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2012 - The Year Of The Fish

Started by Guest_Kanus_* , Jan 17 2013 02:15 PM

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#1 Guest_Kanus_*

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Posted 17 January 2013 - 02:15 PM

So for those of you who don't know me, my name is Derek Wheaton. I have always been obsessed with animals from the time I was a toddler, but in my early teens I got bit by the aquarium bug and then the angling bug. I experimented a little with keeping bluegill in captivity and had my first real sunfish community living in a 29 gallon when I was about 17. That was about when I discovered NANFA. Up until then, I knew I always wanted to pursue a career in biology, but figured I would go into the entomology field, as that was my original obsession as a child.

I met up with Andrew Gunthrope and Bernie Arnoldi to a collecting trip to one of the swamps near my home in Fredericksburg, Virginia, and it changed my whole perspective. After seeing a new assemblage of native fish, and beginning to get educated about the vast diversity, my attentions shifted.
Seven years later, I am proud to say that I have just taken a position as an Aquatic Resource Technician with the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. When the opportunity arises, I plan on getting a Master’s Degree in fisheries conservation. NANFA should be proud to take a large portion of the credit for inspiring me to learn and become passionate about fish and aquatic systems, and devote my career to native fish.

In the last two years, I have had many great experiences both on my own exploratory collecting trips, as well as having been a frequent volunteer for the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries (and if anyone reading this is struggling to get ahead and find a job, I encourage you to VOLUNTEER VOLUNTEER VOLUNTEER!).

Besides my crappy cell phone camera, I had no way of really recording my adventures until last Christmas when I bought myself a Pentax WG-1 waterproof camera.

In January 2012, I was in North Carolina visiting family and slipped away for a quick collecting trip. I drove NW of Charlotte to sample to Catawba Drainage. Due to the cold water, I struck out at one spot, except for netting a smallmouth bass from under a rock. I then went to Killian Creek where I was able to find a few species.

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Sandbar Shiner (Notropis scepticus)?

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Bluehead Chub (Nocomis leptocephalus)

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Rosyside Dace (Clinostomus funduloides)

And my target species...

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Greenhead Shiner (Notropis chlorocephalus)

At the beginning of February, I travelled to Blacksburg to attend the Virginia chapter of the American Fisheries Society annual conference. During these few days, I fell in love with the town, Virginia Tech, and met tons of great contacts. After much discussion, my girlfriend and I decided to move so she could transfer to Virginia Tech, and so I could move to an area ripe with fisheries opportunities.

#2 Guest_Kanus_*

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Posted 17 January 2013 - 02:39 PM

On February 27th, 2012, my research regarding the distribution of an introduced population of Banded Sunfish (Enneacanthus obesus) in the York River Drainage of Virginia had provided enough intel for me to try venturing out into the cold to search for them. I took a short trip to Caroline County and quickly found gorgeous habitat.

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I figured fish would be few and far between in the cold water, but I quickly found success.
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Beautiful Mud Sunfish (Acantharchus pomotis)

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I quickly found my target species to be relatively abundant in the shallow bladderwort beds...
Banded Sunfish (Enneacanthus obesus)

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I was surprised by how common Flier (Centrarchus macropterus) were, since I had only ever seen one or two at a given site.

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Eastern Mudminnow (Umbra pygmaea)

I drove a few minutes to a downstream segment of the same stream. When I arrived I saw a large wake from some fish frantically darting around in the shallows. I quickly found the answer...

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Chain Pickerel (Esox niger)

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I also found more banded sunfish, including this one, which was the biggest. Not the most colorful fish in February, but one you get them in an aquarium they are HANDSOME!

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And another first for me in Virginia, I had read with even less certainty of a disjunct population of these in the area, so this was a doubly successful day when I found this single specimen.
Swamp Darter (Etheostoma fusiforme).

There will be PLENTY more stories to share next time I get a chance to type them out...

#3 Guest_Skipjack_*

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Posted 17 January 2013 - 03:23 PM

Inspiring story Derek! I sometimes forget how long it has been, you were around back in the Aquatic Predators days.

#4 Guest_gerald_*

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Posted 17 January 2013 - 04:07 PM

Congrats on landing the VDGIF job! I was afraid they'd never hire you, since you were such an enthusiastic volunteer they knew you'd stick around and help whether paid or not. |:>)

What's the evidence for the York River obesus being introduced rather than native?

#5 Guest_Kanus_*

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Posted 17 January 2013 - 04:42 PM

Matt: It is amazing how long it has been. I never knew NANFA before the time of online forums, but it has been very cool to watch the presence of the group grow over the years. It has also been amazing that through Gerald, I once found out that I lived literally across the street from an old Native Fish Conservancy member, and got him back into natives a bit, as well and having NANFA come up in conversation with a customer at Petco, only to find out he was a long lost NANFA member from way back when.

