ID MY AWESOME CATCH!!!!

[Lepisosteus platyrhincus]

Alright well it isnt the greatest but the first fish I have caught and put in any aquarium:headbang2. I want to know what type he is and what he eats. Thank you!!!!!:D

[Lepisosteus platyrhincus]

The last pic is a cool pic that my wife took of one of my gars

[CichlidAddict]

Maybe some type of darter.

[MultispeciesTamer]

its a sculpin of some sort they can be hard to take care of, get big and eat tank mates. Nice gar btw

[andyjs]

Yep, some type of sculpin. Maybe a mottled, Cottus bairdi

[Lepisosteus platyrhincus]

ohhh goody!!! a new predator!!!!! sweeet!!!!!!
OK what type of tank, how big should i expect from this guy? And what food? he is by himself right now. Will he eat ghost shrimp? I love this little guy.
Was hunting for crayfish(none found) when i moved a rock and found this little guy. he darted, and i tracted him down and was able to catch him with a water bottle with the top cut off. When I saw him in the water, then in the bottle i had to keep him. I have never seen these before. How common are they?

[Lepisosteus platyrhincus]

oh and thanks multispecies
he is nearly a year old now. I love him. he was my gateway into MFK
anybody got any info on my catch??

[MultispeciesTamer]

wish i could help you but ive never kept one, they do look neat i seen some up to a foot maybe larger (Iam not sure what species they were). They are farily common along the great lakes and tributaries.

[uncwnells]

maybe google the species name for more info, thats a cool looking fish whatever it is!

[Lepisosteus platyrhincus]

thank u!!! just not sure on feeding!!!

[MultispeciesTamer]

try everything

[sandtiger]

This might be of some use, from the Fishes of PA web site...
http://www.fish.state.pa.us/pafish/fishhtms/chap20.htm#mottscu
It is a sculpin but what species exactly I'm not certain. I suggest feeding it ghost shrimp, chopped worms and things of that nature. It should eventually take frozen foods like bloodworms and krill. Generally sculpin prefer cool well oxygenated waters and so don't usually do well in aquaria.

Regarding their care try these out...
http://www.nativefish.org/articles/goodbad.php

[B3AST]

My advice Bloodworms and brine shrimp, ghost might be to big for now!

[blurock]

Def a sculpin. The ones in my area are lucky if they reach 5-6" Only ones ive seen that reach a foot are the marine variety of horned sculpin.

They will love earthworms, guppies, ghost/cherry shrimp. Pretty much if it moves they will eat it. If you get a current going in the tank, they will take frozen bloodworms pretty easily. (also works if they are by an airstone and you feed the bloodworms in the current of the airstone... they just need to be moving. They are ambush predators, so play on that part of their instints

They have great personalities, and usually adjust to being in a tank pretty quick, though I've had issues with them being perfectly healthy and happy, and just one day finding them dead... still dont know why and tried several different things. May just be stress, or something else, dont know. They make great tankmates for Yellow Perch and Sunfish, make sure to give them hiding places. They really like rock ledges/caves driftwood to hid under that sort of thing.

As for water conditions, your best bet is going to be to replicate as close as possible the water you pulled it out of. Around my area we have them in lakes that will get to be 75-80 degrees in the summer, and rivers that never get warmer than 40 degrees. For the most part, you would probably be safe with an unheated tank, in a normal room, unless you got it out of an extreme like a cold river, or hot little mudpuddle....

Hope that helped!

[Lepisosteus platyrhincus]

he is in a unheated tank. he shows no interest in ghost shrimp or sinking pellets, gonna try blood worms!!! thanks guys and keep any info comming

[Lepisosteus platyrhincus]

tryed blood worms, he showed interest untill they stopped on the bottom. I upgraded the air pump in his tank to get more water flowing and to get more oxygen in his tank. anything else to try for food?

[indiana.dutton]

Lookin good! try guppy fry or BBS Baby Brine Shrimp

[Lepisosteus platyrhincus]

caught another fish today. will need id when i get pics

[MultispeciesTamer]

caught another fish today. will need id when i get pics
kk post them

[Lepisosteus platyrhincus]

i will in bout 30 min

[Lepisosteus platyrhincus]

what is this little guy? i caught another but it was guarding a bounch of eggs so i let it go.

