5 replies to this topic

[FishyJackson]

Did my annual 1 day trip to Western NY last weekend.  Stopped at that Cayuga Creek in Buffalo area then made my debut in the Allegheny Watershed.  Unfortunately it turned out that 2 days prior there was a tornado and a monsoon, so water levels were up and murky, especially in the Allegheny River which I didnt even bother to fish in.  Was supposed to be a Darter and Redhorse Sucker mission but ended up just catching a mess of Minnows mostly.  

 

Let me know if anyone disagrees with my ID's.  Uncertain on a few.  I'm in too much of a rush on these trips and I meant to count Anal fin rays for the blackline shiners, but of course I did not.  

 

Ischua Creek fish (Allegheny watershed): Amazing variety at this spot.  

 

1) Tonguetied Minnow 

 

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2) Mottled Sculpin

 

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3) Western Blacknose Dace

 

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4) White Sucker- was hoping for big Redhorse Suckers, only got this

 

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5) Allegheny Pearl Dace?

 

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6) Allegheny Pearl Dace?  I think same species as #5

 

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7) Rosyface Shiner?  I'm thinking the mouth looks a bit pointier than Emerald but not sure about this one.  

 

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8 ) The age old debate, Sand or Mimic Shiner?  Really good picture of this, but confusion abounds.  I thought Sand Shiner because it appears only 7 anal fin rays and pointier snout, but one of the pics shows that maybe there are indeed 8 anal fin rays, and the mid dorsal stripe pretty nonexistant.  The 2nd pic makes me think there 8 anal fin rays is possible.  Not much of a mid dorsal strip

 

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 Cayuga Creek fish- Creek near Buffalo.  Did extra driving so I could stop back at this spot first before the Allegheny debut, because there are millions of fish here and was easy to target Darters under rocks last year.  This time water was higher and flowing faster, was harder to go for Darters and the millions of Minnows make it disorienting. 

 

 

9) Dejavu.  Sand or Mimic.  One would think that I would have counted the anal fin rays on the spot, but was rushing too much.  Mid dorsal stripe not prominent at all

 

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10) Spottail Shiner- I have come to recognize this snout as that of a Spottail.  If that ain't Hudsonius...

 

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11) Bigmouth Shiner- This fish doesnt sound particularly common, but I can't see this as anything but a Bigmouth.

 

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[Matt DeLaVega]

Bigmouth shiner looks a bit like a silverjaw minnow with a big mouth.

[JasonL]

Regarding sand vs mimic, if I were to catch those here in KY, I’d call them mimic.  Volucellus have more vertically elongate anterior lateral line scales than stramineus,  similar to your fish.  I don’t think the anal ray count is obvious on your pics, and that’s the other criteria I use.  The mid dorsal stripe is nice if you see it but is a less useful diagnostic criteria in my experience.

 

That said, there is obviously a lot of regional variation with mimics so NY may be different.  Plus these guys fool even the experts sometimes.

[FishyJackson]

thanks agreed Mimic on those.  Pissed at myself for not counting the rays, that's now 3 of these that are ID'd as Mimic yet all 3 appear to have 7 anal fin rays in pics.  Must just be hard to see the last ray in pics because everything else says Mimic.  

 

I feel good about all of these ID's, think everything is correct, but if anyone disagrees let me know.  Thanks 

[FishyJackson]

figured I'd update this.  As is usually the case, I dont properly ID these minnows until a year or 2 later.  In this case going on 2 years here, stumbled into this one after again not getting a Sand Shiner on my trip last week.  Looked back at this old Mimic then noticed I had caught Sand Shiner on this trip lol

 

fish number 10 in this thread is a clear Sand Shiner

 

I had wrote: "10) Spottail Shiner- I have come to recognize this snout as that of a Spottail.  If that ain't Hudsonius..."

 

yea , nailed it 

 

It's funny because I dont really think it looks too much like Mimic Shiner at all

 

 

 

 

[FishyJackson]

tried to upload couple pics but keeps saying error upload failed