More ID Help

What are these ones with the spots?






And this is a?????


Is this a Rainbow Darter?

All I can tell you is that the top ones look like some type of young salmon or trout to me.

The only one I can help with it the first one, it's a salmonid. The cyprinid I don't know and I cannot confirm the darter becuase all I can see is it's head.

It looks like you have young rainbow trout/steelhead and if you do that is a . Gamefish cannot be taken by means other than hook and line and not below their size limit in Ohio. I've noticed this has happened a few times recently with people that have recently begun to collect natives. I cannot stress enough to know what you may at least encounter if you go collecting and better yet be able to identify. While I know there are widely varying levels of identification expertise among us, if you have any doubt to what you have collected, specifically for the matter if it is legal to posses, then simply release rather than take home. Not playing the hammer of god just stating the proper and legal thing to do.

Yes, nice steelhead. The ethical thing to do would be to kill every last one you come accross. But that is also illegal.

It looks like you have young rainbow trout/steelhead and if you do that is a . Gamefish cannot be taken by means other than hook and line and not below their size limit in Ohio. I've noticed this has happened a few times recently with people that have recently begun to collect natives. I cannot stress enough to know what you may at least encounter if you go collecting and better yet be able to identify. While I know there are widely varying levels of identification expertise among us, if you have any doubt to what you have collected, specifically for the matter if it is legal to posses, then simply release rather than take home. Not playing the hammer of god just stating the proper and legal thing to do.

I thought those 2 were LMB as they were being guarded in the nest by the male, They died within 1/2 hour of being netted, my friend caught them and asked me to help ID them. They are too small and go right through my new dipnet, my friend uses a butterfly type net of some sort. and catches the tiniest fry.
The blacknose dace, unidentified darter and the minnow are still alive. Still waiting on ID for minnow, I'll try to get better darter photos. Is there a book that will help identify fry?

They aren't really fry they are probably a few months old since those are winter run steelhead. You can immediately tell they are a salmonid species because they have an adipose fin (soft fleshy lobe) behind their dorsal fin and in front of their tail. All of the basses and sunfish have a spiny dorsal fin and a soft rayed dorsal fin. Trout have no spines on their fins. They also very very fine scales while basses have larger scales. The par marks on the sides are what also easily identify them as a trout. A field guide should at least let you identify families of fishes easily but ODNR has a simple fish identification guide of a handful of species. If you have a decent library near by I suggest checking out a Fishes of Ohio if they have it. Or pick up Fishes of TN for 18 bucks. Yes you don't live in Tennessee, but nearly everything (in fact I can only think of a handful that aren't) that is in Ohio is in Tennessee and you can use it to identify and learn.

Your darter sure looks like a rainbow to me just from the throat. I'm guessing since trout were involved they came from a Lake Erie tributary which would rule out Orangethroat darters. Only other possibility is the Mad River for rainbows in Ohio.

The mad is a brown trout stream. The rainbow are escapes frome the Zanesfield rod and gun club. DNR only dumps browns in there. Their sole purpose in life is to dine on tonguetied minnows, or be ripped out of the water by anglers.

Your darter sure looks like a rainbow to me just from the throat. I'm guessing since trout were involved they came from a Lake Erie tributary which would rule out Orangethroat darters. Only other possibility is the Mad River for rainbows in Ohio.

The darter came from Grand River, the trout came out of Paine Creek which drains into the grand, the minnow came from Grand as well. We also sampled white suckers, hogsuckers, river chubs, blacknose dace, greenside darters, fantail darters, carp(which were terminated) LMB, SMB, Stonecat, and a swimming chipmunk.

Thanks
Tom

They aren't really fry they are probably a few months old since those are winter run steelhead. You can immediately tell they are a salmonid species because they have an adipose fin (soft fleshy lobe) behind their dorsal fin and in front of their tail. All of the basses and sunfish have a spiny dorsal fin and a soft rayed dorsal fin. Trout have no spines on their fins. They also very very fine scales while basses have larger scales. The par marks on the sides are what also easily identify them as a trout. A field guide should at least let you identify families of fishes easily but ODNR has a simple fish identification guide of a handful of species. If you have a decent library near by I suggest checking out a Fishes of Ohio if they have it. Or pick up Fishes of TN for 18 bucks. Yes you don't live in Tennessee, but nearly everything (in fact I can only think of a handful that aren't) that is in Ohio is in Tennessee and you can use it to identify and learn.

Your darter sure looks like a rainbow to me just from the throat. I'm guessing since trout were involved they came from a Lake Erie tributary which would rule out Orangethroat darters. Only other possibility is the Mad River for rainbows in Ohio.

Where can I get a copy of fishes of tenn for 18 bucks?

I thought those 2 were LMB as they were being guarded in the nest by the male, They died within 1/2 hour of being netted, my friend caught them and asked me to help ID them. They are too small and go right through my new dipnet, my friend uses a butterfly type net of some sort. and catches the tiniest fry.
The blacknose dace, unidentified darter and the minnow are still alive. Still waiting on ID for minnow, I'll try to get better darter photos. Is there a book that will help identify fry?

When looking at the "minnow" I seem to lean towards either a sand shiner or northern mimic shiner (its tough in pictures). Look at Trautman. Sands will have 7 anal rays while N mimics will usually have 8.

Where can I get a copy of fishes of tenn for 18 bucks?

http://forum.nanfa.o...?showtopic=1987
It looks like the sale is over.

http://forum.nanfa.o...?showtopic=1987
It looks like the sale is over.

Yup. I got mine! The rest of youse guys missed out. Sorry about your luck!