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Minnow ID - Upper Ocmulgee, Georgia

Started by Guest_UncleWillie_* , Sep 15 2014 02:08 PM

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6 replies to this topic

#1 Guest_UncleWillie_*

Guests

Posted 15 September 2014 - 02:08 PM

Hi yall. Long time, no post. I have been quite busy (luckily doing many fishy things), and have come across a few minnows that are giving me fits. I've been doing lots of work in the Upper Ocmulgee River drainages in Henry County, GA lately. In the last few weeks of sampling Henry County, we captured 3900+ fish representing 39 confirmed species. Most IDs have not been terribly difficult and the minnows we've encountered thus far include:
bluefin stoneroller
Ocmulgee shiner
Altamaha shiner
rosyface chub
bluehead chub
spottail shiner
longjaw minnow
longnose minnow
yellowfin shiner
creek chub
I also think we hay have captured a few coastal shiners (N. petersoni) here and there, but they were not photographed. Apologies for the photo quality in advance. Please note that all fish were captured legally as outlined in our GA collecting permit.

Fish 1: Photos 1-3. This fish was captured in a beaver impounded tributary with lots of silt. We caught mostly sunfish and bullheads here. This was the only minnow. I originally thought coastal shiner a bit far north, then someone else mentioned that weed shiner (normally in the ACF basin) can be found in some select locations within the Ocmulgee drainages. the fish just seemed too plump.

Fish 2: Photo 4. At this very large tributary to South River, we found 61 Altamaha shiners, 23 Ocmulgee shiners, 83 spottail shiners, and 12 rosyface chubs. My eyes were crossing at this point, and I couldn't make sense of these three fish. These fish were decreased, and pretty roughed up. The nose of an Ocmulgee shiner, the tail spot of an Altamaha shiner, and weary eyes made me snap a photo and leave them for the crayfish.

Any and all help is much appreciated!

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Edited by UncleWillie, 15 September 2014 - 02:12 PM.

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#2 Guest_UncleWillie_*

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Posted 15 September 2014 - 02:09 PM

Photo 4:

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#3 Michael Wolfe

Board of Directors

North Georgia, Oconee River Drainage

Posted 15 September 2014 - 11:14 PM

Hey Uncle, I have been trying to learn about weed shiners form Camm Swift and he seems to use the anal fin coloration as one of the things that I can easily identify. See in the picture below how the front of the anal fin is clear and the coloration is only on the back portion. But also see how it looks a lot like the dorsal fin on your picture number 3. That along with some of the look around the cheek, the shape of the dorsal fin it seems to line up pretty well.
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Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. - Benjamin Franklin

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#4 Guest_UncleWillie_*

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Posted 16 September 2014 - 11:43 AM

Thanks, Michael. I actually went back and looked at your past posts to see if you've come across any similar fish. I suspect weed shiner may be some of the "odd balls" when we catch lots of minnows. In your photo, that pointed snout and fin pigmentation looks pretty distinct. I'm sure not all of them looks as nice as your specimen. Sadly, I think many minnow species have been overlooked in past fish surveys by folks without a trained eye (many minnows - no matter what they really are get called spottail shiners and are thrown back without careful examination). Luckily this has now stopped. I appreciate the help!

Here's another batch of fish. These fish recovered and are not dead

Photo 3 (Tussahaw Creek upstream): fish has a pretty blunt snout (not as blunt as a spottail shiner), but has lateral stripe pigmentation extending onto the snout on lower lip.
Photo 4 (Indian Creek): Hodgepodge of fish, but some showing same characteristics mentioned above. Upside-down fish in front left shows some coloration in rear portion of the anal fin (maybe). At first, I was thinking fish in Photo 3 and 4 could be plump coastal shiners (N. petersoni), but I've been second-guessing.
Photo 5 (Tussahaw Creek downstream): Here are fish that show more characteristics you'd see in a typical smaller spottail shiner (bulbous nose, no stripe pigmentation extending onto the lower lips etc).

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#5 Guest_gerald_*

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Posted 16 September 2014 - 05:35 PM

photos 1-3 beaverpond fish - could be spottail or coastal ... cant see if there's any black on lower lip.
photo 4 Cyprinella - i dont know the Ocmulgee basin species. It looks basically like our whitefin (nivea) in NC/SC
photo 3 Tussahaw Cr with pigment on lower lip: is dusky a possibility? (or a spottail who just ate an oreo cookie).

Edit: I retract my dusky shiner suggestion. It ain't that. Back to oreo-eating-spottail, or coastal shiner.

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#6 Michael Wolfe

Board of Directors

North Georgia, Oconee River Drainage

Posted 16 September 2014 - 05:58 PM

If Gerald says it looks like a nivea then might be an Ocmulgee Shiner. They are the most similar in my experience.

And yes, Uncle, that photo I posted is the nicest individual weed shiner I have ever seen. They were easy to identify that day. Some days they look like washed out yellowfins but I am trying to learn the different scale pattern, the more washed out lateral stripe and of course that Amal fin coloration.

Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. - Benjamin Franklin

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#7 Guest_UncleWillie_*

Guests

Posted 17 September 2014 - 01:49 PM

I messed up my photo numbers - apologies! Thanks for all the help yall! It drives me nuts not knowing what the fish are in the field, but in the big scheme of things, having a few unidentifiable fish doesn't blow anything of proportion regarding this study. I ended up calling the fish seen in the first three photos a coastal shiner, and the 3 deceased amigos Ocmulgee shiners in while I was in the field.

Michael, I am with you regarding the weed shiner looking more similar to a yellowfin than anything else in the stream. That very pointy snout is pretty prominent in both. Thanks again, fellers! Maybe I'll post some of the more interesting catches one day.