Powered<p>Hi guys,</p>
<p>I was micro fishing about a month ago from the shore of the Saint Croix river (at Point Douglas, the intersection of the St. Croix and the Mississippi) and caught this little guy. I suspect that he is an Emerald Shiner but am very inexperienced in identifying micros. Any help is appreciated.</p>
<p><img alt="" src="http://www.roughfish.com/sites/default/files/IMG_6633.JPG" style="width: 768px; height: 1024px;" /></p>
I'm no expert on Notropis but it looks more like a Sand or Mimic Shiner to me.
Thank you for your response!
I have been reading this website a lot the past few days and have identified it as either a mimic or a channel shiner. Unfortunately, they are almost impossible to tell apart. I conducted standard length measurements, dorsal fin lengths, and scale widths, but every ratio landed perfectly in the indefinable zone. I guess as they said in the description, not all individuals can be identified.
Julien
I am leaning towards a sand shiner due to:
"distinct dark mid-dorsal stripe in front of tjhe dorsal fin"
hard to tell from the picture though.