Darter ID help

I was looking through my Ohio trip pics and cannot remember what kind of darter this is (I am leaning towards greenside or very faded bluebreast). can anyone help?

Bluebreast.

thank you, I have a few more convention ID's I need help with.

First this minnow





then this sunfish (the red on the tab makes me suspect northern longear, though the tabs are short, do o-spots have red tabs?)





and this juvenile sunny I netted after the con in a slow marshy brook near the park, i suspect bluegill but am not sure



sorry to add these to a darter thread, but as I upload more con pics I find more needing ID's

Chaos,

Your minnow is a Common or Striped Shiner (or hybrid of such). Your sunny appears to be a Pumpkinseed and your last fish is indeed a Bluegill.

Also, looking over your photo album I have a few plant, bug and herp IDs for you. I'll list them by what you labeled the picture as.

Sparrows – House (English) Sparrows a terribly invasive, non-native species.
Orange Butterfly Close – Pearl Crescent.
Gray Butterfly Close – Eastern Tailed Blue
Leopard Frog – Is actually a closely related species called a Pickerel Frog.
Blue Flower 2 – Chickory a non-native roadside plant.
White Flower Close – Rose-of-Sharon, a species of hibiscus.
White Flower 2 – A type of Morning Glory or Bindweed (both are in the same family).
Sunflower – Is a species of Woodland Sunflower.
Jewelweed 2 – Spotted Jewelweed (as are all bright orange jewelweeds).
Purple Flowers – Is Ironweed.

Andy

+1 for Andy's comments.

Also, your Bluebreast appears to be a female.

First sunfish looks to me to be northern longear. Ear tab already on long extreme for an adult pumpkinseed and individual is appears quite small. Reds on fish shown would also be more yellowish on pumpkinseed. Second sunfish could also be redear.

Centrarchid,

I beleive he was sampling in the Killbuck marsh areas (in northern Ohio) which should have no Northern Longears, they only occur in a few Lake Erie drainage rivers, but if not a Pumpkinseed my next guess would be Northern Longear (which would possibly be a range extension, by Brian Z would know better). As for Redear Sunfish, Ohio releases Redears in only a few ponds and lakes, as there are no native populations, so you can typically default to Bluegill.

Andy,

I have learned range maps are not a reliable character for distinguishing species, especially when they are moved around or are known to occur in a drainage nearby. Better photo of second fish needed to distinguish.

Centrarchid,

I beleive he was sampling in the Killbuck marsh areas (in northern Ohio) which should have no Northern Longears, they only occur in a few Lake Erie drainage rivers, but if not a Pumpkinseed my next guess would be Northern Longear (which would possibly be a range extension, by Brian Z would know better). As for Redear Sunfish, Ohio releases Redears in only a few ponds and lakes, as there are no native populations, so you can typically default to Bluegill.

not sure if this was from the first or second trip, if it was the second I was in the upper flushing escarpment.

Also are you sure it is a pickerel; frog? In my area they lines on a pickerel frogs back are yellower, the brown of the body is darker, and the spots are black.

The trip location still sounds like a goldfish burial to me, FLUSHING esCARPment.

Edited by FirstChAoS, 21 September 2012 - 06:52 AM.

thank you very much Andy, I fixed all the ID's except the sunfish which still seems uncertain. I still wonder how you got pickerel frog as it looks different from my local pickerel frogs though.

My main interest, and a good deal of the work I do, is with local Ohio herps. Pickerel (PF) and Northern Leopard Frog (NLF) (for all intents and purposes, the only two Ohio species we have) are readily told apart with practice. While only the NLF will have green on it, both species can be brown, like the one you pictured. Also, if you hold the frogs and look under the legs, only the PF will have yellow under its thighs and groin, the NLF will be uniform white. Habitat is also faily different, although I have found both in the same area. PF live along cool rocky streams, while NLF live in open meadows and fields with ponds or stream habitats in the vicinity. If you were in a forested, rocky stream valley you can call all spotted frogs PF with near confidence. On your field trip - Killbuck would have more NLF, but some PF and the Flushing Escarpment would pretty much default to PF.

But, how can I tell from your picture, as none of the things I mentioned are evident. One the dorsolateral folds (the light stripes on either side of the back) are flanked by large squarish spots. This is a characteristic of PF, where NLF will have smaller, randomly dispersed, blotchy-shaped spots. The PF spots are typically, at least in Ohio, that bronzy color, which is rarely diplayed on a NLF. Also, the nose on a PF is a little more blunt, while NLF have a longer, pointier snout.

Hope that helps.

Andy

Northern Longear Sunfish...not pumpkinseed.