Gerald: Thanks! I think it was around the time when I was carrying a backpack full of lead shot 2 miles up a mountain, in order to weigh down a camera so my soon-to-be supervisor could take some video of brook trout digging redds, that he decided that I was probably worth the money.

As for the obesus, it's not proven that they were introduced, but in the York system, they weren't found until 1934, directly below a millpond was/is a popular fishing destination, and that has a history of being stocked with Florida Largemouth Bass. They seem to only occur in the one tributary system to the Mattaponi river in the York drainage. They MAY have been there all along, especially since E. obesus and E. gloriosus have been known to be confused in collections, but it sounds an awful lot like they hitched a ride there, especially when one considers their range hiatus in the Chesapeake watershed. It would be interesting to do a little genetic work on them to see if they looked like mid-atlantic banded sunfish, or florida banded sunfish...

#6 Guest_Usil_*

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Posted 17 January 2013 - 05:56 PM

Great write up and pictures. Can't wait for more.

Usil

#7 Guest_IsaacSzabo_*

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Posted 17 January 2013 - 05:56 PM

Congratulations on the new job Derek, and thanks for sharing your story. NANFA was also influential in my decision to switch fields from engineering to biology. I didn't participate back then, but being able to read through the old email list and then the beginnings of the forum fueled my newfound fascination with native fishes.

Your second sampling site is very interesting to me. Those are all species that I'm interested in but have not yet had the chance to see in person (besides the swamp darter).

I'm looking forward to more when you get the chance!

#8 Guest_Dustin_*

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Posted 18 January 2013 - 09:19 AM

Congrats Derek. We are all currently very envious...

#9 mattknepley

NANFA Member

Smack-dab between the Savannah and the Saluda.

Posted 18 January 2013 - 07:30 PM

Congratulations, Derek! I'm glad the Old Dominion has someone as enthusiastic as you looking after its aqua-fauna!

Matt Knepley
"No thanks, a third of a gopher would merely arouse my appetite..."

#10 Guest_sschluet_*

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Posted 19 January 2013 - 03:49 PM

Congrats Derek! Great story and another feather in NANFAs cap. Mentoring is key, I force myself to take time to explain projects to young folks when our paths cross in the field and show them the fish. I also spend time in local schools for career day events. Native fish can always use more folks that have an appreciation/interest, even if they chose another career path the time is not wasted.

#11 Guest_Kanus_*

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Posted 07 February 2013 - 12:27 AM

On March 17th, 2012, I was lucky enough to join Bernie (arnoldi) and his friend Mike for a canoe fishing trip to Dragon Run/Dragon Swamp southeast of Fredericksburg. This is a minor drainage that has a single stream flowing into the Chesapeake bay, but is notable for a unique assemblage of fish species compared to surrounding drainages. Ironcolor shiners (Notropis chalybaeus) Banded Sunfish (Enneacanthus obesus) and Swamp darters (Etheostoma fusiforme) are a few (I believe there may be one or two more) species that are nearly restricted to this 20-30 mile stream in Virginia. I was excited not only for good chances to get a chain pickerel on a rod (a fish collected at small size many times, but not yet sampled by angling), but also for the chance to see these species.

Upon arrival, it was immediately clear that the place was special. A primitive canoe launch was convenient, but clearly not often used based on the lack of alcohol containers on the ground. The stream itself was a wide, shallow, pristine waterway, with water clear to at least 5 feet (which I have never seen on the coastal plain) with a fairly strong current, and incredibly abundant submerged vegetation, especially considering it was mid-march.

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After canoeing no more than 100m upstream, I looked into the clear water and noticed tight schools of 50-100 small fish dancing in the current beneath me. Armed with not only a fishing rod, but also a dipnet, I was easily able to scoop up a species I'd never seen in the flesh before, the Ironcolor Shiner (Notropis chalybaeus)

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While not colorful compared to other shiners, they have an undisputable attractiveness to them, and their small size meant that they would certainly be well-behaved tankmates for other fish I had at home. While not necessarily planning on keeping fish from the trip, I was wise enough to bring breather bags just in case, and quickly grabbed a nice group of them.

The rest of the day didn't yield much else in the way of small nongame fish, but we had plenty of sportfish to entertain ourselves with. Besides some truly impressive redbreast sunfish, we all caught good numbers of small bass and I was able to finally experience the fight of a few feisty chain pickerel as well.

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In time, the light started to fade and I was sad to be leaving as we packed up to drive back to northern Virginia traffic. I was not able to make a return trip before moving to Blacksburg, but I would really love to dive in and snorkel this very special stream.