[Lepisosteus platyrhincus]

Nobody for my new fish? I believe its a darter. GIVE ME CARE INFO!!!!
i could look it up but id rather get info from the peeps that keep them

[sandtiger]

I would guess that it is a fantail darter but thats without trying to key it out or anything. That same site the sculpin article came from has darter articles as well, check out the article section on nativefish.com

[Cerbios]

I dont know what it is, but I want one now. Looks like he'll be a neat looking fish when he grows up.

[drewish]

I would suggest you get a copy of the Peterson Field Guide for NA freshwater fish. And also familiarize yourself with the protected species in PA. If you are going to continue collecting fish, do yourself a favor and do both.

[Lepisosteus platyrhincus]

it is not a fantail nor any endagerd species. i looked at the endaged species before hand and i know its not them. i just am not sure of the species

[Proteus]

Hey had the exact same darter that I have been looking ID for because of the fact that most of the darter profiles that fit mostly- had the blue on top of red on the fin, I could not find pictures of darters with the exact same as this one the red on the top of blue.

Drove me nuts and am glad I'm not the only one thats looking for species ID- it was in the minnow bucket with all other fathead minnows. It was put into a 120 coldwater tank few months back and its no more as have not see it since.

[chefjamesscott]

I know what kind of fish it is do you want the scientific name or the common name


































It is called lunchtimeicus snackicus or big fish appetizer

jk nice looking snag hope you can keep it alive

[Lepisosteus platyrhincus]

lol. thanks. both of them still are not eating!!! i want these little suckers to live!!! help!!!!

[chefjamesscott]

my suggestion would be go back to the place where you got them and sweep a net in the water to catch any live food that might be there. Introduce that to the tank as well as introduce live brine shrimp and other live stuff they may only go for live stuff not to much pellets to be found in the wild. While you are at point of origin take temp readings and water tests to see if you can replicate in your home tank

[Lepisosteus platyrhincus]

i added some of the bugs i found in that water. i dont know if they ate them. they wont touch blood worms or ghost shrimp. im hoping the ghost shrimp will have babies soon(2 are berried) and they can eat them. i think my darter is a teselated darter with odd colors. also any one know were i can get live ghost shrimp for cheap?

[drewish]

Your fish is a fantail darter. I recommend giving them some place to hide and feed them live blackworms.

How do you know it isn't endangered if you don't know what it is?

[Delhezi B]

When I had my Darter all they would eat was small earthworms and daphniea

[Moontanman]

If you want them to eat I would suggest live black worms or live daphnia, the black worms would be easier to get short notice but if you're going to try and keep fish like this I suggest you set up a three daphnia vats and rotate them so you always have live food on hand.

[Lepisosteus platyrhincus]

fantail darter is not listed as a species in PA!!!! i looked at the darter species listed and this fits the tesselated darter. It looks like none of the endangered species!!!
how can it be a fantail when they are not listed??
and were can i get live blackworms or how do i set up things for daphnia?

[Lepisosteus platyrhincus]

Tesselated Darter Etheostoma olmstedi
Species overview: The tesselated darter can be found from southern Canada’s St. Lawrence River drainage to Georgia. In Pennsylvania, it is found in the Delaware, Potomac and Susquehanna River watersheds. The tesselated darter greatly resembles the johnny darter, and it was formerly considered a subspecies of the johnny darter.
http://www.fish.state.pa.us/pafish/tessdarm350.jpg (http://www.fish.state.pa.us/pafish/tessdarm.jpg)
Identification: “Tesselated” refers to the fish’s having a mosaic-like or checkered pattern. The tesselated darter’s coloration is pale-sandy, fading to white on the bottom. The back and upper sides of the tesselated darter have nine to 11 pronounced, small X-shaped or W-shaped marks. This species, like the johnny darter, has a single anal fin spine. Other darters in Pennsylvania have two anal fin spines. The mouth is positioned low and is horizontal. The mouth ends below the front of the eye.
Tesselated darter breeding adults develop 12 or 13 vertical bars on the sides, while losing the X-shaped and W-shaped markings. The upper side scales become wholly outlined in a dark color. The fin membranes, except those of the pectoral fins, grow dark with lighter tips on the pelvic and pectoral fins. In this phase, tesselated darters are sometimes mistaken for small yellow perch. Tesselated darters reach a length of about 3 1/2 inches.

