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Need ID on gar, darter, and possible saltwater species

Started by Guest_trojannemo_* , Dec 14 2009 12:18 AM

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8 replies to this topic

#1 Guest_trojannemo_*

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Posted 14 December 2009 - 12:18 AM

hey guys. went collecting in two places last saturday. first place was along the Big Cypress National Preserve road.
on castnet collected several species. only one of them i'm not sure of.

is this Florida Gar? if not, what species of gar is it?
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then at night I went dipnetting on a canal that looked to be brackish.
caught several freshwater fish (gambusia, bluefin killies, midas cichlids) and these two.

is this a Sand Darter or a Swamp Darter? (it was caught in possible brackish water, with no vegetation and sandy bottom)
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and finally, these guys. I have never seen this species, but i'm fairly certain this is a saltwater fish?
they were very slender, very thin and long, extremely twitchy out of water and not very fleshy. out of 8-10 not one lasted more than 20 minutes in the styrofoam container I always use...
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thanks for the help as usual!

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#2 Guest_jblaylock_*

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Posted 14 December 2009 - 09:06 AM

I can help a bit on 2 of them

1. Florida Gar (though I'm not a Gar expert, so I could be wrong)
2. Swamp Darter

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#3 Guest_Dustin_*

Guests

Posted 14 December 2009 - 09:39 AM

1. FL gar, you only have two species there if I am not mistaken and this is not a longnose. FL gar are great because they stay small and are very nicely colored.

2. I am not at all sure what this is. Habitat does not at all sound like that of a swamp darter. While this could well be a very washed out and oddly colored swamp darter, it could also be one of the drab colored gobies. Do you have more pics of this guy? The yellow eye is also odd. It is definitely not a sand darter.

3. Silverside, I am fairly certain it is an inland silverside.

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#4 Guest_Kanus_*

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Posted 14 December 2009 - 09:40 AM

Picture 3 looks like an Inland Silverside, Menidia beryllina.

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#5 Guest_trojannemo_*

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Posted 14 December 2009 - 10:04 AM

2. I am not at all sure what this is. Habitat does not at all sound like that of a swamp darter. While this could well be a very washed out and oddly colored swamp darter, it could also be one of the drab colored gobies. Do you have more pics of this guy? The yellow eye is also odd. It is definitely not a sand darter.

well when i first saw it I thought it was a swamp darter...but then had doubts because of the location and loss of color. if it's not a sand darter, then i'm confident it was a swamp darter.
thanks for the help!

the inland silverside ID seems correct based on pictures and native range :-)

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#6 Guest_fritz_*

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Posted 14 December 2009 - 11:38 AM

2 looks like a bleached out swamp darter - note the arched incomplete lateral line.

3 appears to be a brook silverside Dustin. Look at the beak (snout) with some red on it.

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#7 Guest_trojannemo_*

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Posted 14 December 2009 - 01:12 PM

i'll let you guys decide since you have more knowledge than me, but i'd have to say the fish looked more like an Inland Silverside than a Brook Silverside based on the images I found online of each species...

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#8 Guest_Dustin_*

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Posted 14 December 2009 - 02:16 PM

2 looks like a bleached out swamp darter - note the arched incomplete lateral line.

3 appears to be a brook silverside Dustin. Look at the beak (snout) with some red on it.

Beak looked too short for what I remembered for the FL fish, but after looking at some reference pics, it may well be a brook. I seem to remember there can be some red in the snout of a breeding colored inland as well, but I may be wrong about that.