ID's needed

I have been trying the connecticut river and tributaries close too it in hopes to get either a silvery minnow or a spottail shiner. I just found a couple unusual fish.

This fat bodied spotted guy was in the lower ashuelot.



And these very shiny and almost transparent in spots shiners were from the connecticut river. Are these the elusive silvery minnow? Knowing my luck they are likely just fallfish or common shiners.

The first fish looks like some kind of juvenile sunfish.

The first fish looks like some kind of juvenile sunfish.

I agree. When I glanced at that I immediately thought pygmy sunfish, and then I saw you were in New Hampshire, so it's got to be some kind of juvenile sunfish.

Get a photo tank so we can see fins. Even a plastic fish-bagging box that pet stores use will work.
Photo #3 looks like a sucker, most likely a white sucker.

First one may be a baby bass. I agree with Gerald on the 3rd one, common or white sucker.

Any ideas on the last ones? Those are the ones I have the most confusion on and hope for.

As for the sucker, I should have looked closely to see one of my silvery minnow pics I was posting was different.

I wouldn't be suprised if the first is a baby bass as in May I had fun taking advantage of the smallmouth spawn by fishing in that area.

Sorry to repost but any ideas on the silvery minnows in the last pic, they are the main ones I am unsure of and wonder if they are indeed silvery minnows.

First one may be a baby bass.

Yeah, you can almost see the beginnings of a lateral line.

Those minnow pictures are not clear enough. Need a good close-up of head/mouth to distinguish Hybognathus from Notropis and other minnows.

Sorry to repost but any ideas on the silvery minnows in the last pic, they are the main ones I am unsure of and wonder if they are indeed silvery minnows.

Those minnow pictures are not clear enough. Need a good close-up of head/mouth to distinguish Hybognathus from Notropis and other minnows.

Copied and resized the heads for you.

sorry to bump this post but I want to know if the head pics helped anyone ID the fish?

Fish heads, fish heads. rolly polly fish heads. Fish heads, fish heads, eat them up, yum.

With no responses I have to do this the hard way. Silvery minnow with a white stripe on his side, a rounded, blunt, bullet shaped head, and a high forehead. Eye located mid. Low, small, slightly upturned mouth.

First list all the possible suspects in my state. (species list obtained from here http://www.wildlife....pecies_list.htm )

creek chub
lake chub
creek chubsucker
blacknose dace
finescale dace
longnose dace
northern redbelly dace
fallfish
blacknose shiner
bridle shiner
common shiner
golder shiner
spottail shiner
white sucker
longnose sucker

I'll also add the recent invader rosyside dace to the list as well as eastern silvery minnow which is in freshwater fishes of new hampshire.

I can rule out the obviously striped species and species not found in the drainage. Sadly this alone could not rule out creek chub and lake chub as I have seen pictures of some individuals without a lateral stripe. The mouth position also rules out the suckers. that reduces the list to this.


creek chub
lake chub
fallfish
common shiner
golden shiner
spottail shiner
eastern silvery minnow

Now to search online pics to compare.

creek chub, hmmm. eye located high and large mouth. Not a fit.
lake chub and fallfish have similar issues.
common shiners head is not blunt enough and the mouth seems too big. Head shape is close though.
golden shiners head is too pointy and body is too wide
spottail shiner eye too high
eastern silvery minnow eye too high and head too pointy

The common shiner seems closest but its scales are too prominant and lacks the white stripe, nothing really fits nicely. Especially with the blunted rounded bullet head and mid eye. Do minnows have their head shape change as they grow?

My hunch is fallfish, but its not much more than a hunch.
They don't look like eastern silverys.

My hunch is fallfish, but its not much more than a hunch.
They don't look like eastern silverys.

I sampled that spot later and used a phototank and found only obvious fallfish their which makes me wonder if smaller ones have oddly blunted heads that they outgrow, of if the pic out of water distorts it. Plus they have white eyes like fallfish but I never paid attention to see if any other minnows have white eyes.

Edited by FirstChAoS, 22 July 2011 - 08:43 PM.