I accidentally snagged this fish on a crappie jig in a canal. At first I thought it was a small common carp but now I think it might be a crucian. I’ve never heard of wild crucian carp in my state and wonder if this is yet another invasive species in my area.

 

 

The scales say carp, but that's not a carp mouth. I'm not sure what that is.

Buffalo?

https://www.takemefishing.org/fish-species/smallmouth-buffalo/

I think it was actually a plain goldfish. I see lots of colored ones swimming around.

Here's a website I found on crucian carp.

http://www.crucians.org/html/identification.php

 

 

I am not 100% sure, but it could be a Brown Goldfish Crucian Common Carp.

Based on the websites being provided, I would say it was a Crucian carp. 

Whatever it is, you have a very pretty picture of that fish's scales haha

It looks like a lure @Baitmaker created!

Only one way to find out , eat it!

Thanks for the input everyone. I contacted my local DNR and a fisheries biologist got back to me. The fish is apparently a goldfish several generations wild. Subsequent generations tend to lose their bright colors. I thought that was pretty neat.

3 hours ago, Fried Lemons said:

Thanks for the input everyone. I contacted my local DNR and a fisheries biologist got back to me. The fish is apparently a goldfish several generations wild. Subsequent generations tend to lose their bright colors. I thought that was pretty neat.

So there's a spawning population of goldfish in the body of water you were fishing? I wonder if they cross with common carp?

@Bluebasser86:  I have seen a couple of sources that state the goldfish and carp can be crossbred, but only with “human intervention”. As near as I can figger out, if someone were to release a few goldfish into a body of water, they could breed and establish themselves, but not by crossing with carp.

Carp and goldfish are in the same family (Cyprinidae), but only distantly related.  The belong to different genera, and likely cannot bear offspring from a cross.  Now comet goldfish (Carassius auratus) and Crucian carp (Carassius carassius, I think) could very well cross breed and produce viable offspring.  I think we're just looking at a Crucian carp, above.  Whatever it is, it sure is ugly!

I still think it's a Crucian Carp.  Simply put.  

We have crucian carp here in the UK and they're quite distinctive. The record is 5lb or so. In recent times fish have been submitted as new records, but been found to be crucian/brown goldfish hybrids and there are now only a very few lakes where potential record fish are considered for scrutiny as it is thought that pure crucian carp no longer exist in the other lakes and rivers. Your fish doesn't look like our crucian carp to me. It looks more like a carp goldfish hybrid.

 

On 11/29/2017 at 10:31 PM, Fried Lemons said:

Thanks for the input everyone. I contacted my local DNR and a fisheries biologist got back to me. The fish is apparently a goldfish several generations wild. Subsequent generations tend to lose their bright colors. I thought that was pretty neat.

I have seen what looked an awful lot like that fish of yours, but far far brighter orange, swimming around in a pool in Northwest Branch below Burnt Mills.  It is a super suburban area, so I can see how it's likely that idiots do dump fish there from time to time.  

 

On 11/30/2017 at 2:19 AM, Bluebasser86 said:

So there's a spawning population of goldfish in the body of water you were fishing? I wonder if they cross with common carp?

The Potomac and Upper Chesapeake are loaded with goldfish...I don't know about spawning, but assumed so since they are so common.  

 

I got a pic of one I caught and it does look a lot like OP's fish but brighter.  

Hah, that looks just like the one I saw, almost the exact same shade of orange.  

On 1/6/2018 at 10:28 AM, Logan S said:

The Potomac and Upper Chesapeake are loaded with goldfish...I don't know about spawning, but assumed so since they are so common.  

 

I got a pic of one I caught and it does look a lot like OP's fish but brighter.  

Holy cow that's pretty wild