I Caught Some Spottail Shiners!

[meepster]

I was down at the Charles River today in Boston (the second most polluted river in the USA in my opinion... the first is the ohio river but this is just my opinion)

I was dipnetting and I got netfuls and netfuls of these spottail shiners. They are very abundant. It must be spawning season because I only caught 3-4 that are 1 inch or so and the rest are about a half inch or smaller. They are very sensitive though. The smallest ones died from shock just from the netting. In all, I caught about 200 of them. About a fourth of them died during acclimation (they just died from being poured from a bucket through a net... I think it's because of the fast travelling water that hurts them)

These are still fry, but I still have about 100-150 that made it. I was expecting to catch darters but these will be ok in my new 55 gallon setup. The tank is on the ground and unheated so the water temps will change seasonally. (to simulate the natural environment)

Now the biggest obstacle is probably feeding. They like to hide in the hair algae in the river and probably eat small particle food. I think I'll get some java moss and some baby brine and see if they'll eat it.

I don't have any pictures because they are small and the lighting in my room isn't right right now. I'll try to get some pics again later.

 

[ewurm]

Looking forward to those pics. Sounds like an extremely sensitive fish. I have had no luck with shiners of any kind.

 

[teleost]

They'll eat crushed flake right away. It's a good idea to watch water quality carefully when feeding at this age. Any uneaten food can effect water quickly.
Also make sure your tank is fully cycled with such young fish. Any water quality issued can wipe the tank out in less than a day.

 

[meepster]

the tank used to hold a population of mollies. I have moved the mollies to a 20.

I think that they are sensitive to rushing water since I've seen some die in the river just by the waves from passing motorboats.

I'll try feeding them crushed flake tomorrow.

ewurm, I've had pretty good luck with golden shiners that I got at a bait shop. They were about 4-5 inches long. $4 a dozen

I have a power filter running. Are these one of those fish that need a lot of oxygen? Should I add an airstone? (I have a powerhead but I'd figure that it would kill them all since it would be a strong flow)

 

[meepster]

Well, the rest of them made it through the night so they should be ok in the tank they're in now.

Still working on those pics. They are small so they are blurry on the photos. They are fry as I've read that the adults spawn in june-july.

I fed them HBH Fry Bites and they ate them!!

Here are the pics. Still pretty hard to see.

 

[Skipjack]

Those are good sized Meepster, they should be fairly easy to feed. I would be sure to add salt. 1 tablespoon per five gallons.

 

[meepster]

they're about a half inch. The smaller ones (about a fourth of an inch) died when I netted them. Probably from shock. I have a couple 1 inchers. Don't they get 3 inches?

I'll be sure to add salt.

 

[meepster]

how big do they get?

 

[ksiaquatics]

If these are in fact spottail shiners, they get to be about 5 inches. They are one of the more robust of the Notropis shiners, and one of the most widespread in distribution. I think it would be difficult to tell which species you have, though, at that size.

 

[meepster]

I have about 2 left because the temperature spiked overnight to around 80F
and they dropped off one by one.

I have since did massive water changes and added a couple of airstones for more oxygen and to make sure the water is clean.

They are spottails because looking at the caudal fin, it is deeply forked like a spottail shiner. Fatheads do not have such deep a fork.