3 replies to this topic

[Itsnotme1988]

Went to a small creek near West Smithfield yesterday to kinda check things out and wade around a bit. Caught only these two guys since I don't have a dipnet yet. Kept the gambusia but released the etheostoma as I wasn't 100% sure on the species and the poor guy had a leach...and then I realized I was wading this creek in shorts... Anyway here's the pics. I was at first hoping it was E. collis but after some review I figured its either a Johnny or Tesselated but I couldn't get a good look at the adipose fin.

Found the gambusia in a small (no more than 1in deep) trickle feeding the creek. The darter was in a school of 10-15 hanging out in the sun. I was shocked by the amount of small fish swimming around since last time I was here it seemed devoid of life. As I was walking around I also stumbled on a decent sized gar who slowly swam away but I was unable to grab a picture...

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[mattknepley]

No net, no worries, eh?

That Gambusia is a pretty good sized gal. From your pictures I'd tend to agree that you have a Tesselated, but if you have both Johnnies and Tessies, all bets are off. They don't seem to like to show you that second dorsal fin to help out, do they?

[Itsnotme1988]

Had to at least give it a shot without a net! haha!  

[gerald]

Based on range, it should be Tesselated in Johnston County.  The upper Neuse basin above Raleigh has so-called "Johnny" or whatever the heck they are - possibly intergrades between Tess and Johnny.  Haw River tribs (Cape Fear basin) in Chatham and Alamance Co are good places to look for collis.  I've never seen collis in the Neuse basin, but they do occur there