hey guys. i went dipnetting today with one of the founders of my club. it was unusually cold for florida, but we decided to try it out anyways just to see what we could catch.
we visited about 5-6 places, all near each other in Broward county.

the most abundant species were mollies, mosquitofish, least killifish and salvini. to less extent we also caught mayan cichlids, two jewel cichlids, one or two spotted tilapia, one bluegill, 5 bluespotted sunfish, 2 tadpole madtoms, several black acaras, a couple of small jaguar cichlids, few bluefin killifish, few golden topminnows. also caught the usual inverts.

here are a few pictures from the trip:








Bluespotted Sunfish:


Golden Topmminow (these guys were very washed out today...anything to do with the cold water?)


Least Killifish:


Jewel Cichlid - can you tell which H. species this is?


Mayan Cichlids:
http://www.keepitfis...nals/mayans.jpg

At one spot all the mollies we collected had this yellow spot in their stomach:
http://www.keepitfis...anals/molly.jpg

Everywhere else they looked normal:
http://www.keepitfis...als/mollies.jpg

One of the many salvini we caught:
http://www.keepitfis...als/salvini.jpg

Caught two of these guys, and tried to get as good a picture as possible since last one I caught I didnt manage a good picture.
This is a Tadpole Madtom correct?
http://www.keepitfis...nals/madtom.jpg
http://www.keepitfis...als/madtom2.jpg

This is the biggest crayfish I've caught so far:
http://www.keepitfis...ls/crayfish.jpg

And also caught this green/blue color morph I had never caught before:
http://www.keepitfis...s/crayfish2.jpg


These eggs ended up in our net...are these frog eggs (i.e. tadpole eggs?)
http://www.keepitfis...canals/eggs.jpg


now this guy I need help with. what is this fish?
http://www.keepitfis...nals/hybrid.jpg

it's not a jaguar (mouth is too small, eyes dont match, markings dont match); it's not a spotted tilapia (body shape doesnt match, too many stripes); it's not a black acara (body shape doesnt match, mouth doesn't match, markings dont match); it's not salvini or jewel as they're not even close in resemblance. i'm fairly confident it's a cichlid. the body shape makes me think jaguar but mouth and markings dont match at all. eyes are like those of spotted tilapia and mayan cichlids. the blue in the nose I dont know it from any cichlid i've collected.

did we stumble upon a new (to us) species of cichlid? or could this be a Blue Tilapia x Jaguar hybrid (my guess)?

i hope you enjoyed the pictures and thanks for your help identifying the mystery fish!

Jewel - maybe H.guttatus, but they're hard to tell and could be hybrid domesticated strains.
Tadpole madtom - yes i think so.
Eggs - the photo makes it look like a tight cluster, more like apple snail eggs than frog eggs.
mystery cichlid - tilapia, either blue, nile or hybrid of those.

Jewel - maybe H.guttatus, but they're hard to tell and could be hybrid domesticated strains.
Tadpole madtom - yes i think so.
Eggs - the photo makes it look like a tight cluster, more like apple snail eggs than frog eggs.
mystery cichlid - tilapia, either blue, nile or hybrid of those.

thanks for the help with the IDs. i had done extensive research yesterday night online and came to the conclusion it must be either a juvenile Nile Tilapia or a hybrid between the Nile and Spotted Tilapias. is there a way to tell if it's hybridized? where could I find an image of a juvenile nile tilapia?

Thanks for posting this. These fish are beautiful.

thanks, i'm glad you enjoyed the pictures.
these aren't nearly as colorful or impressive as some of my previous trips, so if you liked this, go down this board for my other dipnetting trips. i think you will enjoy those pictures even more!

did you figure out those eggs yet? are they firm like snail eggs or squishy like amphibian eggs?
BTW - my first-glance impression was eggs on the back of a giant water bug; something about the way the plants are laying under the eggs made it look like a bug.

i was told these were snail eggs from Ramshorn Snails. however, i'm not too confident on that. most snail eggs i've seen that are that big (apple's) are laid above water. these were underwater, very squishy and very BIG in my opinion to be snail eggs. on the other hand, i've only found these clumps in places where ramshorn snails were a million per square foot, so perhaps?

Yemil, thanks for posting these. As far as I know, there is only one species of Jewelfish established in Florida--Hemichromis letourneauxi. This one looks like a letourneauxi to me.

The bluespots are really neat. So is the salvini. (I raise these. Hope to get some new stock when I get down there again.)

Not sure what your mystery fish is.

well it makes it much easier for me if all the jewels are H. letourneauxi! if you check out the species index on GCAS i have three very distinctly different images of the jewels, one would think are different species!

dont forget to let us know when you come down here so we can go together and catch some good stuff