mystery fish!!

I have a barrel in the garden that use to have 2 goldfish in it, we lost them in the really bad first winter 2 years ago.. anyway, I had planned to clean it out and start again, it was pretty clogged up with weed etc.
My daughter suddenly annouced that there was a little fish in it! I didnt believe her at first but here it is!!?
It is so odd because the orginal fish died the winter before last and I had taken out the water at the time, it has gradually filled again with rain. It was such a surprise, has anyone had this? anyone know how old it might be? the photos are of the barrel cleaned out and the fish in a container!

 

Looks like it could be a stickleback to me. Does it have small dorsal spines? (you have to look very carefully as they can be laying flat along it's back). If could have been introduced with some aquatic plants and been there all along.

 

not the best picture to go on but i would say it is a young goldfish from the original ones and it was missed when it was previously cleaned very easy to do with very young small fish, dont forget that they will change colour as they mature too

 

I Agree with sgrungee , It`s actually a female stickleback , even if it`s a foreigner type of stickleback introduced with some egg on plants they are really tough fish surving with moschito larve , that way is very often used in plants cultivation.

 

Sorry Sal its not a stickleback , I cropped the photo and zoomed in a little and it has a full dorsal fin with no spines, definitely looks like a juvenile goldfish to me. As Kaz says they don't colour up until they're between 1 & 3 years old and even then some remain brown/silver in colour...

 

bilbo , if i look at it better i think you are right.....it does look like a gold fish after all. Sorry for the bad id , it`s really common to see stickleback in acquatic garden center.

 

Sal, you're right, a few years ago I made a small wildlife pond and after a couple of years I found half a dozen sticklebacks in it that must of transferred via the plants/weed that I put in it

 

Ok we do need a better pictures.....in case In Italy we got this little fish called gambusia , really don`t know if they are in England as well , but they are used in Italy and Spain in the rice/plant cultivation to eat the moschito larvas.

my bet was on stickleback because gold fish have the top fin forward