Yesterday my guests & I went traipsing about the area looking for fish, plants, and inverts, especially inverts. We found quite a bit of stuff, but not as much as I'd hoped. As it happened, we spent a lot of time at each site and thusly didn't sample anywhere near as many as we could have.

I guess it might have helped if we hadn't gotten lost.

Yep, my Delorme let me down; one wrong turn on a skinny little one-lane dirt road to nowhere took us about 8 miles away from where I thought we going. Oh well, we figured we might as well check out the little creek under an old plank bridge we found, and it turned out to be a pretty good idea.

One of the guys is really into mosses. Aquatic mosses are becoming very popular in the mainstream hobby lately, as you can see if you look on Aquabid, and so we paid attention to them, which I frankly never much before this ever did. We found 4 kinds, all very attractive. I gave one of them the nickname of "Star Moss" the moment I saw it, but I'm sure it probably already has a name. here's a pic:


So after gathering up a few nifty clumps of mosses, we started looking around for other critters. It didn't take long to find plenty of them. The creek itself was cold, but very clear, with just a hint of tannin turning it only slightly yellow. That's somewhat unusual for this area, by the way, as yellow & black water is more the norm. In case you're wondering what blackwater is, here's a pic of some, and a nice stand of Ludwigia growing in it:


Anyway, we took our dipnets and scooped around in ever deep hole we found for about 1/4 mile, and there were a LOT of holes. In no time flat we found 3 salamander species, ( Desmognathus, Eurycea, and Plethodon ) 2 crayfish species, and at least 5 fish species. There were also a lot of plants, and in fact we hit the mother lode for Baby's Tear's, many of them growing in very shady spots which means they'll grow okay in an aquarium. Teid lizards called Sixline Raceruners were also zipping about all over the place. They aren't so commonly seen here, so that was a treat.
No snakes. No darters in this spot.
The fish were hard to identify, and in fact I'm still stuck on two of them.
First there were Sailfin Shiners, and lots of 'em. Yes! I've been looking for another spot for those, since I haven't seen many at all since the drought. Next were some Sharp Chubsuckers. These were juveniles, so that tripped me up a bit. Next were a couple of Silverjaw Minnows, some C. venustas, and the ones that are still bugging me. They look like chubs of some sort. Finally there were some Fundulus oliveaceus.
We never did find the Black & Gold crayfish we were really looking for, but we did find one juvenile that MIGHT actually be one. It's more of a dark slate color with tan-buff lines, but as it matures it may take on the coloration of jet black with gold. I certainly hope so. They did find one nifty cray the day before, and it's gravid, to boot:


It turned out that we weren't all that lost after all, and when some passerby eventually came along, they told us that we were only a short distance from the main road. Figures. We went to some other spots, where we found some more Venustus , some Flagfins and some Redfin & Chain Pickerels, but started to lose daylight so we beelined it for one site I thought would be really good. You'd think so too if you saw it, right? :


Well, this spot didn't pan out as well as expected. We did find lots of plants, including some Bladderwort. There were some more common crays and some more dusky salamanders, but not much else. As for fish we found Silversides aplenty, a Fundulus cingulatus ( the first one I've ever seen up here ) and finally, some darters. The darters are E. colorosum and we got two pairs.

So, all in all it was a pretty good day.

Not bad at all. I must say I'm jealous. Sailfins, Fundulids, and Flagfins, Oh my!

That is a beautiful Cray! Nice coloration to boot.

Do you happen to have a complete species list of what all you found?

Looks like a good time.

No, not yet. I still don't know what some things even are, you see.

By the way, some of this stuff is available.
The F. oliveaceus killies, the Baby's Tear's plants, and the darters can all go, along with these chubs. Let me know if any of you want any, especially the darters, since they'll have to move quickly as I have very little to feed them. The bloodworms haven't hatched yet, and then it'll still be another week or so until I get new worms from the flies. I would just plop them into that tank, but that tank has a different destiny. I remember one guy wanted some pickerels when I finally got some, so if he will remind me I can finally send them if he still wants them.

Edited by Mysteryman, 18 April 2008 - 08:20 AM.

Okay, I finally managed to identify the species that were in doubt.

Darters- Brown darters, Etheostoma edwini . Blotchy brown with an impressive pattern of very very many small, bright red dots.

Killies- Blackspotted Fundulus olivaceus, "Pink lemonade" Fundulus cingulatum, and Notti Complex member Fundulus escambiae. Well-behaved, remarkably graceful, eager feeders and altogether satisfying as aquarium fish.

Chubs- Sharp Chubsucker and Dixie Chub. Very active, but large.