Thank you. I kept asking myself why no one called the previous posted one a hogsucker. I did't realize they got that big. I have been snagging them by accident while jigging because they are so numerous.

Wow! That's pretty incredible! I've heard that they are in my area, but I can't seem to find one.

As for the Green Sunfish, mine is actually very timid and has a couple battle scars from my @$$ of a Bluegill!

Wow! That's pretty incredible! I've heard that they are in my area, but I can't seem to find one.

As for the Green Sunfish, mine is actually very timid and has a couple battle scars from my @$$ of a Bluegill!

My biggest bluegill didn't make it. After he was gone the pumpkinseed became very dominant and picked on the other 3 bluegill. I moved him too otber tank and the biggest of the 3 bluegill became abusive. Moved the 3 bluegill to other tank and the pumpkinseed back up. Then he started picking on the golden shiner nonstop. Now the tank holds golden shiner, 3 emerald shiners, longear, green sunfish, 2 black crappie and crawfish. It's overloaded but tests check out and I change water 3 or 4 times a week. It's more of an experiment to study temperments and feeding methods. Eventually I hope to find a good balance and don't plan on keeping it over crowded. Then add some driftwood and rocks to break up line of site and provided hiding places.

Yeah, eventually I'd say have one tank with the Shiners and Crappie, the other with sunfish.

I've kept crappie several times. I usually like to get them small, around 3 inches so they acclimate better.

Mine always moved to frozen food pretty quickly, but it has to sink very slowly. Mosquito larvae works well. They are great for a larger fish community tank with calmer fish like rock bass, perch and pickerel.

Some of the other fish that you will eventually come across in White River is Mooneye, Slenderhead Darter, Spotfin Shiner, and SilverJaw Shiners to name more of the common ones. I tend to do most of my fishing/collecting south of Indianapolis near Martinsville.


Bill F.

I have been netting minnows in front of the house at night. I am pretty sure they are spotfin shiners. The bigger ones have started to develope a spot. I put them in a 10g for feeding my crappie. Well, I am watching 2 of them hang near the top after they settle down. Wait, the tail is rounded! Blackfin topminnows. Bad pic...


Some other species to add to the list.
White bass

This snapper came right up to me with a dead carp while hunting morels.

Channel catfish

Some of the channels are sleek and golden colored. Others are splotchy with different coloration and have different shaped heads. I believe the golden ones are wild and the others are the stocked ones. I will get some better pics when they start moving in for prespawn. Sauger have eluded me this spring so far.

White sucker

Please id. I get a lot of these and just call them river minnows.

My first attempt sampling and this floats up to me dead. Turtle must have taken a swipe.
Highfin?


All of these fish were released. Sorry for the bad pics. It's tough with wader, pole and by yourself on the caught. I did have some help on the netted fish. Please feel free to comment or correct id.

Hello Jdan, welcome to the site.

I think many of us here got introduced to non-game fishes as a by-catch when angling. Then when we begin to learn that there is an incredible variety of fishes swimming among the game fishes, we spend time trying to get to know more about them.

To chime in on some of the comments about the identification of some of the fish you collected....

The fish on top is a golden redhorse (Moxostoma erythrurum). If you're concerned about water quality, the presence of golden redhorse is usually an indicator of quality fish habitat. These fish are typically absent when the substrate becomes silted, as they feed on macroinvertebrates (mostly insect larvae) that require clean substrate. Also, they are long-lived fishes. Therefore, they respond to pollutants over a longer period of time than other fish species. That particular specimen looks to be in good health. As mentioned in a previous post, the three redhorse species that look most similar in your watershed are the silver redhorse (Moxostoma anisurum), black redhorse (Moxostoma duquesnei), and golden redhorse (Moxostoma erythrurum). I feel that silver redhorse are easy to distinguish from the other two species for a few reasons.

• Adult silver redhorse typically are tallest (i.e., tallest point of the fish when looking at it laterally) right before the origin of the dorsal fin. I feel that this species almost has a triangular body shape. You'll have to use your imagination a bit on that one, admittedly. But here's a pic to illustrate:
  http://gallery.nanfa...-17-07.jpg.html
• Silver redhorse have a higher number of dorsal fin rays (typically 15-16) than either black or golden redhorse (typically 12-13). Here's a pic showing the dorsal fin of a silver redhorse (you should count 15 rays):
  http://gallery.nanfa...-17-07.jpg.html
• In addition to those two distinguishing features, the silver redhorse has a deeply clefted/slanted bottom lip (hence why another member suggested that when taking photos for ID'ing redhorse, make sure to get a pic of the lips). The lips of this species look like a deep V. Here's a picture of silver redhorse lips to better illustrate my point:
  http://gallery.nanfa...-17-07.jpg.html

The other two species (black redhorse and golden redhorse) can be a bit of a pain to tease apart. Here's some ID tips that may help you in the future with these two species.

• I've always felt that black redhorse have a more "streamlined" appearance than golden redhorse. By this I mean, black redhorse have a longer body shape than a golden redhorse. This would appear to be an adaptation to their preferred habitat, as black redhorse are typically associated with parts of streams with faster flow and cleaner substrates than what is preferred by the golden redhorse. Here's a picture of an adult black redhorse that show the typical streamlined body shape: http://gallery.nanfa...-28-07.JPG.html
  The golden redhorse does not appear as streamlined:
  http://gallery.nanfa...-09-07.jpg.html
  Now, of course, the line between "streamlined" and "not as streamlined" is blurred and only useful when you've seen a large number of both species. However, because the black redhorse has a longer body shape than the golden redhorse, the black redhorse has a higher number of scales along its lateral line. If you count the scales along the lateral line of a black redhorse, you'll arrive at a 44 scales or higher (usually 44-46). If you count the scales along the lateral line of a golden redhorse, you'll get a number between 40 and 42. The black redhorse has the longer body, therefore more scales. In fact, that's the characteristic that I used to ID your redhorse as a golden redhorse (it has ~41 lateral line scales).
• A look at the mouth/lips of these two species also helps in identification. When closed/relaxed, the bottom lip of a black redhorse forms a nearly straight line:
  http://gallery.nanfa...11_ NT.jpg.html
  Whereas the closed/relaxed mouth of a golden redhorse is slightly indented/curved:
  http://gallery.nanfa...11_ NT.jpg.html
  I was lucky enough to catch both species side by side in Big Rock Creek in northern Illinois to really get good comparisons of the lips. This is another example of why its necessary to take pics of both the mouth and the side of redhorse to obtain proper ID. (Please don't take that point as a lecture, I'm just trying to help )

I was supposed to leave for work 15 minutes ago, so I'll just mention that the second fish is a silver shiner (Notropis photogenis) and the third is a quillback (Capriodes cyprinus).

...the second fish is a silver shiner (Notropis photogenis)....

Although, without seeing the crescents between the notrils or the origin of the pelvic fins, I could be convinced that this fish is a carmine shiner (Notropis percobromus). But for now, it's a silver shiner.