Irate Mormon and I went on a collecting trip this past Thursday in South Central MS. We spent all morning/afternoon sampling a couple of spots where Martin had been before that he knew were good locations. It was cloudy and breezy to begin with but faired off nicely. We didn’t get too many different species but all in all a very enjoyable outing. Martin will add to this report.

Species List:

Black-stripe Topminnow (Fundulus notatus)
Cherryfin Shiner (Lythrurus roseipinnis)
Rainbow Darter (Etheostoma caeruleum)
Brindled Madtom (Noturis miuris)
Longear Sunfish (Lepomis megalotis)
Gambusia (Gambusia holbrooki)
Flathead Catfish (Pylodictis olivaris)
Percina sp.
Orange-Spotted Sunfish (Lepomis humilis)
Bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus)
Pirate Perch (Aphredoderus sayanus)
Shadow Bass (Ambloplites ariommus)

The first creek was the most productive site out of all of the sites sampled. It had a sand/mud substrate with lots of aquatic vegetation with a relatively slow current.



This is a photo of the first creek. Sorry, I know it is a little blurry, but it is the best shot of the creek.



The first creek was loaded with a certain species of crayfish with a unique black/gold coloration.
Anyone care to ID this cray?



This was a very pretty Longear that Martin got at the first creek.



This was a Juv. Flathead from the first creek.

The second site we sampled was a deeper, faster flowing creek than the first site with a substrate of rocks.



This is a photo of a section of the second creek we sampled.



A male Rainbow Darter at the second creek.

The third site was a small creek with a medium current with a very soft mud/sand substrate. We did not get many species out of this creek, but Martin got a pair of large Pirate Perch and a Shadow Bass.



Female Rainbow Darter.



The pair of Pirate Perch.



Shadow Bass.



A very large Crayfish, who did not want his picture taken.

That's it, like I said at the beginning of this post, Martin will add to it.
Thanks to Martin for going collecting with me.

Sounds like fun.
Your flathead does not look like a flathead. I think it is a madtom.

I was going to mention that. There shouldn't be that connection of the adipose fin to the caudal fin back there...

I think the 'juv. flathead' is probably a tadpole madtom, Noturus gyrinus, and those rainbow darters look a lot more like gulf darters, Etheostoma swaini. Very cool fish and those are some big ole pirate perch!

It was alot of fun. Martin is great company.
bpkeck, I will bow to your knowledge on darters any day.
How could I have overlooked the obvious, adipose fin fused to cadual, I have a rather limited knowledge of madtoms, and with the shape of the head and body I assumed Flathead. "The Catfish" was originally IDed as a Bullhead, but after I observed him some I was convinced that he was not a Bullhead. Here are three better shots of "The Catfish". I would appreciate if someone could positively ID him.

Edited by BullHeadsrdfish, 15 April 2008 - 08:14 PM.

I think that is a yellow bullhead but

I get yellow, browns, and blacks mixed up as to ID off of the white barbels

Not a bully; they have square caudal fins and well-separated caudal and adipose fins. Not a tadpole madtom, either, as they have equal lengthg upper and lower jaws, and this guy has an overbite. Beyond that, I don't know.

With comments like that it's probably a good thing that there are plenty of people that know more about darters to keep me honest. I got to see a lot of gulf darters on the Hatchie R., so they still pop out at me. It could be E. asprigene as I've never seen that critter.

That Noturus may be a speckled madtom, N. leptacanthus. My N. gyrinus guess is wrong, because your fish has a lower jaw shorter than the upper jaw, an inferior mouth, while N. gyrinus has equal jaws, a terminal mouth (what Newt said).

Ben

Edited by bpkeck, 15 April 2008 - 09:16 PM.

I really think that he is not a Yellow Bullhead. The head/body shape is just not right at all and like they said the jaw overlap is not right for one either.
If you guys need a better photo to ID him I can try to get a better one.

How about a black madtom (Noturus funebris)? It is definitely a one of the madtoms - adipose fin joins caudal fin. Noturus funebris may atain 6 in TL while N. leptacanthus only grows to about 4 in TL. Additionally, the anal fin on yours appears larger (don't know for sure without a ray count) than the anal fin on N. leptacanthus.

Could you tell us the county or drainage you were collecting in?

Take care,
Gretchen

I am seeing that I need to do some madtom research, and further my knowledge of these catfish.
We were collecting in Clarke County, MS. Atleast, I think the madtom was found in Clarke county. Irate, knows the specific creek.

The first darter was E. caeruleum - a typical specimen albeit not in color. Does NOT look like swaini, at all. The darters were not in good color. I did see a LOT of YOY darters, maybe 1/2 inch in length. Expected to see stigmaeum but got skunked on that account.

As for the madtom, I didn't really look at him for more than a few seconds (I figured "bullhead" because of the size), but speckled are very slender and AFIK don't get anything approaching that size, nor are they chunky like that. We DID catch a speckled (leptacanthus), which is the one Dan was calling miurus.

But those Pirate Perch - man, what monsters! Seriously.