#12 Guest_Kanus_*

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Posted 07 February 2013 - 01:12 AM

After an eagerly awaited warm snap in early April, it was finally warm enough on April 15th to attempt getting into the Rappahannock River (just upstream of Fredericksburg, Virginia) bare (since I've not yet broken down and bought a wetsuit). My objective was to finally field test my Christmas time toy: the Pentax WG-1 waterproof camera. Bear in mind that I have had almost a full year of practice (at using my camera, photography in general, and color correction/editing) since these first snorkel pictures were captured, but I was very happy with the results.

The water was still a little chilly, but comfortable enough to explore for an hour or so. I was shocked by the fact that besides a few fleeting glimpses of river chubs investigating the silt I stirred up, the water column was basically devoid of life. I figured by mid-April to see crowds of shiners fattening up and getting ready to spawn.

I had a hard time finding photography subjects until I started thinking benthic.

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I was very pleased to see a Shield Darter (Percina peltata) holding in steady current. I had previously thought these fish were few and far between, based on my difficulty collecting them by seine. I quickly discovered this was gear bias, as they were not hard to find this trip, and by the end up summer I was seeing crowds of them for every Tessellated darter (Etheostoma olmstedi) I found, which I had thought was the common species.

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I was happy to see both species of darter playing together, for this turned out to be a cool photo opportunity.

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The Tessellated darters were in breeding dress, though for darter connoisseurs that doesn't mean much. On the Atlantic slope, we have to take what we can get, so it was nice to see black outlines on the fins as they skittered along the sand.

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2-3 inch redbreast sunfish (Lepomis auritis) were common, but inconspicuous. I was able to catch one being shy, but curious enough about me to snap this shot.

At some point I must have reviewed my pictures and realized how yellow they all looked. I adjusted my white balance just in time to find a pretty male tessellated darter defending a nest. Testing the darter's patience, as well as my macro settings, I captured my favorite photo of the day.
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While trying to get more good shots of a nesting male, I accidentally scared him off the nest, so I decided to investigate the underside of his rock. Testing my macro settings much farther, I was able to get an image of the Class of 2012.

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At this point I was getting chilly and tired, and was too excited about going home to look at my pictures than taking any more, so I called it a day.

After seeing the results of this, I became even more hooked on snorkeling and many of my subsequent outings had me forgetting to grab the seine out of the car. Seeing the fish in a fish tank is very cool (and not a hobby I will be giving up anytime soon) but getting out into the wild and seeing animals do what they do in their natural habitat, and to be absolutely surrounded by life, is something very special indeed.

#13 Guest_IsaacSzabo_*

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Posted 07 February 2013 - 03:09 PM

Nice report and photos. I like the bold pattern of the shield darter and the photo of the tessellated guarding his nest.

I agree that there's something special about observing fish in their natural habitat. Watching them interact with other species and their environment cannot be replicated by looking at them in a net or watching them in an aquarium. My desire to keep fish in aquariums was greatly reduced once I started snorkeling regularly.

#14 Guest_blakemarkwell_*

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Posted 07 February 2013 - 06:32 PM

Cool stuff, Derek! Congrats on the job as well. Man, that is one nice looking stream and has one of my favorite cyprinids, N. chalybaeus.

Awesome to see people hook-n-line for the smaller Esox species. BTW, did you use a leader (metal or monofilament) while fishing for E. niger to prevent line snaps, or is it needed? I've been thinking about heading out shortly to see if I can catch some nice-sized spawning E. a. vermiculatus that I can never seem to get with a seine.

#15 mattknepley

NANFA Member

Smack-dab between the Savannah and the Saluda.

Posted 07 February 2013 - 08:09 PM

Looks like a great day, Derek! I enjoy those photos, it's always interesting to see them in their native habitats. And I am familiar with those pickerel teeth. Never actually been bit by one, but a couple almost got me while unhooking them. Best, ok-only, fish I ever got ice-fishing was an 18 chain pickerel. Such a wild combination of menacing and beautiful. Thanks for sharing the pictures!

Matt Knepley
"No thanks, a third of a gopher would merely arouse my appetite..."

#16 Guest_Kanus_*

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Posted 11 February 2013 - 10:34 PM

About a week later, I had a day off, and by this time I knew I was moving a few hours away in the fall, so I decided to take a trip to Winchester, VA (in the Potomac/Shenandoah drainage) to visit my best friend while I was relatively nearby. This was a weekday and she wasn't getting off work until mid-afternoon, so I decided I would try to make a quick collecting trip out of the morning. I tried to find something in the area that I had never seen, and after examining my trusty Fishes Of Virginia, I decided that I would seek to find pearl dace (Margariscus margarita) since I had never seen them in person, and since they apparently presented somewhat of a challenge in finding suitable habitat. After consulting the VCU Instar system, and much studying and planning via Google Maps, I had made myself a list of potentials sites and set out to spend the morning in the water.

