Minnow ID

Is it possible to ID these shiners I photographed in the Connecticut River in Vernon Vermont? Most of the pics are blurry due to stirred up sediment reflicting the flash hindering ID's. I tried to zoom in on the pics to get more detail (though in a few I feel it gets less as enlarged pics look blurrier).

some looked shiny green in the flash, i almost suspect a golden or common due to its wider shape



others look longer, thinner, and shinier i suspect fallfish





My only clear shiner image has a definate bullet head of a semotilus. The color says creek chub but I see no spot on the dorsal. I know from the time keeping them in my tank sometimes small fallfish darken on the sides when in the water. (outside they go all silver). So I am unsure if I should go color and say creek chub or go lack of spot and say unusually brown fallfish.

no
and never take a cell phone under water for pictures.
pm T Crail for some advice.
Or casper.

Edited by CATfishTONY, 03 September 2012 - 08:35 PM.

Hey, I got the last one ID'd down to Genus. I am so tempted to say creek chub due to the color and dark eye, but cannot see the dorsal spot and usually only see creek chubs in the tiniest streams (in larger rivers their big cousin takes over) so seeing a fish with that look in a major river seems odd to me.

With hard work I could likely ID some of the others due to limited species availability in my state, but with grainy images it'd be a major pain to try it.

I threw them into an image viewer and messed with color and contrast out of curiousity, The first one has a light stripe over a dark one and may be the same species as the clearest image at the bottom. The second one is bizarre, at first the silvery body and white eye made me think fallfish, but it has a bizarrely rounded back that seems odd. (may be a golden with the poor image quality making the diamond shape look rounded, not sure).

Edited by FirstChAoS, 06 September 2012 - 02:51 AM.

How 'bout writing an article for us on "How To Identify Fish From Bad Photos" |;>)

Ditto. Really Gerald is right, you have been at this long enough to know what an ID quality photo is, and what is not. A small tank is not too tough to make or buy. It seems that you are in the water a lot, take the time, and set yourself up for a decent photo. Not trying to be harsh, just throwing some constructive criticism in your direction.

Ditto. Really Gerald is right, you have been at this long enough to know what an ID quality photo is, and what is not. A small tank is not too tough to make or buy. It seems that you are in the water a lot, take the time, and set yourself up for a decent photo. Not trying to be harsh, just throwing some constructive criticism in your direction.

I understand, but couldn't have done a photo tank as these fishw ere wild not captured. (At one time I had a very cheap beta tank for a photo tank, but it broke)

The first and fourth are definitely a fish.