Baby Fish ID

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Ok, so I guess the three tiny sunfish (3" max) I put in last year must have survived; I figured they would get eaten by the bass and walleye/sauger. I have never caught any of them in there, so I figured they were lunch for a bigger fish lol.

I guess I'll grow 'em and post pics when they get a bit bigger.

There are at least two groups of fry; one in the cattails and one under the dock, the ones from the cattails being the bigger of the two. I'm suprised I didn't see the nests (or breeding bowl things or whatever they are called lol) since I'm usually able to see them in other ponds with breeding sunfish.

They do have stripes, and I'll try to get so better pics of them.

Update: Got a better pic lol.
100_0802.jpg
 
Yeah, its kinda hard to tell with these pics, but I'm still going with crappie fry. Sunfish and bluegill fry that I have seen are not quite so transparent.
 
Do they have more of a dorsal fin than we are seeing? As noto said, sunfish and bluegill have a dorsal fin that runs 3/4 of the way to the head, where crappie dorsal fins are more tall than long......the bars suggest they're not crappie though.....
 
You can see the dorsal fin origin in the in-hand pic; it's about halfway across Wiggles' middle finger. Definitely a sunfish. Now which one...that's tricky.
 
yeah I can think of any that are that shape that would have bars. Must be bluegill
 
I think I'd go safe and agree with others here, that they're probably bluegill. I say that because after I've zoomed in and stared at these pictures for fifteen minutes or whatever, I can't see any color on the gill flaps behind the black spots. Pumpkinseeds of this size will already have a red dot, greens will have a peachy or yellow dot. It could be another kind of sunfish but the likelihood of that isn't as great.

The black bars mean little to nothing when it comes to sunfish of this size, let alone many other sunfish species of older age. They all get them as far as I know. Black bars on these fish are the equivalent of a dog wagging his tail: It signifies excitement of any kind- good or bad.
 
Juvenile bluegill have "hollow" bars, darker at the edges with a light middle. I can't see well enough to tell if that is the case here. Any chance of an even closer close-up?
 
Ok, I'll try to get an even better closeup.

Update: Got a closer closeup... however, not very good quality :irked:, but very visible stripes. This was without flash; glare is due to window behind me.

100_0804.jpg


I'm not taking any more pics; this one started swimming upside after being out of the water for just this one pic that took under 10 seconds to take :(. I put him in my goldfish pond to either recover or become golfish/LMB food if he doesn't recover.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom