Identification help please

[Keeper of the Ropes]

I don't have pics yet but I can get some later on today...

Here's what I know - they are highly abundant in a Texas stream I visited yesterday. I have what appear to be males and females, I don't know if they are minnows or just young babies of big fish. They stay top to mid level in the tank, until the light is on when they dash for the bottom to hide. Some bury themselves in the sand. They don't have sucker mouths. They range in size from about an inch to maybe a little over two inches. The males are much more colorful, with a regular beige color all over with solid black vertical stripes (maybe a dozen?) on the main part of their body. Their fins are tinted red. The females are similar, but lacking the red fins and their stripes are less pronounced.

I just went through a few websites and found nothing - I will take pix when I get home from work.

I also found what LOOKED like bluegill fry, but now I'm not sure. To be honest, it really looks like someone released their cichlids in the stream. Completely plain colored with a solid black dot on the tail, but with the same body as every day cichlids. I only found two of those.

Any help on either of these species would be greatly appreciated.

Keeper

 

[teleost]

sounds like plains killifish (Fundulus zebrinus) on the first fish but would need a photo of the second fish or tell us how big it was, where and how big the dot was and what type of water did you find the last fish in.

I've been looking for plains killifish for a while. Any chance I could convince you to send a few to the chicago area? I'll either trade fish from my area or pay shipping and handling.

 

[Keeper of the Ropes]

You are *AWESOME* - I looked up that species, and that's definitely it. There are millions of them to be had down here - one scoop with the net yields about a dozen. Wow. Okay let me see about the pic of the cichlid-ish looking one.

 

[meepster]

for a minute there I thought you had endangered gambusia