Re: NANFA-L-- Help with fish ID, please

Dustin Smith (dsmith73-in-hotmail.com)
Fri, 07 Apr 2006 08:16:52 -0400

Torrent sucker was my guess as well, but having never seen one in person, I
didn't want to go out on a limb. Most pictures of torrent suckers on the
web show them in breeding color with the red side stripe, but they don't
look like that year round.

Dustin Smith
Lexington, SC
At the convergence of the Broad, Saluda and Congaree

----Original Message Follows----
From: "mike whitfield" <mdwfield-in-comcast.net>
Reply-To: nanfa-l-in-nanfa.org
To: <nanfa-l-in-nanfa.org>
Subject: Re: NANFA-L-- Help with fish ID, please
Date: Fri, 7 Apr 2006 00:00:49 -0400

Looks like a torrent sucker to me. I can't tell too much about the mouth.
If it is a semi-circle (viewed from below), then it's a hogsucker, probably
Roanoke. Also, hogsuckers have a very distinctive head when viewed from
front - very wide for the fish's size. On the other hand, if its mouth is a
shallow arc, then it's probably a torrent sucker, which are (I think) native
to the general area.

Mike Whitfield

"My plans for world domination have encountered a momentary setback. Talk
amongst yourselves." -Bucky D. Katt

"Little children who could neither walk nor talk were running about in the
streets cursing their maker." - Sir Boyle Roche

----- Original Message -----
From: "lstaunt" <kodyboyd-in-earthlink.net>
To: <nanfa-l-in-nanfa.org>
Sent: Thursday, April 06, 2006 8:23 PM
Subject: NANFA-L-- Help with fish ID, please

> I'm new to observing native fish and also new to this email list, so
please
> bear with me...
>
> I'm having trouble identifying a fish I came across this weekend and am
> hoping someone here can help me.
>
> The fish is about 2" long, and I found it in the Robinson River in the
Syria
> area of Madison County, Virginia. I'm not sure whether this factoid
matters,
> but the stream is one stocked with trout by the state that same weekend.
>
> It was located in slow-moving, shallow (4-6" give or take), rocky water
> along with darters, sculpins, lampreys, and crayfish. I saw two more in a
> deeper pool (2-3') next to the shallow water. They appeared to be the
same
> size.
>
> The fish has what I believe is a sucker sort of a mouth with a fat lower
lip
> that is shaped sort of like a W. I scooped him out of the water with a
> little net and placed him in a critter keeper with some rocks from the
> stream and got a couple photos of him. The picture of his mouth isn't the
> greatest, but hopefully it shows the W shape I mentioned above. He also
> appears to have little flaps of skin in front of his eyes that I didn't
> notice until I was posting the photos a few minutes ago. If I'd realized
> they were there, I would have tried to get better photos of them before I
> put him back.
>
> The whole fish from the side:
> <http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b108/LouInVA/Fish/_DSCN4283.jpg>
>
> The mouth and the possible eye flap (which I believe I can also see in
other
> photos on both sides of his head)
> <http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b108/LouInVA/Fish/DSCN4276.jpg>
>
> The fish from above:
> <http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b108/LouInVA/Fish/DSCN4331.jpg>
>
> I tried using the species list for Madison County from the VAFWIS site
and
> the VA Tech Virtual Aquarium site as well as a couple other internet
> resources and have failed miserably to come up with an ID that I'm
> comfortable matches. I also tried using google images to look up the
various
> suckers and jumprocks and such reported in VA (as I thought they seemed
the
> most likely suspects). Also looked-in-lots of native fish pictures on
other
> websites, including links from this email list. Being a newbie-in-this,
> though, I'm sure I'm missing something obvious and am hoping the members
of
> this list will recognize him immediately or-in-least be able to point me
in
> the right direction to ID him.
>
> Thank you in advance for any assistance you can offer.
> Lou
> Madison, VA
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/ visit http://www.nanfa.org Please make sure all posts to nanfa-l are
/ consistent with the guidelines as per
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/ This is the discussion list of the North American Native Fishes
/ Association (NANFA). Comments made on this list do not necessarily
/ reflect the beliefs or goals of NANFA. For more information about NANFA,
/ visit http://www.nanfa.org Please make sure all posts to nanfa-l are
/ consistent with the guidelines as per
/ http://www.nanfa.org/guidelines.shtml To subscribe, unsubscribe, or get
/ help, visit the NANFA email list home page and archive at
/ http://www.nanfa.org/email.shtml