These are all from a two-hour seining session in Port Aransas. They were in a salty inlet, but they were fairly far from the ocean. I didn't test the salinity, but there were mullet and food shrimp, so it's definitely salty. The mullet were jumping quite a bit, so I think the oxygen level was a bit low, possibly due to all the decaying plants underwater. We've had a record amount of rain lately, so the salt may have been a bit diluted.
I know these aren't very good pics, but can anyone suggest things? I can Google them and see if they look right.
These were in a very shallow area, like a stream, but not coming from anywhere that I could see. They were probably in brackish water. I caught quite a few, all smaller than 2" long.
Killifish?
I know those aren't good pics, I was dealing with a struggling fish that I wanted to return quickly due to the fact that the water was warm and probably low-oxygen. Does anybody have any idea what it might be? I was thinking possibly molly, but the tail seems wrong.
This looks familiar, but I can't place it.
There were huge swarms of these guys in every bit of shallow water near cover. Half an inch long, vaguely flagfish shaped, spots on the sides. I know it's nearly impossible to ID something from a pic like this, but does anyone have an idea?
These guys were all in a deeper area, though still in the shallows.
This is the school of tinies we accidentally caught. Several dozen minnows, two pinfish, and a couple of food shrimp. Any IDs on the minnows?
Tiny clear shrimp. Not a food shrimp, it was carrying eggs on its swimmerets. Would anyone like to take a guess, or should I just assume it's a ghost shrimp of some form?
Not looking for IDs on these guys, just including them for anyone interested in the other critters found there.
Hermit crab. There were a bunch of these, occupying every good shell I could find. I've seen them at my local pet store in baseball-sized shells, so I know they get big.
Sargassum pipefish who was hanging out in the submerged grass. They normally turn up in the floating sargassum, but we caught this one in a particularly deep area. He's probably rather confused.
We also caught pinfish, food shrimp, and some variety of fry that was far too small to have any hope of IDing.
There were mullet leaping around and taunting me, but I couldn't catch any on a line. How does one entice a mullet to bite? I was using a small red worm hanging a few inches below the surface, alternating between letting it sit and reeling it in at various speeds to see if they'd chase it. No interest.