ID assistance request
Started by
Guest_moxostoma_*
, May 05 2010 12:48 AM
1 reply to this topic
#1
Guest_moxostoma_*
Guest_moxostoma_*
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Posted 05 May 2010 - 12:48 AM
OK, I must admit that I am a newbie when it comes to identifying tiny fish. I can't even convince myself that I know what family this is in. If someone can give me a binomial name for this I'd be very grateful! It came from the Lester River in Duluth, MN. This is a tributary of Lake Superior and the fish was caught below the first barrier falls.
#2
Guest_daveneely_*
Guest_daveneely_*
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Posted 05 May 2010 - 05:21 AM
Hi Mox,
You've got a sculpin there, family Cottidae. I suspect you're going to be unable to identify it 100% from your photos; there's two likely candidates in the Lester, and your best bet would have been to open its mouth and look for the presence/absence of palatine teeth on the roof of the mouth. All of our freshwater sculpins have a wedge-shaped and slighly curved vomerine tooth patch on the front midline of the roof of the mouth; palatine teeth will be in a slender and often slightly curved row or patch just to either side of this. The teeth are often deeply set into thick tissue with only the tips protruding, but you can typically see the rough surface of the tooth tips or feel them by gently probing with forceps. The other option would have been to count pelvic fin rays (covered up by your fingertips in the pics). Palatine teeth present + usually 4 pelvic rays on each side would suggest mottled sculpin; palatine teeth absent and 3 pelvic rays would suggest slimy sculpin. There's some other characters that you could use to be positive, but those are the easiest and work in most of the Great Lakes and NE US.
That's a neat river, fished/sampled it a couple years back myself -- What were you doing up there, anyway?
You've got a sculpin there, family Cottidae. I suspect you're going to be unable to identify it 100% from your photos; there's two likely candidates in the Lester, and your best bet would have been to open its mouth and look for the presence/absence of palatine teeth on the roof of the mouth. All of our freshwater sculpins have a wedge-shaped and slighly curved vomerine tooth patch on the front midline of the roof of the mouth; palatine teeth will be in a slender and often slightly curved row or patch just to either side of this. The teeth are often deeply set into thick tissue with only the tips protruding, but you can typically see the rough surface of the tooth tips or feel them by gently probing with forceps. The other option would have been to count pelvic fin rays (covered up by your fingertips in the pics). Palatine teeth present + usually 4 pelvic rays on each side would suggest mottled sculpin; palatine teeth absent and 3 pelvic rays would suggest slimy sculpin. There's some other characters that you could use to be positive, but those are the easiest and work in most of the Great Lakes and NE US.
That's a neat river, fished/sampled it a couple years back myself -- What were you doing up there, anyway?
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