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got a couple new ones to identify

Started by Guest_trojannemo_* , Dec 08 2009 12:35 AM

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14 replies to this topic

#1 Guest_trojannemo_*

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Posted 08 December 2009 - 12:35 AM

hey guys. went out again with the vice president of the club and caught some interesting stuff.
for the first time caught "halfbeaks". that's what i've heard them be called, but i can't find much information on them when I do a google search. what is the scientific name for this fish?

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i also caught a bunch of these. is this a melanistic strain of F. chrysotus or a different species altogether?
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and I figured while I'm at it...

is this a Snapping Turtle?
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and what is this ON the grass shrimp? it looked like some sort of bug/parasite attached to it. the club vice president caught a bunch of shrimp and i heard him say "these are different shrimp...they have the egg mass on the side!" so I go to look at it, and this is what I see. they had no eggs but had this round thing attached to them...
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as always thanks for the help!

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#2 Guest_catfish_hunter_*

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Posted 08 December 2009 - 02:58 AM

That turtle is a Florida Common Snapper, that thing on the shrimp is freaking me out, and I'm not sure about the first three pictures.

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#3 Guest_reebok_*

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Posted 08 December 2009 - 03:58 AM

I'm sure the first is (as we refer to them in the UK) a Pike Livebearer, Belonesox belizanus. Presumably an introduced species in Florida?

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#4 Guest_smbass_*

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Posted 08 December 2009 - 07:43 AM

yes the first fish is a pike livebearer and they are not native to FL. Your correct on the other two, first shot is a male second a female. I like the melanistic strain of those and have some myself.

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#5 Guest_trojannemo_*

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Posted 08 December 2009 - 08:28 AM

That turtle is a Florida Common Snapper, that thing on the shrimp is freaking me out, and I'm not sure about the first three pictures.

the thing on the shrimp freaked us all out. i would like to find out if it's a normal occurrence or something unique (and scary!).

yes the first fish is a pike livebearer and they are not native to FL. Your correct on the other two, first shot is a male second a female. I like the melanistic strain of those and have some myself.

thanks for the ID. i had been told it was a halfbeak, and those are native to florida from my understanding, thats why I posted in this category. found the info I need now with that id.
the melanistic strain of the chrysotus was very striking. when I first scooped them up I thought they were a different species, they were sooooo colorful and distinct from the regular chrysotus I catch. it was a good day yesterday :happy:

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#6 Guest_fundulus_*

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Posted 08 December 2009 - 08:35 AM

The attachment to the shrimp looks like some form of limpet that settled on the first solid surface it encountered as a drifting larval stage. I have no idea which limpet species, though.

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#7 Guest_trojannemo_*

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Posted 08 December 2009 - 08:54 AM

The attachment to the shrimp looks like some form of limpet that settled on the first solid surface it encountered as a drifting larval stage. I have no idea which limpet species, though.

i'm assuming it's not a symbiotic relationship? does it hurt the shrimp by being attached ot it, or is it just tagging along for the ride?

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#8 Guest_Kanus_*

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Posted 08 December 2009 - 09:21 AM

I vaguely remember from parasitology mention of a shrimp parasite that lives in the branchial cavity and will cause the exoskeleton to "pop out" as shown in the picture. I believe it was either a copepod or an isopod, but I just googled and can't find anything about it. Need to unpack my old textbooks one of these days...

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#9 Guest_gerald_*

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Posted 08 December 2009 - 12:27 PM

I dont think that's a limpet. Like Kanus says it looks like something growing in the branchial chamber, a parasite or tumor ???
Send the pic to Oscar Pung - he does research on shrimp parasites. >> opung@GeorgiaSouthern.edu

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#10 Guest_nativeplanter_*

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Posted 08 December 2009 - 12:36 PM

Wouldn't something like a larval limpet have been groomed off? I assume (perhaps I shouldn't) that this species can reach all parts of its exoskeleton. Otherwise I think we'd see this type of thing, as well as periphyton, more often. I really don't know, though.

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#11 Guest_fundulus_*

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Posted 08 December 2009 - 12:59 PM

From a picture it looks like a limpet, but in real life it could well be something very different. That's the downside of parlor games like this.

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#12 Guest_gzeiger_*

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Posted 08 December 2009 - 06:15 PM

I've seen that often on ghost shrimp here in SC. Assuming it's the same thing (and it looks identical) it's actually an annelid. I'm not sure if it's a leech or just a hitchhiker, but if you watch that shrimp in a bucket for a while the worm will eventually uncurl and wave around. They rarely leave the host voluntarily in my experience, but can be pulled off with tweezers without ill effect once they have relaxed from that tight ball.

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#13 Guest_fundulus_*

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Posted 08 December 2009 - 06:37 PM

Ha, that makes sense. It looks like a limpet but it ain't.

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#14 Guest_trojannemo_*

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Posted 08 December 2009 - 08:36 PM

well this is certainly out of my league. I went ahead and emailed Oscar Pung with the image. hopefully he can help us out. i'll post when he replies :happy:

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#15 Guest_trojannemo_*

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Posted 09 December 2009 - 09:18 AM

Oscar wrote back:

Looks to me like maiting pair of parasitic isopods, possibly Probopyrus pandalicola (?). They castrate the shrimp but otherwise do not seem to harm them. Up here they are not uncommon but infect only a small percentage of the shrimp Palaemonetes pugio.

he also sent me an image of the shrimp from the other side, and you can see the isopods inside the shrimp (look like worms to me!).

well I guess after sampling so many waterways and collecting so much shrimp I was bound to catch one that was infected. i'm glad at least we know what it was and it's not something worse!