As a non-scientist, I guess it's just dumb luck that I stumbled onto such
and interesting (and beautiful) group of fish. I must confess that while
collecting them, I aimed more for the brightly colored ones. So, the batch
I have is probably all male. Now I'm interested to see if the females show
the yellow fins. Also, the more I look at the other fish that I got in ones
and twos, I suspect I have several more species that I haven't IDd yet. The
warpaint look-alike is definitely a bandfin. I guess I'll have to force
myself to make another trip over there! I got a disposable underwater
camera the other day for almost nothing. If the water is as clear as it was
last time, I may try it out while I'm there. BTW, the YOY trout I
photographed that day turned out to be a rainbow. (Thanks to Dave Neely for
the ID help).
Steven A. Ellis
Kennesaw, GA
At 09:55 AM 7/19/01 -0400, you wrote:
>Yellowfin, greenhead, redlip, saffron, and rough shiners belong to the
>Notropis rubricroceus species group of the subgenus Hydrophlox. The
>greenhead (chlorocephalus) is endemic to the Santee-Catawba drainage in
>North Carolina. Yellowfin (lutipinnis) was considered to be more
>wide-ranging from the Pee Dee in South Carolina west to theAltamaha and
>upper Chatta hoochee in Georgia. While generally recognized as two
>separate species, some ichthyologists considered them subspecies because
>of evidence of intergradation in pharyngeal tooth count, and fin
>coloration. Yellowfins from the Altamaha, Savannah, and Edisto rivers
>had red fins in the breeding male, greenheads had white fins, while
>populations of yellowfins from the Santee- Broad and Pee Dee rivers in
>SC had yellow fins. Rick Mayden and his student, Rob Wood, examined
>specimens electrophoretically (Copeia 1992:68-81). What they found was
>that the greenhead shiner was a distinct species while (big surpise) the
>yellowfin was composed of 3 diagnosible units (=yellowfin) and 2
>undescribed entities (Santee and Pee Dee populations). The AFS report
>on "Diversity, distribution, and conservation status of the southern US
>fishes" calls this undescribed group "piedmont shiner". While they
>often have yellowfins, I have seen them with orange fins also. And if
>memory serves me, don't the GA fish have yellowfins when not in breeding
>condition? This group deserves more study, esp.in upstate SC, which I
>have been attempting to do.
>
>Steven - I spent 2 years at Tallulah Falls School, a small boarding
>school; I was the Science Department. Luckily for me and the students,
>I got back into fish research.
>
>Fritz Rohde
>Wilmington, NC
>
>
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