Largemouth bass minnows have a black stripe down the side and carp minnows generally have multiple stripes and fathead minnows will be black on top. There are no bluegill or sunfish present in this pond (at least none that I have seen in the 4 or 5 years but have caught crappie). Shape and fin placement match up but still can’t consider my guess bonafide. What do you think? Got a guess? Crappie right?
The green stuff in the background is filamentous algae and a bit of a nemesis of mine. Little tiny algae particles are created when sunlight enters the water. These particles then clump together to form long silk-like strands. It doesn’t take long before the strands form large globs of “muck” that plays havoc on my fishing line. Filamentous algae is not necessarily bad for the water and has a lot of benefits for the ecosystem overall. In this case however the algae is becoming too thick and starting to hurt the overall water quality. The fish will exhaust a lot of energy filtering this organic matter through their gills similar to living in a smoke filled room. But it does give baby crappies a place to hide, feed and hopefully grow to slabilicious size next Spring.
Good luck and Good Fishing.
8 comments:
Now I'm certianly no expert on these things but to me they look like A tropical fish that I used to have called Guppies, females at that. Just a pot shot anyways.
Regards,
John
Clearly, I have no idea. But they sure are cute.
Just like the stuff in the American. Green slime. Yuk.
Mark
Great info...
Thanks.
all I can say is number 7 floating Rapala!! any takers?
Whatever they are, they are the cutest damn things. The under water footage is exquisite. The moss, not so much.
Glad to hear you gents suffer from the weed as much as us English do!
Nice post.
So after a lot of research dead ends, I posted the photo and question over at ColoradoFisherman.Com. Two members tossed out some possibilities for follow up research and I think it is safe to conclude that this is NOT a crappie but rather a Mosquito Fish.
There is an East and West version of this species and a link is provided below with a very good image.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gambusia_affinis
ColoradoFisherman.Com. is a fishing forum with a lot of good folks that put up with me from time to time. Some of the anglers that hang out here are top notch in regards to aquatic biology and Fish ID questions just like this. I can’t thank them enough for putting this one to rest.
Link to forum and comment thread below.
http://www.coloradofisherman.com/forum/index.php?topic=56766.0
Fish identification is very important to me. A lot of people throw for whatever bites and that is great. I however tend to target specific species at various times of the year and identification is the first step in my overall research. Knowing the specific tendencies, characteristics and biological patterns of each species can improve your odds dramatically. In this case, it helps to add “mosquito fish” to the list of menu items.
A bit of a letdown though as I was really hoping these were baby crappies.
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