What Species?

[WildernessLofts]

So...I totally knew this yesterday cause I saw some while looking up native fish in my area, but I can't for the life of me remember where I saw it. Does anyone else know what type of fish this is?

 

[*Fishkies*]

It almost looks like a glass fish. But I'm not sure exactly, because it doesn't look exact.

 

[WildernessLofts]

It almost looks like a glass fish. But I'm not sure exactly, because it doesn't look exact.

It's a native wild fish here in Arkansas.

 

[GoldLenny]

Send a copy of the pic to this guy, Brian Wagner, [email protected] ... or a link to this forum. He's the state biologist for http/www.agfc.com/ I would hope he could tell you off the top of his head.

 

[The-Wolf]

I've had a good search through fishbase, starting with all fish found in the arkansas river basin and ending up with all native fish to the contiguous US states.
I could find no fish that looks like that, admittedly there are a few that don't have pictures on either fishbase or google.

EDIT
seems like goldlenny has the best source for an answer for you

 

[WildernessLofts]

Ironically, I have been in touch with the people there recently as they have a set of free booklets they give you that identifies animals in the area. One of the women is sending me a fish one, a backyard bird one, and a waterfowl one this week. Maybe the fish one will have the answer. As a back-up, I DID go ahead and e-mail that guy that was mentioned, so we'll see what he has to say.

Edit: Got the e-mail back earlier. He said it's a brook silverside.

 

[The-Wolf]

here is fishbases entry for the brook silverside
Labidesthes sicculus

 

[GoldLenny]

I was curious as to whether they were schoolers and found a few other profiles. None mentioned schooling but this snip from my Google search does mention it in the Google summary but not in the linked profile.

Brook Silverside in Alabama
Brook silversides are a surface feeding fish often found in larger waters traveling in schools.
www.outdooralabama.com/fishing/freshwater/fish/other/silverside/brook/ - 15k -

http/www.outdooralabama.com/fishing/fres...lverside/brook/

http/www.dnr.state.oh.us/wildlife/Fishin...hid/bsilver.htm

http/nematode.unl.edu/silverside.htm

brook_silverside

I would say... go catch some more!

 

[WildernessLofts]

Yup, they are schoolers. They can fly, too. Not very far, but about 30 ft...which would still be awesome to watch. I looked up some info about them when I got the e-mail.

The problem that I read about them is that they are hard to maintain in an aquarium. Picky eaters and whatnot. I came home with five. (I caught about 20, but that was too many.) Of the five, three died of stress. The other two just started eating two days ago. I'll get some more once I feel confident that these are going to survive.

I've read mixed things on how long they live. Some sites say they barely live to a year, some say they reach their final size at a year. I guess it would really depend upon other factors. Predation and such.

 

[GoldLenny]

Fly 30 feet? You might want to re-check that. I dont' see anything on them, such as huge pectoral fins, that would allow them to fly 30 feet.

 

[WildernessLofts]

"Evolution has provided this fish with two somewhat elongated pectoral fins. The silverside is capable of flying up to thirty feet. It is magnificent to see a school in flight, but flights are usually short."

http/www.nativefish.org/articles/Flying_Fish.php

 

[GoldLenny]

You need to try and get a pic of it with the pecs extended. They sure don't look very big in the pic of yours or on that webpage.

Something I found even more interesting on that webpage was this snip...

Filtering the water through glass wool should rid it of most harmful parasites.

I might have to start a new topic on this as I've never seen that mentioned as a way to rid the water column of "most harmful parasites".