ID help please

This one is from the upper Bourbeuse river in east central Missouri and is about 2.5 inches long.

 minnowa.JPG   60.77KB   1 downloads




This one is from the central Bourbeuse river and is about 1.5 inches long.

 minnow.JPG   64.41KB   2 downloads

Thanks!

Mark,

The first one, to me, looks like a Stoneroller. The second one, maybe, maybe, could be a Spotfin Shiner. Sorry I can't be more definitive.

First one is a stoneroller (Campostoma) but I believe it could be either a Central (anomalum) or a largescale (oligolepis) in that location. To be sure a lateral line scale count would be useful, there is also some difference in pigment on the anal fin but I'm not sure how reliable that is. The second fish is a Cyprinella sp. which spotfin (spiloptera) is one species. In central MO there are three more that it might be the white tail shiner (galactura), the Blacktail shiner (venusta), and the steelcolor shiner (whipplei). There is also the red shiner (lutrensis) but it is rather deep bodied and looks quite different. Based on these choices it is most likely a steelcolor or spotfin in my opinion, it does not have the white or black marks for the other two, but spotfin and steelcolor are very similar. An anal fin ray count should give you a definitive answer. Spotfin have 8 and Steelcolor 9, although there is occasionally some over lap.

Thanks guys, I thought the first one was a stoneroller but I had no idea on the second one.
Mark