Habitat: The tesselated darter prefers the quieter portions of sandy or mud-bottomed flowing water or still water, except in the breeding season.

Life history: Tesselated darters spawn in the spring, around May or June. The female deposits adhesive eggs on the tops and sides of rocks. The female quivers as she drops her eggs, and the male fertilizes the eggs as he swims slowly over them. After spawning, the female leaves the nest. The male remains to guard the eggs. The male aerates the eggs either by swimming upside down, finning them with his pectoral fins, or by holding his position with the pectoral fins and fanning with his tail. The eggs incubate at around 65 degrees and hatch in about three weeks.
Tesselated darters feed mostly on small insects and crustaceans at first. As the fish grow, they consume bigger insects.


http://www.fish.state.pa.us/pafish/fishhtms/chap23.htm
fantail is not listed!! explain that one smarty pants!!! by the way im in the potomac watershed

[drewish]

It is not a tessellated darter I'll tell you that...

Check this out : http://www.natureserve.org/imagerepository/GetImage?SRC=2&BATCH=5&FMT=gif&RES=551X551&NAME=AFCQC02250

I believe that is PA up there...

P.S. You can get live blackworms at your LFS

[Lepisosteus platyrhincus]

its not listed in pa, also i believe that im in the county not highlighted!
any other pics of fantails?
and thanks on the blackworms note!

[drewish]

Just because it isn't listed doesn't mean they aren't there. I also don't know how often natureserve is updated but they are in PA.

http://gallery.nanfa.org/d/6676-3/Etheostoma+flabellare+Fantail+Darter+.jpg

[Lepisosteus platyrhincus]

ok! thank you.

[MN_Rebel]

Yup thats fantail darter.

[sandtiger]

I assume you've been looking at this link?
http://www.fish.state.pa.us/pafish/fishhtms/chapindx.htm

Their list in unfortunately incomplete. It even says on their darter page "At least 21 darter species have been recorded in Pennsylvania" but the site only has profiles for 12.

[bumpylemon]

check my profile for my darters..ill get you an exact ID within an hour...brb

[bumpylemon]

i only have female fantails...so im not so sure its a fantail...if it is its a male for sure...

[bumpylemon]

my darters all eat brine shrimp and bloodworms.

[bumpylemon]

This is the response I got from my native forum


Not a darter, that's a sculpin, family Cottidae. I'm not the best at IDing cottids to species, and I don't know what you have up that way, but I would guess a mottled sculpin, Cottus bairdi based generally on how widespread they are. Maybe someone else can chime in..

[drewish]

This is the response I got from my native forum


Not a darter, that's a sculpin, family Cottidae. I'm not the best at IDing cottids to species, and I don't know what you have up that way, but I would guess a mottled sculpin, Cottus bairdi based generally on how widespread they are. Maybe someone else can chime in..

You do realize that there are two fish in this post? The first is a sculpin and the second is a fantail darter.

[bumpylemon]

haha i didnt catch the 3rd page..thanks...thats why i was like no way that first one is a fantail lmao. thanks

[bumpylemon]

speaking of sculpins though...most are protected.

[Lepisosteus platyrhincus]

mottled is not

[Lepisosteus platyrhincus]

they are doing ok but not sure if they are eating. the water proved too cold for the shrimp and they all died. not sure how to feed them.....
geuss ill try to get live black worms from petsmart
they do have some small insects i caught in the water with them. i havent seen any in awhile so they may be eating them or they may be in the substrate

[Lepisosteus platyrhincus]

ha! they are now eating. i feed them small red worms!! they love them

[animalcracker]

It is definately a sculpin where did you catch him I'm from Pennsylvania and have kept mottled sculpin and darters in the past. I know that the sculpins were more finicky about eating and I would try collecting some algae covered rocks with caddis flys and stone fly larvae all over them. They will eat that when they are small. Maybe even brine shrimp would be a good choice. However, after a few weeks they should figure out flake food. Good luck they really are a beautiful fish!

[Lepisosteus platyrhincus]

it died. i set up a larger new tank with some very small crays and more sculpin. much larger this time. 4 in and 2 at 3". they are doin much better!

[Bottomfeeder]

I'm late for the party again, but I'd say to dump in a bunch of Mosquito larvae, Daphnia, Fairy Shrimp, (non-endangered kind lol) etc