Can anyone tell what kind of fish this is from?

Jerb322@lemmy.world to Ask Lemmy@lemmy.world – 56 points –

Northwest Wisconsin. Dropped from an ospray nest.

14

I don't think this is a scale, it looks an awful lot like an otolith, which is a calcium carbonate buildup from inside a fishes head. These are often used by biologists to age a fish similar to counting rings on a tree.

I still don't know what species would have one shaped like that but it may help you to look in better places to identify it.

It has a socket at the left side. Like a ball in socket joint.

The only one I can think of that is capable of that much inflation is a puffer fish.

Here are more bones. But I don't think that they are all from the same fish.

How far northwest? If close enough to lake Superior, maybe a lake whitefish. If not very close to lake Superior or other deep lakes, possibly a white sucker or quillback, which I grew up calling a sheepshead.

Scroll through this and you can check out the whiter fish with larger scales.

What should we call this one then?

I dunno, how Lake Whitefish?

Well, I guess that’s the name then

Don't know if it's enough to go on, but I figured I'd see...