On Jan. 6th I went out on my first collecting trip of the year. The weather was really nice, in the 50's and I was in an area I had not been before. Luckly I had my waders, a bucket and my dip net with me, sadly not my seine though. I went to a spot called Dean's Cove on the east side of Cayuga lake. There was a stream there that ran into the lake. The stream was very fast and difficult to see through. I dipnetted around the rocks along the bank and came up with a single creek chub and dozens of bluntnose minnows and dozens of some other cyprinid that I was hoping you guys could help me with. Nothing very exciting but typical for the area. I also managed to net up a leopard frog and a green frog. The frogs were in a still portion of the creek where a lot of dead plant matter had gathered, that's where I found most of the fish as well. Probably the best part of the trip was the mink I saw. He swam up on one side of the bank to gather up a dead muskrat (that I assume he killed before I got there) but my gf and her brother were sitting there in his way. He then ran down the side of the stream, passed right by me, swam across again and then into the bushes were he would again peek out and look around a little later on.

So here is one of the cyprinids I kept. I have a few ideas on what it might be but these things are very difficult for me to ID. This scan probably won't help but I figured it was worth a shot. Since there are so many species of small silvery minnows I an also including a list of the fishes from my watershed, it's not a very diverse list do it might help a little bit.


http://www.natureser...jsp?huc=4140201

I could narrow it down but the picture is not the clearest and there are a couple on that list I'm not familiar with...

These are small silvery things i'm familiar with that it could be
Emerald Shiner
Spottail Shiner
Mimic Shiner
Rosyface Shiner
Spotfin Shiner

These I'm not familiar with so just put them in because I don't know what they look like
Swallowtail Shiner
Comely Shiner
Bridle Shiner

I also probably wouldn't rule out a young striped or common shiner but they do get larger, realy just need a better picture to say much.

Not sure this helps at all but it's probably one of the above.

Those are basically the fish I had it narrowed down to as well. It's probably something common around here like an emerald or spottail. I want it to be a comely but highly doubt it it, more wishful thinking then anything. Thanks anyway, I figured the scan probably would not help much. I have a book on the state fishes, with a key and everything but the fish are just so small. I guess I'll have to find a disecting microscope to use or wait till they grow.