10 replies to this topic

[smilingfrog]

Is this a tadpole madtom? I caught it in a minnow trap at the family cabin in Northern MN. The lake has brown and black bullhead as well as tadpole madtoms. I think the adipose fin is connected to the caudal, but there's barely an adipose fin at all so it was kind of hard to tell. I have no experience with brown bullheads of any size, but I'm guessing they would look similar to black bullheads of the same size. With its rounded tail this didn't look like the small black bullheads I am accustomed to seeing.

 

 

[Matt DeLaVega]

Looks to be from the last photo, but they are more like thumbnails than photos.

[butch]

Yup that's a tadpole madtom and only one madtom species that is found in northern Minnesota.

[smilingfrog]

Looks to be from the last photo, but they are more like thumbnails than photos.

Yeah, I'm not sure what is going on with the pictures. I copied a link from the photo gallery, the same as I did for some other pictures in the past. Those worked out, but these are tiny. If I go the gallery they are normal though.

[Michael Wolfe]

fixed your pics... looks like you selected the thumbnails instead of the actual pictures on the screen

[Matt DeLaVega]

Now there is more to go on.Tadpoles for sure. The last thumbnail before Michael fixed i was a giveaway, but much nicer to see the fish rather than just the tail. And like Butch said that is your only madtom up there and I suspect you were pretty sure it was not a bullhead.

[smilingfrog]

Michael, Thanks for fixing the pictures. So I should have right clicked the picture itself rather than the link and hit copy?
Butch and Matt, Thanks for the confirmation. I did suspect a tadpole madtom, but wanted to be sure. This was the first one I've caught.

[Matt DeLaVega]

That is the madtom that you are not supposed to get poked by. I have never been stung by one, only stonecats and mountains, but I have heard some bad stories to include heart palpitations and pain all the way to the shoulder. Then apparently some people have hardly any reaction from them.

 

Cool find, much more interesting than bullheads anyway.

[smilingfrog]

That is the madtom that you are not supposed to get poked by. I have never been stung by one, only stonecats and mountains, but I have heard some bad stories to include heart palpitations and pain all the way to the shoulder. Then apparently some people have hardly any reaction from them.
 
Cool find, much more interesting than bullheads anyway.

Interesting that you mention that. I have caught stonecats several times and held them like I'm pictured holding this guy and haven't yet been poked by one. This guy got me twice in rapid succession. Once in the pinky then in the ring finger. I did get pain going up the arm from it. I don't know if it really helped or not, but I poured some isopropanol and then some hydrogen peroxide over the puncture wounds and within a few minutes couldn't even tell that the pinky had been stuck. I still felt a sensation in the ring finger and arm for about another half an hour, but it wasn't what I'd call painful.
One thing that surprised me was how much my fingers bled considering how tiny the actual puncture wounds were. Not that I lost massive amounts of blood or anything, just that small finger pricks usually quit bleeding after a couple drops of blood. These bled for a few minutes. I suppose that might be part of the reason the pain diminished too.

[NateTessler13]

Interesting that you mention that. I have caught stonecats several times and held them like I'm pictured holding this guy and haven't yet been poked by one. This guy got me twice in rapid succession. Once in the pinky then in the ring finger. I did get pain going up the arm from it. I don't know if it really helped or not, but I poured some isopropanol and then some hydrogen peroxide over the puncture wounds and within a few minutes couldn't even tell that the pinky had been stuck. I still felt a sensation in the ring finger and arm for about another half an hour, but it wasn't what I'd call painful.
One thing that surprised me was how much my fingers bled considering how tiny the actual puncture wounds were. Not that I lost massive amounts of blood or anything, just that small finger pricks usually quit bleeding after a couple drops of blood. These bled for a few minutes. I suppose that might be part of the reason the pain diminished too.

 

I've had the exact same experiences with tadpole madtom.  About a half hour after being poked, the pain went away.  Not truly "painful", but you can definitely feel an ache.

[Irate Mormon]

Y'all beat me to it.  One way to ID madtoms is to describe the experience of being "stung".