Minnow Species

[Trav]

I have a few thousand of these guys under my dock. Just wandered if anybody knows what specie it is?

Sorry about the fuzzy pics. My Cam dont like to focus to well on itty bitty things.

[fox_76]

No idea Trav, you might check my latest post in "general chat" go to the link there. do some research It is kinda hard to see detail on the pic to identify it.

[taxidermist]

Fish of Missouri book should have them. Maybe goole minnows of Missouri photos?

[Danoinark]

Trav, email Fox Statler, who occasionally contributes here. He is a minner expert and would know it right off.

Write him here from his website

http://willowford.net/

Dano

[Trav]

I have scooped out about thirty of them and put them in a 55 gallon tank. They are mostly an 1/8 of an inch long. So small that they are nothing but specks. I have been able to seperate them into 5 different species. Shapes of tails and placement of fins have three of the species easily spotted.

I have determined that most are actually frye, if not all of them. About a week old. Some are easily yellow carp. I have two that seem to be skipjacks.If not skip jacks then they might be Gar. and three that are surprisingly have tails and fins like they are flathead catfish. Just no whiskers or thorns. The two other species seem like minnows but one species that has serious fins that resemble trout perch.

I guess as they grow I will figure it out. Will keep you posted.

[Al Agnew]

Geez, Trav, you gotta get a camera that can take close-ups! No way anybody can ID from those photos.

Baby gar look just like big gar except they usually have a dark stripe running down their sides. No idea what kind of fish looks like a baby flathead without whiskers, since baby catfish have whiskers just like the big ones.

Your fish that you said might be a gar is probably a brook silverside. Long thin silvery colored (almost translucent) fish with a fairly long snout and big mouth. If you look closely, if it has a small spiny fin rather far forward on its back, that's what it is.

Your first pictures, although too blurry to tell, kinda made me think of Ozark minnows (yes there is a species called an Ozark minnow). One of the most common minnows on Ozark streams, and probably do well in the lakes as well.

[Trav]

hmmmm

The silverside brook is probably right on. A cat with no whiskers...hmmmm, it has the rounded tail like a flathead. Flat head and the fins are similar. Your the expert so I believe you. Do Ozark Minnows have forked tails with a dark lateral line? Nothing more I can say about them, they look like minnows!

[Gavin]

Trav, you might want to poke around here a bit...

http://mdc.mo.gov/fish/fishid/

Ozark Minnows have a hint of a lateral line, but its usually more prominent on Shiner Minnows (Bleeding, Cardinals, of Dusky Stripes). The Dusky Stripe is the one found in the White River Drainage...look under the minnow category.

The long slender one might be a silverside or some kind of topminnow

The one that looks like a catfish, might be a sculpin.

Just a WAG, w/o better pictures. Cheers.

[Trav]

Gavin

I think your right. They probably are scuplins. And the bulk of them are duskystripes.

Haha, If anything I just got an eduacation about minnows.

Thanks guys.

[Chief Grey Bear]

Flathead tails are square. Not round.

Now going purely by the pics and nothing else I think we can say that it is defiantly not a Brook Silverside. The body of this creature is too bulky. Silversides are more like a small twig with fins.

Ozark Minnow, by looking at the pic, could be a good choice. I also wonder about a Mosquitofish. But I can't compare the size by the pic. The Mosquitofish has a rounded tail, but the pic looks like that fish may have a forked tail. Now a Blackstripe and a Blackspotted Topminnow both have dark stripe and rounded tails. I don't believe the Blackstripe to be in a White River drainage though.

Like Al stated we need better pics.