10 replies to this topic

[Betta132]

Today I learned that carefully scooping up the algae clumps in an area of shallow water often yields baby sunfish. I found two distinct species, with the striped ones being much more common than the transparent ones. Any idea what these two are? 

I'm fairly certain the one on the left is a baby longear. There were a lot of longear nests in the area, and I found a 1.5" longear that was similar to the transparent one but had face markings and longear patterns starting to develop. The one on the right isn't just an older form of that one, I found multiple striped ones the same size as or smaller than the clear one. It's not a bluegill, I've caught bluegills that small that are very distinctive. Is it a warmouth? I caught a nice warmouth near there, and I saw a couple more.

Markings on the container are centimeters and half-centimeters. They were tiny! 

[Michael Wolfe]

nice job on putting markings on your photo tank!

 

and nice job on getting into the weeds and finding the little fish...

 

but that striped dude is not a sunfish... could he be a juv texas cichlid? I looked on the www and some of the photos look like they might be... and your guy is way smaller than what most people post on the www... 

[Betta132]

Thanks!

There are a lot of rocks in that area, most of them small enough to turn over, and it turns out that flipping rocks and then watching where the fish go can lead to a lot of captures. You just have to slowly sneak a net or your hands around the algae clumps, otherwise they notice and shoot away. I caught about 10 babies and got a good look at a bunch more. Unfortunately, that method doesn't seem to work for darters, they hide under the algae rather than going into it. Also, I'm fairly certain that darters have developed teleportation technology. 

 

I caught a couple of Texas cichlids, though I admit I didn't realize what they were until I looked them up. I've always heard them called Rio Grande cichlids or Rio Grande perch. There were a bunch more spawning in the area, so it seems very likely that I was finding their fry. Good to know! 

[centrarchid]

Sunfish (left) not Bluegill, Redear, Warmouth or Green.  Some possibles include Longear, Dollar, and Redspotted.  Better pick needed.  I would like to be able to see coloration of vertical fin membranes and opercular region.

[Betta132]

Operculums were very light purple, fins had no color whatsoever aside from the yellow in the rays. I don't believe we have dollar sunfish in this particular river, though I may have found a couple of redspotted.

[Michael Wolfe]

I caught a couple of Texas cichlids...  I've always heard them called Rio Grande cichlids... 

 

Two common names that mean the same fish... we should switch to Herichthys cyanoguttatus

[centrarchid]

What about Red-breasted Sunfish?

[Betta132]

I've found a couple of redbreasts in this river, and there was a big one a bit downstream of these guys. 

 

Here's the baby side-by-side with a small longear found nearby: 

 

 

I found some pictures of redspotted sunfish babies, and they're darker and spotted. Couldn't find any pictures of the other fry species on Google, though. 

[centrarchid]

Operculum stripes rule out Red Spotted Sunfish.  I am pressed not to rule Redbreasted Sunfish based on the pronounced stripes leading to dorsal and ventral margins of the opercular tab.

[Isaac Szabo]

It is difficult to identify something like a juvenile sunfish with images this small. Surely your original images are quite a bit larger, right?

 

Like centrachid, I would say the larger fish on the right in your second photo is probably a redbreast due to the opercular tab stripes.

 

That juvenile Texas cichlid is pretty cool. I don't see photos of them very often.

[Betta132]

Unfortunately, all I had with me was my cell phone. I was just planning to fish for adult sunfish and maybe catch a few darters, I wasn't expecting to find tiny baby sunfish.

I've never seen a redbreasted sunfish with that much green on its face. I've seen them with a bit of green around the mouth, but never any with green markings on the gills. Hence why I thought he was a longear, though I suppose I could be wrong. 

 

Next time I go back there, I'll take a decent camera and get some pics of a few half-inch Texas cichlid babies. There were quite a few of them, it probably wouldn't take more than ten minutes to locate a couple of really tiny ones. Or maybe I should look for more of the pale babies and get some better pics of them.