Jump to content


Photo

Ok, I give up. What ARE these?


3 replies to this topic

#1 Mysteryman

Mysteryman
  • NANFA Guest

Posted 25 May 2015 - 12:55 AM

I've been trying to identify these for about a week now, and every time I think I have it, the distribution maps all say "nope!"

Remember those little fry I caught last month or so ago? Well they seem to be turning into these, whatever they are. My apologies in advance for the totally craptacular pictures.

I caught an adult right here in Madison, and it looks like it might be the same species.

 

It has a small terminal mouth, slightly orangey-red dorsal & caudal fins, and a "normal" sized eye close to the snout. The most distinguishing feature is the black lateral stripe running the whole length of the body, including through the eye and all the way through the snout, bordered immediately above it by a white stripe and then a thinner pale metallic blue stripe. It reminds me of a tropical Black Neon Tetra. The white stripe changes color between white and gold. The opercula are bright metallic blue.

 

Any ideas? I tried keying them out, but got stuck at the pharyngeal teeth counting.

A little voice in my head is mocking me, and berating me, saying "Dude, come ON! You know this one!"  but I just can't place it.

 

 

EDIT:

Oh no. :(

Is it a Flame Chub? I hope I didn't kill a Flame Chub. If I did, though..well.. the good news is that there is a big swarm of them still getting along fine in an unlikely place.

Attached Images

  • fishy1.jpg
  • fishy2.jpg

Edited by Mysteryman, 25 May 2015 - 01:28 AM.


#2 Michael Wolfe

Michael Wolfe
  • Board of Directors
  • North Georgia, Oconee River Drainage

Posted 25 May 2015 - 07:10 AM

So refresh my memory... what drainage was this fish caught in?  You said Madison, do you mean Alabama?


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

#3 gerald

gerald
  • Global Moderator
  • Wake Forest, North Carolina

Posted 25 May 2015 - 09:09 AM

If the body is fairly round in x-section, and if mouth is too small for Semotilus, then flame chub is my guess.  To me, flames look like a Semotilus x Chrosomus hybrid.  (I wonder if their DNA might confirm that).


Gerald Pottern
-----------------------
Hangin' on the Neuse
"Taxonomy is the diaper used to organize the mess of evolution into discrete packages" - M.Sandel


#4 Mysteryman

Mysteryman
  • NANFA Guest

Posted 25 May 2015 - 03:27 PM

*sigh*

Ok, I concentrated on Semotilus, Phoxinus, and Clinostomus as likely alternate candidates, but this fish has an incomplete lateral line. That cinches it; it's a Flame Chub.

 

Rats. Sorry about that. It died very quickly, while I was still tossing back all of the crayfish and mud I scooped up with it, and without any "flame" coloration I never considered that's what it could have been. I guess I also never figured I'd run across such a rare fish only a few blocks from my house, or find them in such numbers.

 

At least now I can tell Bruce about a good spot for them he might not already know.

 

Yes, Madison Alabama. A little nameless spring creek which feeds into Indian Creek.

 

Well, this mystery being solved opens up another one. Since these fry that I have came from Collinsville, well out of Flame Chub Territory, they can't be Flames, despite looking just like them. I wonder what they can be? They're at the 1-inch mark now and growing rapidly, so maybe soon I'll be able to finally tell.

 

Waitaminute... the maps shows another Flame population well south of Collinsville, putting Collinsville right smack between Madison and that population. Could they be Flames after all?





Reply to this topic



  


0 user(s) are reading this topic

0 members, 0 guests, 0 anonymous users