It was a cool cloudy day and the water was running a little high, but was manageable. After spending a fair amount of time chasing after access points that either had no parking, or had no trespassing signs posted everywhere, I finally found a nice looking stream just outside of town. Things weren't what they seemed though. Once I got into the water, my boot sank into a 1-2 inch layer of sticky, grey clay. I don't know what happened upstream, but there was clearly great cobble and rock in this stream that has recently been smothered by this accumulation of clay. The banks were thick in spots with watercress, and this appeared to have been a healthy spring-fed stream before the sedimentation disaster. I netted one fish in this stream. Confusingly, that single fish was a rainbow trout in the 1.5-2 inch range. This was not indicated as a stocked stream, and was a fairly small stream where I was, which was close to its confluence with the Shenandoah River.

I proceeded to another spot nearby and had much better luck, though this stream was certainly not exceedingly full of fish either.

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Again, the first fish I collected at this site was a small rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss).

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Potomac Sculpin (Cottus girardi) were fairly common here, with a face only a mother (or Dave Neely) could love...

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The eastern blacknose dace here were among the most colorful I've seen (in my limited experience, obtusus seems to be more colorful on average)

I finally did find my target in small numbers in a deeper pool area, though they ended up being perhaps the most unattractive fish I'd ever put effort into finding.
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Pearl Dace (Margariscus margarita). These all looked the same, with a complete absence of color and pattern in both the males and the very gravid females. They looked nothing like what I'd seen pictures of, vaguely resembling a Chrosomus without the color. Regardless, it was still an exciting find since I had never seen them in the flesh.

#17 Guest_Kanus_*

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Posted 11 February 2013 - 11:00 PM

Since I was in the territory, had a little extra time, and could use a little more color in my tank, I decided to find a good candidate stream to try to collect some introduced rainbow darters and maybe some greensides as well. I located a likely looking tributary to Opequon Creek and started netting.

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I quickly netted my only cyprinid from this stream, a largish male Central Stoneroller (Campostoma anomalum). At this point I'd been living in one of the only Virginia drainages without this species, so it was a real treat to see one colored up. Now that I've lived in SW Virginia for a few months, I'm already tired of stonerollers, which dominate the biomass in this area.

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A VERY handsome fantail darter (Etheostoma flabellare) was a nice treat, as these are strangely enough, present but relatively rare in the Rappahannock drainage where I was living at the time. I think they may be a relatively recent introduction into the Rappahannock though, as I've only encountered a few, and I have not found any previous records of the species in the drainage.

And I definitely found an abundance of rainbow darters. I would say that 90% of the rainbows I captured that day were males, which was the opposite of what I usually seemed to encounter, so that was a welcome change.
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Rainbow Darter (Etheostoma caeruleum)

On my last seine haul (after I'd packed my camera up), I was able to manage a female greenside darter, who is still happily living in a tank with a few of those rainbows, and devours snails like she is sucking mollusk meat out of a crazy-straw. Very interesting to watch. I kept her in my 75 gallon native community, where she and a single small cutlips minnow decimated my entire, large population of Malaysian Trumpet Snails. I have since managed to repopulate my other systems with 3 tiny snails I found alive when I broke down the tank to move. Amazingly efficient snail predators, at least in an aquarium setting.

#18 Guest_IsaacSzabo_*

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Posted 12 February 2013 - 04:30 PM

That's a nice looking fantail.

#19 Guest_Kanus_*

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Posted 12 February 2013 - 05:47 PM

I agree! That is probably the nicest one I have ever seen, though for some reason the Potomac drainage fantails always seem to be impressive compared to what I have seen in Virginia and the Carolina fantails I have seen. I would need to check the literature but I believe they may be a different subspecies than those occurring in the rest of Virginia. They often seem to be XL, with bold markings. This guy being caught in April helped too I'm sure.

#20 Guest_gerald_*

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Posted 12 February 2013 - 06:09 PM

Here's the fantail complex notes I have scribbled into my copy of Menhinick (info from Fritz and/or Wayne Starnes):

1. Chesapeake fantail (E. flab. humerale): Atlantic slope from Susequehana to Cape Fear, and lower PeeDee (below High Rock Lake).

2. Carolina fantail (E. flab. brevispinum): Upper PeeDee/Yadkin, Catawba-Broad-Saluda (=Santee), and Savannah

3. True Fantail (E. flab flabellare): Tennessee and Ohio basins

Not sure whether the latest DNA info backs this up, and dunno about the fantails farther north or west; I've never had reason to ask about those pops. Maybe Chris Scharpf can illuminate for us.