What is it ?

[icecap]

Caught this little guy yesterday. I posted it on the smallest fish thread asking what it was. A couple guys said western silvery minnow. Looked it up and although it does resemble one the location doesn't match up. The site I was on says that they are very rare in alberta and only found in the southern most part. Milk river drainage? This was caught in a lake an hour north of Edmonton.

[swampy45]

Spottail Shiner. Have caught many over the years. Bait Thieves.

[swampy45]

https://www.google.ca/search?q=spott...hrome&ie=UTF-8

[Talking moose]

That’s just a shiner

[wildbill]

Spottail shiner, the spot on the tail is a dead giveaway

[JareS]

Without having the preserved specimen to dissect, its impossible to positively ID the fish.

According to the taxonomic key, we’d need several ID characteristics that are not shown in the picture.

The two likely candidates for the range they were caught in are Spottail Shiner and Brassy Minnow.

As you’ll see in the taxonomic key below, we can not even differentiate if its from the genus ‘Notropis’ (shiners) or if its from the genus ‘Hybognathus’ (brassy minnow, silvery minnow etc) without dissecting the preserved specimen.

Assuming the fish has all of the following feautures (to narrow it down to Notropis or Hybognathus):

-barbel either absent or forward of posterior tip of upper jaw, and often tiny and difficult to see)

-54 or fewer lateral line scales (or scale rows in lateral series, if lateral line is not complete)

-first dorsal ray slender, pointed, tapered and closely bound to second. Predorsal scales are large, or nearly so, as other scales on upper body. Margin of dorsal fin straight or falcate.

-no fleshy keel on abdomen. Lateral like may curve downward, but never much lower than halfway between back and belly.

Then if it were a Brassy Minnow the following would be present:

-the intestine will be very long, with 2 loops coiled into a spiral overlying the stomach.

Or if it is a species of Shiner (Notropis), then the following will be more accurate:

-Intestine will be short, with only main loop, not coiled into a spiral

And for it to be a Spottail Shiner, instead one of the other shiner species in Alberta:

-8 anal rays or fewer

-dark lateral band absent or becoming indistinct anterior to dorsal fin, and never extending onto head.

-little to no dark pigment around edges of lateral line pores, especially posterior to dorsal fin

Colour is very infrequently an accurate ID characteristic, as colour varies between sex, age, habitat, diet etc between fish of the same species.

For the fish to be positively ID’d to be used by a biologist or technician or a report or data collection, then you would have to follow the taxonomix key.

For an angler putting it down on their list of fish caught, with nothing else to go on besides the picture, I’d say theres a high possibility of being a Spottail Shiner!

[trigger7mm]

100% Spot tail shiner.

[swampy45]

On second inspection... it may be baby tarpon.