Alabama photos

Posted 20 April 2007 - 12:36 PM

The unknown darter above, "darter ??", is probably a blackside darter, Percina maculata. They're extremely common, especially in areas like the upper Tallapoosa. They're also a variable species in coloration, although the one pictured looks about typical.

I was hesitant to call it P. maculata since my yankee maculata have a rather dark teardrop, pigment in the leading dorsal and I don't seem to recall seeing a band of any kind (pigment or lack of pigment) in the dorsal.

I'm in no way refuting what you say and agree it sure looks an awful lot like P. maculata but I didn't feel confident enough to post it as such.

Thank you very much for your thoughts. I'd hoped someone would speak up on this fish

Larger image here for slightly better detail (although still quite blurry).
 aamaculata.jpg   109.5KB   0 downloads

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Posted 20 April 2007 - 01:12 PM

I'd say this fish meets the criteria for maculata of having a first dorsal band (a light stripe) and hints of a teardrop. I took the liberty of running the photo through Photoshop to circle the appropriate areas:
 MaculataHighlighted.jpg   110.43KB   0 downloads

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Posted 21 April 2007 - 07:48 AM

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Posted 22 April 2007 - 02:12 PM

In term of coloration Tallapoosa shiner seems not really different from tricolor

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Posted 24 April 2007 - 07:37 AM

Would this fish not fit more in line with an adult Muscadine? We caught tons of smaller muscadines at this location.

It depends on who you ask, given where you guys were at.

In looking at it, I would say that's it's a muscadine, given the weak development of the tear, the elongate head (look at the proportion of the eye to head vs the blackside), and the somewhat blunt nose (not really apparent in the photo because the mouth is open).

Here's some pics I hadn't moved up yet:

 muscadinebridled01.jpg   47.68KB   0 downloads

 muscadinebridled02.jpg   48.56KB   0 downloads

 muscadinebridled03.jpg   57.19KB   0 downloads

I don't think Metee lists it. Boschung and Mayden show the muscadine above the Lake Martin dam, the blackside on the north flowing stream into the mainstem from the south. I'm not sure the history of the split, or wether it was even ever considered a blackside.

Todd

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Posted 24 April 2007 - 10:27 PM

This post slipped my mind..

I took the two darters from above photo group and merged them with a maculata (bottom photo) from my home water. I know this isn't the best way to go but I simply don't have a maculata from the area to compare to. Since the middle darter exceeded the maximum length listed in any publication for a muscadine, a couple of us (including myself) were a bit reserved in the Muscadine ID.

I think this should clear things up a bit despite the poor picture quality.

 darter_comparison.JPG   72.9KB   0 downloads

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Posted 25 April 2007 - 08:01 AM

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Posted 25 April 2007 - 10:03 AM

So, are you saying you think the darter in question is a muscadine or maculata? As a devil's advocate, this could be comparing a female from one population to a male from another.

Good point

Top darter is roughly 2" and gravid
Middle darter is roughly 3.75" and presumably a male (perhaps spawned out female)
Lower darter is a male maculata 3+"

I predict the middle darter (the one with ?'s in the original post) is a large male muscadine.

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Posted 29 April 2007 - 04:53 PM

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