lukifell - Received fish in Thursday's mail (express takes an extra day to the real small towns). Your 3 medium sized shiners (4.25", 4.5" 4.75") were all golden shiners. Distinguishing features were 13 anal fin rays, small almost vertical terminal mouth, deep bodied, and the presence of the characteristic fleshy keel behind the pelvic fins. Fleshy keel had 1/2 sized scales along the border. No doubt about this fish's identity.
You will find that these shiners will soon grow to over 5" long and those that survive predation will grow up to 8" long; lengths much longer than emerald shiners. I have goldens in my pond to sizes of 10".
Largest typical emerald shiners in Lake Erie was reported by Troutman to be 3.9" and largest emerald shiner reported was at 4.9" from lake Michigan (1961) . Your shiners were up to 4.7" long. Very very rarely will emerald shiners get over 4" long. Also your shiners were wider and deeper bodied than emerald shiners that approach the lengths you sent me.
Golden shiners are not vegetarian and will eat lots of zoplankton, insect larvae and even fish fry when fry are available. I can catch large golden shiners (4"-10") on worms and a small (#10,12, or 14) hook; smaller the hook the smaller the shiner that can be caught. Golden shiners not only swim relatively fast compared to fatheads, but g.shiners will readily jump above the surface or out of a bucket full of water.
What other fish do you have in your pond besides these shiners?. Where did you get the original ones you stocked?
