6 replies to this topic

[StreamWader]

This question has bothered me for more than 30 years--hoping one of the experts herein might be able to help. 

Wading a small stream in the suburbs of Atlanta as a kid, I came across a small school (20-30 individuals) of really unusual-looking minnows. Imagine a white fish dipped into red paint at both ends, so they had red heads and gills, white middle bodies, and red tails. They were about 2-3" long and minnow- or shiner-shaped. The effect was really striking. I never saw them again in that creek or anywhere else, and I saw plenty of shiners and other small drab fish. Frequent searches over the years have failed to turn up anything, and they don't look like any of the ref pictures I've seen online. Any idea what these fish might have been?

[Robert Lamb]

If you can give an exact or close to exact spot that will narrow things down. What side of Atlanta you were on makes a big difference

[Michael Wolfe]

Sounds like white finned yellow fin shiners... they are not really white in the middle, but with a whitish dorsal fin and white paired fins underneath they could look kinda like that.  This is not a good picture, but the fish were so extremely colored I put it in the gallery archive anyway. This was from Stone Mountain area.

[L Link]

Sounds like white finned yellow fin shiners... they are not really white in the middle, but with a whitish dorsal fin and white paired fins underneath they could look kinda like that.  This is not a good picture, but the fish were so extremely colored I put it in the gallery archive anyway. This was from Stone Mountain area.

Man, what a fish!

[Isaac Szabo]

Yeah Michael that was my initial thought too. But then I realized yellowfin shiner (white on head and tail, red in middle) is opposite of what he said (red on head and tail, white in middle). I still think you're probably right though. I wouldn't be surprised for a childhood memory to mix up the positions of the colors.

[UncleWillie]

This reminded me of my first experience with yellowfin shiners.  As a youngster I walked in the creek behind my parents' house every Sunday afternoon.  I remember - from a distance - walking up on what I thought was some sort of red, white, and yellow plastic fabric flapping in the stream current.  As a got closer I saw a large group of yellowfins on a bluehead chub nest.  Not knowing anything back then, I ran home and told my dad that there were miniature salmon in the creek behind the house. He of course did not believe me. They were not there the next weekend, and I had to wait another 5-6 years before seeing them again and getting to show my dad that there were tiny sockeye salmon in the stream.  It wasn't until I was in college that I truly found out that they were yellowfins.

[Michael Wolfe]

Yeah Michael that was my initial thought too. But then I realized yellowfin shiner (white on head and tail, red in middle) is opposite of what he said (red on head and tail, white in middle). I still think you're probably right though. I wouldn't be surprised for a childhood memory to mix up the positions of the colors.

 

Yep, and like Uncle WIllie's comments at this color they are all swarming together its actually pretty hard to pick one out from another looking down on em.