A little fish is making big waves after appearing in Sussex waters for the first time in more than a decade.

The rare red and silver fish, measuring just 7.5cm, has caused excitement among experts after a fisherman hooked him.

The boarfish, nicknamed Mini-Mick after Rolling Stone Sir Mick Jagger, has bulging eyes, an elongated mouth and spiky fins.

The tiny creature normally lives in deep sea waters, at depths of 100m. Only one other has been recorded in county waters, 12 years ago.

Keen angler Peter Weight, from Lancing, caught the stripy specimen with a rod and line while fishing from Hove beach on Saturday.

Mr Weight, who has been angling for more than 25 years, said he had never seen anything like the creature which was flapping around when he reeled in his hook.

Mr Weight, who runs his own company, building and servicing computers, said: "I was amazed when I looked at the end of my line. I've caught a lot of fish in my time, and fish four to five times a week, but I usually find whiting, flounder or bass.

"I had whiting on my other two lines but when I looked at the third there was a fish I'd never seen before."

He popped Mick into water to keep him alive and rushed him to a friend's house to identify it.

The two men pored over reference books but failed to come up with an answer.

Finally they contacted local marine wildlife writer and photographer Andy Horton, of the Shoreham-based British Marine Life Study Society (BMLSS).

The marine expert was delighted to discover Mick was a boarfish.

Mr Weight said: "It's been a great experience to catch something that rare and to have kept it alive for others to see."

The fish is now recovering in the BMLSS private aquarium in Shoreham. Staff at the Sea Life Centre in Brighton have been contacted and are planning to take Mick into their collection.

Mr Horton said: "These pretty little fish usually live at great depths.

"The only other Sussex specimen recorded was caught by a trawlerman at a depth of 30m in 1990.

"Boarfish are abundant in deep waters on the edge of the continental shelf in the western approaches of the English Channel but are rarely caught by conventional fishing methods."

Records of boarfish are even rare off Cornwall where the 1,200m depth zone is nearer the shore.

The only public aquarium known to display this fish in the UK is Mevagissey in Cornwall, where there are two.

Peter Jones, curator at the Sea Life Centre, said: "We'd be very happy to take it in."