9 replies to this topic

[El Todd]

These were caught this morning in a small, very shallow(12" max) creek in a minnow trap. The bottom of the creek was covered in leaves. Around twelve fish total were in the trap, all of them except one looked exactly like the top fish - which I am almost certain is a bluntnose minnow. 

 

The bottom fish I am not sure of, I think it is a spottail shiner, but I am not 100% certain.

 

On a side note, I've been dropping the same trap with the same bait mix in the same place every few days for the last 3 or 4 weeks. I'm surprised to be getting anything at all; the temperature is pretty low now with the highs only in the 40's and well below freezing temps nearly every night. As the weather has gotten colder, I find I'm mostly catching bluntnose minnows wheresas before I was catching a much more diverse mix including sunfish, carp, swallowtail shiners, dace etc.

Attached Files

•  BluntnoseMinnow1Nov17.png   1005.87KB   1 downloads
•  SpottailShiner2Nov17.png   1.07MB   2 downloads
•  SpottailShiner1aNov17.png   767.98KB   1 downloads

[LepomisAuritus]

First one is definitely a bluntnose. Not sure about the others.

[JasonL]

The lower two look very cyprinella ish to me.

[Dave Neely]

Yep. Bottom two are likely satinfins -- diamondy scales, deepish body and caudal peduncle, goofy mouth, if you go by gestalt.  Of course, this being innernet fish ID, who really knows?!

[El Todd]

I wasn't sure if if was satinfin or spottail; the shape of the nose is making me think spottail. I compared this picture to the ones on iNaturalist to come to this conclusion.

[Matt DeLaVega]

I would go with satinfin.

[El Todd]

I would go with satinfin.

 

That's good news, from what I've read, satinfin are pretty attractive aquarium fish and are fun to watch. I have caught fish that look similar to the one in my first p0st, but the scales and mouth are a little different - I was thinking those were satinfin.   Do you think both these fish are satinfin or is the fish in this attachment something else?  satinfinShiner.jpg   135.52KB   0 downloads

Edited by El Todd, 28 November 2019 - 09:52 AM.

[Dave Neely]

That fish also appears to be a satinfin.

 

You may or may not already know this, but when you take a photo in hand, or in the net, sometimes it's helpful to keep the fish slightly submerged. They'll usually spread their fins, and if you have a light colored background, you'll be able to see the black "slash" on the membranes at the back of the dorsal fin. This is an excellent field character for your local Cyprinella. You only have two species nearby, the easiest way to tell the difference is anal fin ray count, although there are body shape differences and differences in nuptial male coloration too.  Be warned, when you're starting out, juvenile fallfish seem to have an amazing ability to look like every other silvery minnow out there.

 

iNaturalist is a great resource, but not for learning how to identify fishes!

[Matt DeLaVega]

I was just agreeing with Dave. I happen to have been around long enough to know that he has uncanny ID skills. So yeah, go with his ID.

 

Thanks for chiming in Dave!

[El Todd]

Thanks Dave and Matt! This is really helpful.