What kind of fish?

[dfarms11]

Found this guy in our dugout. What kinda fish is this?https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20220430/1cfd61b0f86fb3f1fc663be644f27f64.jpg

[EZM]

Looks like one of the species of a common fat head minnow to me ...

https://www.roughfish.com/fathead-minnow

[barbless]

If you found it in your dugout then more than likely a bird dropping transplant. :thinking-006: This has been a mention on a few topics on how some fish get into certain areas. Can't help sorry. Just hope its not a carp of a sort

[TROLLER]

Looks like one of the species of a common fat head minnow to me ...

https://www.roughfish.com/fathead-minnow

Good Call EZM looks exactly like the pic.

[trigger7mm]

Yep, that’s a fathead.

[dfarms11]

Cool thanks. Maybe we'll have to start selling bait! Lol

[fish99]

Yep, that’s a fathead.

i would these in my minnow trap that was in west creek pond, great walleye bait.

[tri777]

Used to catch those all the time for my snake for feed in the 80's. In the 'Pond life' book, they were called
'Creek Chubs' (grows to a max of 4.5 inches). I spent a great deal of time down at that private Creek
catching chubs & Sticklebacks in the 80's.

[EZM]

Used to catch those all the time for my snake for feed in the 80's. In the 'Pond life' book, they were called
'Creek Chubs' (grows to a max of 4.5 inches). I spent a great deal of time down at that private Creek
catching chubs & Sticklebacks in the 80's.

Those are two different Genus and different species - but when googling it - I was amazed at how they look almost identical ..... looks like both can occur here but the creek chub is more east according to WIKI??? I know, for a fact, during university, the fatheads are naturally occurring here in AB.

Either way, quite interesting. Like a 100% positive ID would take a little more research looking at physical characteristics.

Semotilus atromaculatus, known as the creek chub

The fathead minnow (Pimephales promelas)

Cool minnow anyways - now you have homegrown bait !!!!

[TroutingOuting]

The first answer was the correct answer, fathead minnow! For what it's worth I've conducted hundreds of fish sampling activities and these guys come up a lot around Canada. They are widespread and very tolerant of poor habitat quality. Handled many thousands of these guys. The defining characteristic that I look for are the crowded "pre-dorsal" scales. The scales on the top of its body behind the head toward the dorsal are compressed compared to the rest of the scales on the body. Also, creek chubs always have a spot at the leading base of its dorsal fin, where fatheads do not. If you catch anymore in your dugout, spread the dorsal to look for a spot and I'm confident it wont be there. Male fatheads can have very large darkened heads with really cool looking nuptial tubercles (horns) too - almost looking like a whole other species.

Cheers!

[Howard Hutchinson]

Unless there is a stream of sorts running into the dugout, how would it get in there?

[EZM]

Unless there is a stream of sorts running into the dugout, how would it get in there?

One popular theory is birds. Viable eggs caught up in the mud in their feet, feathers, etc... transplanted from one watershed to the next and/or into your dugout or local pond.

Some theories also include through digestive tract. This theory is controversial as viability is extremely low in the digestive tract (but proven not to be impossible).

This has been debated/discussed before, and there are many studies done on this - some contradicting each other.

All I can say is "magic" is not a scientifically sound explanation :)