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Something a little different, I suppose!


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#1 Guest_Jsigmo_*

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Posted 20 September 2014 - 09:12 PM

Howdy.

I'm a brand new forum member from central Wyoming.

I was told about this site and organization by someone in an aquarium fish forum where I'd posted some images, asking for help identifying some minnows.

These are fish we've rescued from the first sections of our water treatment plant's filters.

Water is pumped from a nearby river, through a pipeline, and into a concrete "intake structure" and from there, flows into a presedimentation basin (effectively, a 3.5 million gallon lined pond). From there, water flows down into the wetwell of a pump house and is pumped up through another pipe into the water plant and to our filters.

At certain times of the year, we get a number of fish (and the occastional crayfish) pumped into the plant's filters. Presumably, this is when large numbers of the fish happen to be hanging around near the pipe that conveys water from the bottom of the pond into the wetwell of the settled water pumphouse.

As one might expect, most of the fish are killed or seriously injured by the pumps bringing the water in from the pond. But some of them do make it through relatively unscathed, and we've rescued a number of them and put some into an aquarium at the plant.

I should probably just buy a field guide and see if I can figure this out myself, but since I was already participating in that forum, I thought it would be interesting to see if anyone could help identify them there, and that lead to the suggestion that I check here.

Here's an example of the result of one session of scooping them out of the first sections in our filters. I hope it's OK to post this photo because this is where we find them. It's not really their native habitat, of course, but we have never gone out of our way to catch any of them out of the river, intake structure, or pond. Although we do see fish and crayfish in the intake structure and the pond.

I presume that there may be multiple species of fish in the pond, but those we've managed to rescue from the filters all look similar to each other.

Posted Image

I have far better images of the ones that are in our aquarium, but I don't want to break the rules on my second post to this forum.

These are likely to be species native to the North Platte River in central Wyoming since that's the likely source of their parents (if not the actual ones we get in the filters).

If anyone wants to see the photos of the fish in the aquarium, I can post a link or directly post them if it isn't a problem.

Thanks, and Howdy from Wyoming, everyone.

#2 Guest_zooxanthellae_*

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Posted 21 September 2014 - 12:22 AM

I'd like to see a better photo if you manage to get one up without breaking any rules!
I would also add that you should be very careful with removing these fish from the water. As noble as your cause may be, I just returned a few days ago from a trip to Wyoming, and was unable to legally photograph any fish I caught, in a phototank. The rules are pretty complex, and depend greatly on which area you are in, but the fish and game officer I spoke to said that any fish not immediately released, is considered reduced to the possession of the angler and must be killed immediately. I'm not sure if this applies in your situation, but heads up!

#3 Guest_Jsigmo_*

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Posted 21 September 2014 - 01:38 AM

I need to familiarize myself with the applicable regulations. It may be that keeping these minnows is not allowed.

I believe that it is illegal to keep live gamefish without a permit or license of some sort. It may also be similar for non-gamefish as well.

In your case, I assume you had gamefish, so it doesn't surprise me that they fell under some kind of restrictions.

I also know you need some kind of license to raise minnows to sell for bait, and there are regulations to make sure only native species can be used as bait in any given area in case some escape alive.

It makes sense that they're careful about all of this to prevent introduction of non-native species into new areas and to help prevent the spread of various diseases or parasites.

I hope you had a great time in Wyoming on your trip! There are some great areas for fishing, and a lot of nice places just to visit and see.

Tabbed in.

#4 Guest_gerald_*

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Posted 21 September 2014 - 09:13 PM

Cant speak for WY but in many states removing impinged fish off an intake screen is considered a normal part of Water Treatment Plant maintenance and is not construed as "fishing" by state wildlife agencies.

#5 Guest_Jsigmo_*

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Posted 22 September 2014 - 02:44 AM

Yes, I'm sure there's no problem with us scooping the fish out of our filters, but the problem may lie with whether or not we are allowed to do anything but kill any survivors immediately. Reading the Wyoming Game and Fish regulations briefly last night, I saw the section of regulations to which zooxanthellae was referring, as well as a various sections that may bear upon our situation here.

Many of these regulations are designed to prevent spreading diseases and parasites, and to prevent "stocking" fish into areas where they don't belong, etc. And the rules make sense in light of those problems.

Since these appear to be non-gamefish, they're considered to be "baitfish" in the regulations. And there are a number of sections that deal specifically with "baitfish". I'll have to look it all over more carefully when I can read the entire documents.

#6 Guest_Skipjack_*

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Posted 22 September 2014 - 05:40 AM

You sir are doing it right, and it is quite refreshing. May have even helped restore my faith in humanity. Thank you for reading over our rules and respecting your state laws instead of blindly posting here. Once you are certain that you are breaking no state laws, or fed, please find a small clear container that will serve as a photo tank, and post photos to help us in helping you ID your fish. We don't have any rules about IDing dead fish from filter clean outs. So if you have a recently dead fish in good shape, post them. Try to pose it with fins out. Styrofoam and some pins may help. We have quite a few people around here who are quite good at making identifications from photos. Thanks

#7 Guest_mikez_*

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Posted 22 September 2014 - 06:54 PM

welcome fellow water guy [actually I'm on the "dirty" side of H2O treatment at the moment, but put in plenty time in water plants as well]. Cool the stuff you find on those intake screens. I was just talking about the very subject in another thread recently.

You are very correct to be concerned about keeping the live ones. Without looking into it, my guess is you're correct that being a no-no. All the n orthern states are very concerned about a virus that was reeking havoc a few years back [maybe still is]. The laws in some states are Knee Jerk over reactions in my lowely opinion, but da law is still da law. Gotta follow the rules.

As far as the forum goes, my understanding is you can't post pics of captives in the ID forum. The point being to discourage people from taking fish without knowing what they are - a worthwhile concern. A pic of a dead one pulled from the screen, in a different sub-forum from the ID section might get you the info you need while staying on the straight and narrow. Or you can PM or email pics to someone who can help. I can try but I'm not the best id guy, especially from your distant land.

Read carefully through the regs. My guess is you're allowed to keep some bait alive in a bucket, even a square glass bucket, but first you gotta know for sure what species you're dealing with and whether it's on your state's list of allowed bait species.

#8 Michael Wolfe

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Posted 22 September 2014 - 08:28 PM

a freshly dead one in the ID section is perfectly fine and is probable the easiest solution
Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. - Benjamin Franklin




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