Buffalo NY ID's

Did my overnight Buffalo trip where we do more driving than fishing.  Didn't do great again, and ran out of time by the time I realized how I should have been going about trying to get larger Darters and whatever else was hiding in the rocks.  Also spent a lot of time trying to catch Northern Hogsuckers.  I saw tons of them at all spots and pretty sure all were Hogs.  Had various worms and even a piece of some water bug right in their face many times but they refused to show any interest at all. 

Alas...some ID's.  #1 is the usual small minnow that I hope isn't Luxilus but ends up being Luxilus.  Think I got the rest but let's see.  

These fish were from Cayuga Creek and Buffalo Creek.  

1) ?

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2) Rainbow Darter- seemed to be most common Darter there

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3) Johnny Darter

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4) Bluntnose Minnow- learned my lesson last year not to doubt Bluntnose.  This was actually from Erie Canal spot.  

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5) Fantail Darter- This was only caught in dipnet

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6) Western Blacknose Dace- Also only caught in net

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Emerald shiner is likely. Did the scales come off super easy?

Matt- Do Emeralds go far up creeks?  I thought it looked like Emerald at first too but then I read that they are usually in open water of lakes and large rivers. 

This was caught right around where I circled below, in Cayuga Creek, which was a pretty dried up creek so didn't seem like their habitat, but I dont know much about that Creek or what it's like other times of year.  Water levels quite low right now it seems

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If I'm seeing that picture of it correctly, the dorsal fin origin seems well behind the origin of the pelvic fin, like an Emerald.  Also the eye seems large too

It isn't an emerald. Looking at it more, only thing I can come up with is golden shiner. It's pretty small.

It isn't an emerald. Looking at it more, only thing I can come up with is golden shiner. It's pretty small.

pretty small indeed.  I've been trying to avoid hooking these real small Minnows...but I had to try one to see if it's a Sand Shiner as they seem to be a very small fish.  But this fish was caught and now must be ID'd lol.  I can definitely see you being correct with this ID but I'm really struggling to see it.  I forgot all about Golden Shiner and just assumed someone would say this is a Common Shiner.  I really don't see it as either but am sure I'm wrong.  Hopefully someone else has a good read on this one and can confirm what it is.  I can try to post a different pic later from the video I took of it also.  

Thanks Matt/Jason, Ok Golden it is

here's another pic.  Mouth does appear to be that of a Golden.  

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couple others from trip

Well after getting the random juvenile Green Sunny at the Delaware last month, it appears I got another one here.  Perhaps they are more common now than I thought.  This looks like an indisputable Greenie.  

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For this one, I want to see if I'm interpretting this right.  The scales at top of head of a common shiner are smaller and more bunched up.  This below, it seems significantly less so.  Does that make this an official Striped Shiner?  I didn't catch this one of course.  If I do go there again though I will try to fish thru the Commons to get one though

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I would call that a striped. Take comparative photos. Side by side. The internet needs that photo.

yea not sure why I didnt just do that.  Here is a pic of presumably one of the Common Shiners I caught.  Some evidence of scale bunching in the pic but not a great bunchage shot.  

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cabin fever setting in heavy especially with this virus situation going on now.  Hope everyone here is safe.  

I'm bored and re-opening a case here.  This fish which was deemed a juvenile Golden Shiner in this thread.  This fish below

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I never quite bought in fully to Golden Shiner, but I think once Emerald Shiner was ruled out based on habitat, due to the dorsal fin placement it left only Golden Shiner as likely.  However, I think we overlooked Rosyface Shiner (Notropis rubellus).  They also have the dorsal set far back like this, and are also common in this watershed.  I also read that they can be confused with Emeralds. 

I was just looking at my pics of this fish again and only started thinking Rosyface when I noticed the red color by the mouth, which I originally figured was blood from the hook.  After reading that the red color on these fish is only when breeding, I think that does mean the red color is blood unless it's possible they still have some red when not breeding sometimes, however I still think it's a Rosyface now either way.  This fish seems too slender to me to be a Golden Shiner, and the mouth looks quite pointed in the first pic, the mouth looks more Rosyface than Golden-like to me.  Here's some more pics.  I also included a pic of a small Golden I've caught, it's bigger than this fish but just looks so different, and it's hard to find any pic on the web of a Golden this size looking like this.    Is anyone confident it's a Rosyface now after seeing more pics?  Feel free to say give it up Fishy, it's a Golden Shiner.  But I'm like 68% confident it's a Rosyface...need to get to the 85% confidence interval.  Thanks guys

This shot below shows the red by the mouth.  Not sure if it means anything

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This shot below shows how slender it was

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Juvenile Golden.  

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Twas an Emerald Shiner...Closing the case, unless there's any Nanfian objections.  Got off the Emerald train too quickly lol