jasonrl's Favourites

Snapping Turtle came out of the water onto the small island in the center of the pond, took a Canada Goose egg, and then went back in the water. The whole thing was over and done with in about two minutes. The Geese were not too happy.

While fishing, I observed a spawning aggregation of blue sucker immediately below Barkley Dam near Grand Rivers, KY. They were visibly spawning near the shoreline over large rip-rap. The rocks were covered with their eggs.

This rock was flipped as part of a stream invertebrate survey. A very flustered male fantail darter was under it, presumably the father guarding his eggs. He returned to his lookout position shortly after we returned the rock.

Specimens were wild caught, photos were after specimens were vouchered for research purposes. Caught in 2015 while community sampling mid-sized rivers of Missouri.

3rd photo is close up comparison with Bluntnose Minnow on the left.
4th photo is close up comparison with Bluntnose Minnow on the right.

Inner lining of body cavity silver, upper lip considerably thickened at midline.

Thought I lost these photos from last year! Glad I found ‘em. This is a hybrid lepomid. I’m as certain as certain can be without a DNA test that this is an F1 wargreen (L. cyanellus x L. gulosus). It’s likeness is also very similar to this hybrid type published in Childer’s Hybridization of Four Species of Sunfishes - 1967. Caught from the rocks along the shore.

The mouth size remains very large, the pectoral fin does not even extend to the posterior edge of the eye, and the gill rakers remain long and thin as is seen on both parent species. The first two traits would usually be smaller (more intermediate) if hybridization with another lepomid had occurred.

The dorsal spines remain short, which is typical of both parent species but more so on green sunfish. The dark mottling in the median fins is very warmouth-like and the orange-white margins on the median fins is very green-like.

The dark radiating lines from the eye that are typical on a warmouth are a bit confused and mashed together. No well-developed tooth patch was on the tongue like is seen on warmouth, but that has been documented as common when warmouth hybridize with other lepomids.

11.9 cm TL. 3 anal spines, 9 anal rays, 10 dorsal spines, 9 dorsal rays, & 13 pectoral rays (L). The low anal ray and dorsal ray counts match well for green and warmouth.

Released after photos.

I caught this a few years back. This Ghost Shiner was vouchered and verified by Missouri's state ichthyologist.
In this particular system Ghost Shiner are extremely rare and had not been documented for about 30 years.

Also included side by side photos with Mimic Shiner. Notice how much more fain the pigmentation is on the Ghost Shiner