis).

I saw a triple-tail today. It was about 2.5 inches long, and i was amazed watching it hunt the little fish close to the quay.

Quote from: SPITEC on September 10, 2009, 18:05:36 CET
Today me and my firend caught an Atlantic Tripletail and took it alive to Torri ta' San Lucjan.I hope they can keep it alive.Very strange fish.

Yes Spitec, it's still alive but not on display yet. Hope to put it in one of the display aquaria soon, when we open again in November.

Ray Caruana
Aquaculture Officer
MCFS Education

Hi Ray! This triple-tail discussion is interesting.  I have seen the fish on 3 occasions already, as I said on my previous post, it was barely 3 inches long.  Am quite positive that I I.D.'d the fish correctly,  I don't know of any other mediterranean fish that looks and swims like an african leaf fish.

Is the ballast water in ships to blame here?

Hi Ray,
         saw another 2 at the same place we caught that one last week and another one this week at Bugibba but it was a little bit bigger and more yellowish(maybe because the sea is much less poluted than that of Marsaxlokk).I am very happy that it is still alive.

When i checked the boat mooring at bugibba there was one as well about 4 inches long. Do San lucian need live ones spitec.

MCFS San Lucian when u need live fish let us know. If we can help we will be more than willing to oblige...........And I hope that I am speaking in the name of all forum members on this one!

I don't know shanook if they need live fish but when I catch a strange wish which I don't know what it is or never seen one like it I take it there.Even when we saw the triple tail,we caught it with the landing net and took it there.Once we took another strange fish which I don't remember what it was but it died.

It seems that this fish is getting more popular and is being caught more frequently, yesterday I saw 2 which were caught in Marsamxetto Harbour, in 2 different places

This is very interesting. The triple tail is a species that we are familiar with when marlin fishing on the coral sea here. We usually find schools of them taking shelter under floating logs or any thing for that matter. If you care to check it out l was able to film lots of activity under this one FAD (fish aggregation device) we came across last year. The first school of fish you see at 1.08 is what we call triple tale also.

http://www.youtube.com/user/twoutesmarlin#p/u/5/oqBt_ACHkUU

you may be aware of large container/ cargo ships dumping balest water all over the world, and in this water they carry many different introduced species to new waters...some times they are friend...but sometimes they are foe.

One case over here is the recent introduction of the 'crown of thorns' starfish which has overpopulated the native species and destroying the native fauna of our bay.

Quote from: shanook on October 16, 2009, 18:21:21 CET
MCFS San Lucian when u need live fish let us know. If we can help we will be more than willing to oblige...........And I hope that I am speaking in the name of all forum members on this one!

Sorry if sometimes I take too long to reply or participate in the forum, but I'm up to my neck in work, especially now that the scholastic year has started.

I really appreciate your offers and will certainly let you know when I need fish for the display aquaria. Unfortunately the place has a very limited space which does not allow me to increase the number of aquaria. I would have loved to set up one exclusively for tripletails as they are very interesting fish. I am still wondering about where to put the one which was donated by Spitec because it is a voracious predator and must be kept with fish of the same temperament.

Regarding their recent increase in sightings of tripletails, I am not aware of any ongoing studies about this but would be interesting to investigate. Maybe a university student will start doing some studies. MCFS would be glad to help.