How to Identify Yellowfish

Overview

Which one did you catch?

If you're like us you have at some point caught a yellowfish and wondered which of the 7 different species it is. Not to mention the 3 similar species that add to the confusion. Searching online helped a lot but the info can be overwhelming and confusing sometimes.

In this guide we've tried to simplify the identification of yellowfish in South Africa by aggregating all the info we could find into one easy reference.

Species guide

Yellowfish species that occur in South Africa

There are only 7 true yellowfish (Labeobarbus) that occur in South Africa. Here they are, sorted by most commonly fished:

Name	Other name	Location	Max size / length	SA record
Smallmouth Yellowfish Labeobarbus aeneus	—	Orange/Vaal River system (including Sterkfontein Dam), Gouritz (WC), Kei (EC), Great Fish (EC), Limpopo (LP), Pongola (MP) Rivers	7kg / 50cm	7.8kg
Largemouth Yellowfish Labeobarbus kimberleyensis	—	Orange/Vaal River system (including Sterkfontein Dam)	22kg / 100cm	9.5kg
Bushveld Smallscale Yellowfish Labeobarbus polylepis	—	Limpopo, Elands, Crocodile, Komati, Pongola Rivers — basically north and east of South Africa	6.8kg / 46cm	6.1kg
Lowveld Largescale Yellowfish Labeobarbus marequensis	—	Limpopo, Elands, Crocodile, Komati, Pongola Rivers — basically north and east of South Africa	6kg / 47cm	5.7kg
KwaZulu-Natal Yellowfish Labeobarbus natalensis	Scaly Yellowfish	Throughout KZN, from the Mkuze River in the north to the Mtamvuna River in the south	4kg / 70cm	4.6kg
Clanwilliam Yellowfish Labeobarbus capensis	—	Olifants/Doring River system (WC)	10.6kg / 98cm	5.6kg
Incomati Chiselmouth Labeobarbus nelspruitensis (since 2015)	Horingbek	Komati, Pongola, Sabie River systems (MP)	—	—

Another 3 species are related and similar to yellowfish but not classified as such:

Name	Other name	Location	Max size / length	SA record
Berg/Breede River Whitefish Barbus andrewi	Witvis	Berg/Breede River system (WC)	7kg / 80cm	3.4kg
Bushveld Papermouth Barbus rapax	—	Limpopo, Elands, Crocodile, Komati, Pongola Rivers — basically north and east of South Africa	1.3kg / 20cm	1.3kg
Clanwilliam Sawfin Barbus serra	—	Olifants/Doring River system (WC)	3kg / 60cm	3kg

We found this fantastic map on the Federation of South African Flyfishers site, and it clearly illustrates where all the different yellowfish can be found.

Distribution of yellowfish species across South Africa — Distribution of yellowfish in South Africa

Identification

So how do I identify my yellowfish?

Well, after spending some time trawling through forums etc., we found that by asking the following questions we can easily distinguish between the different types of yellowfish.

1. Where was it caught?

Just looking at the table and map above, it's clear that we can discard quite a few species by just determining where it was caught. So here goes:

Where was it caught?	Possible type of yellowfish
Vaal, Orange Rivers	can almost only be a Smallmouth or Largemouth
Limpopo, Pongola, Sabie, Komati etc. Rivers (northeast of SA)	almost certainly a Bushveld Smallscale or Lowveld Largescale, but can also be a Smallmouth, a Papermouth, or even an Incomati Chiselmouth
Smaller rivers in KZN flowing to the Indian Ocean	can only be a KwaZulu-Natal Yellowfish
Kei, Gouritz, Great Fish Rivers	can only be a Smallmouth
Berg, Breede Rivers in WC	definitely a Whitefish
Olifants, Doring Rivers in WC	either a Clanwilliam Yellowfish or a Sawfin

2. Smallmouth vs. largemouth

We've found there are two main ways of differentiating between these two common yellowfish, which occur in the same bodies of water.

a. Location of the eyes — turn your yellowfish on its back, and then try to see its eyes from the bottom. If you can see its eyes protruding on the sides of its head then it's a smallmouth. If you can't see the eyes it's probably a largemouth.

This is because the smallmouth yellowfish is predominantly a bottom feeder and needs to see food below it. Conversely, the largemouth is predominantly a hunter and generally looks upwards to spot prey.

b. Shape of mouth — gently press the bottom lip of the yellowfish down. If the mouth opens downwards it's a smallmouth. If its mouth opens mostly forwards it's a largemouth — for the same reasons as above.

c. Still can't tell? Have a look at the following graphic — we found it lying around in a forum and took the liberty of enhancing it to be more readable.

Largemouth vs smallmouth yellowfish comparison — Largemouth vs smallmouth yellowfish

3. Smallscale vs. largescale

This one's a bit easier, and it's all around counting the number of scales they have (obviously), plus some other characteristics.

a. Lateral line scale count — largescale yellowfish generally have around 27-33 scales in the lateral line, whereas smallscales have around 36-44 scales.

b. Uppermost scale count — count the number of scales from the head to the dorsal fin. The largescale has around 8-9 scales; the smallscale has more than 10.

c. Fin colour — the largescale normally has bright orange fins, whereas the smallscale has a blueish tinge to its fins.

d. Body shape — largescales are normally bulkier than smallscales, which have a more streamlined body.

Note: please try not to keep the fish too long out of water while counting scales — rather take a photo and do the counting later.

4. Other?

For other types of yellowfish that inhabit the same bodies of water, we couldn't find any resources — for example the difference between smallmouth yellowfish, papermouth, and smallscale, or the difference between the Clanwilliam yellowfish and a sawfin. We'll continue looking for any info regarding those questions, and add more photos over time to simplify identification.

References