NANFA-L-- fish IDs

J. C. (hillbillynursery-in-yahoo.com)
Tue, 23 May 2006 20:22:49 -0700 (PDT)

OK, first off I know you can not ID a fish for sure
from a description. But the camera did not take good
pics through the plastic bags and I released nearly
all the fish. I tried finding a guide of sorts on line
with no luck. I was in the small creeks joining Stones
River and the river in Cannon county near the spring
that starts the river on the south side of Short
mountain. I have one dead fish of one of the species
which I am waiting on the camera to recharge to take a
picture of it and the fish I brought home. My net is a
6 foot cast net with 1/2 holes.

First one is what I would call a shiner. Grey/brown
on top with silver/white sides and belly with light
yellow fins. It was about 3 inches long. My guess
would be female as it looked full of eggs.

Second one was small(1 1/4 inches) and yellowish all
over with black bloches that in places came together
to make larger spots mostly down the
lateraline?(middle of side). Definately female as she
squirted eggs when I handled her. It reminded me of
the gold form of the least killifish which is actually
a livebearer which would not have squirted eggs in my
hand. I just did a google for least killifish and the
gold form looks very close to the right fish.

The third fish is another shiner. It is blue/grey on
top with it getting more blueish white silver then
silver. It had black spots(freckles) in its tail fin
and all other fins were nearly colorless but with a
dingy yellow brown tint.

The fourth was a darter. I could see the males and
never could catch one. The males were orange and
blue/grey from what I could see. The females were 2
tone dark and light brown with a row of orange dots in
the dorsal fin. How I got the female was she happened
to be close to the bank and apon hauling in the net
full of shiners got pulled from the water. She was in
bad shape from being rolled from the river. It was a
single solid sheet of bedrock but had a channel cut in
it over time. The fish was in less than 2 inches of
water. So now you know how I got such a good look at
the males. They were right in front of me spawning on
a small batch of gravel on the bedrock. When I went
back to that side I forgot about these fish being
there.

The fifth one is dark grey-black with blood red fins
and belly. Where the black and red meet down the sides
it had a shark tooth pattern(VVVVVV). Even though they
are 4 inches long I had a very hard time actually
catching them. They are thin and would swim through
the net. The 2 I did catch were hanging from the
outside of the net. I brought these 2 home and during
the trip they turned light grey with light pink
bellies with red fins. They seem to be doing great
though.

The last one is the one I brought home the dead one
of. I actually think it is a killifish but it is
large. The large male I caught was much larger than
the one I brought home. The one here is 4 1/2 inches
long. Light blue red spots dots down the sides in rows
from head to tail. A black band in the caudal fin with
a orange band behind it. I am going to try and attach
a picture of it. All close ups are out of focus but I
could try for some more.

Later, John

John Cox of Cumberland Killifish
Honey Robber beekeeping and removal services

Please join A Fishy World my new email group all
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