Id Help

Some of these I think I have ID'd and some I don't know. I will put what I think they are and anyone can correct me if I am wrong. Some of the pictures you may not even be able to tell, because they are so bad. Any help is appreciated.

1)Smaller one is a red shiner (I am assuming male) and I thought the larger one was a female, but now I am not sure.





2)Southern Red-Bellied Dace





3)Unknown Darter





4)Different unknown darter





5)Two dark green ones are brook stickleback





6)Completely unknown





Thanks,
John

Are you in Illinois?

The photos leave a bit to be desired.
I will buy that the smaller fish in the first photo may be a red shiner. Beyond that I cannot say.

The second photo is a SRBD.

The third photo is of a darter in the fantail complex.
Do not forget squamiceps, and kennicotti

The next darter photo is a johnny darter, or it is one of the closely related darters.

Beyond that?

The first unknown fuzzy darter appears to be a greenside darter, if I truly see a series of W's along the side? And the second darter might be a johnny? I have to switch to my new glasses after that.

Thanks for the help. Didn't realize how bad the pics were. They didn't look near that bad on the camera or in photobucket. Sorry about that.

If you founds these near the Quad cities I think I can help a bit. Not to disparage the photos but my ID's can only be taken lightly here due to the focus.

(1) I agree and believe you have two red shiners. I'll bet both are male.
(2) SRBD!
(3) Fantail (it's the only "of the fantails" you have)
(4) Johnny darter
(5) I agree these are probably brook stickleback
(6) Are it's scales very "tall" and rather large? If so I might think a young Luxilus. You have both common and striped shiner as I do. We can work on that later if this is the case. Are the scales small(ish) and does this fish have a faint but uniform blue color on it's body along with a faint red color on it's fins? If so, I might think you have redfin shiner.

Focused photos will get you the ID's you seek and general locations will help us quite a bit.

All are from the Iowa Quad City area. Mainly Duck Creek and Silver Creek. #6 has scales that are about twice as tall as they are wide. Darker green on top, and a little lighter on bottom with dark horizontal bar in middle. Don't see any red in the fins.

#1 both have similar body color except the larger one has no color in fins. Larger is also "fatter/thicker".

How cool!

All are from the Iowa Quad City area. Mainly Duck Creek and Silver Creek. #6 has scales that are about twice as tall as they are wide. Darker green on top, and a little lighter on bottom with dark horizontal bar in middle. Don't see any red in the fins.

#1 both have similar body color except the larger one has no color in fins. Larger is also "fatter/thicker".

I feel more comfortable with the Luxilus genus on #6 now. I know where Silver and Duck creeks are. They should be Common shiner Luxilus cornutus. A book would really help you distinguish between the two but a quick look directly down on the fishes back will help make sure it's a Luxilus in any case. Common shiners should have a few faint lines that run parallel while Striped shiners should have lines that form a "V" as they near the caudal fin.

I'm guessing on two male red shiners based on my limited experience with them. Even at peak spawn females never really seem have a robust "neck" and tend to only get fat in their belly not in the meaty part of their body. In general females are more streamlined than males.

Below is a photo from the river stretch on the same day. Male above and female below. This is a good demonstration of how squeezing the fish too hard can distort the image. The gravid female was so round in the belly, she could not be positioned easily.

 redshiner.jpg   30.09KB   0 downloads

pic 5 is the 5 spine stickleback, and I know where he got them, lol

Hey FAF, If you have a light on that tank, try like I do with my cruddy camera,
turn off the flash, have the light on the tank and hold the camera up to the glass, or up to your eye like a standard 35mm camera,
I do better like this as i'm not to steady trying to hold the stupid thing waiting for it to shoot.
No way I can take better pics with a flash of any fish,,,,, if I do it's a 1 in 500 shot I get anything good