Nature Done Wright

Incorporating the Celery Farm and Screech Owl Companion blogs

March 26, 2010

Monday Morning Mystery Fish

We took this fish shot on Sunday and were trying to figure what the heck it is. Two alert readers fathomed guesses. One said carp, the other said suckerfish.

I asked a fish-minded naturalist pal what we thought. His reply:

"It's kind of hard to ID it from that photo [ouch!!], but it could possibly be any of the following:

fallfish (Semotilus corporalis)

creek chub (Semotilus atromaculatus)

creek chubsucker (Erimyzon oblongus)

white sucker (Catostomus commersoni)

"If I had to place a bet, I would put my money on the creek chubsucker. Bring me a specimen and I can tell you for certain." (Thanks, BB.)

Can't really bring in a specimen, so I guess we'll never know for sure. I do know that the fish definitely did not look Latin. "Loch Appert Monster" remains a possibility.