Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Creating the food chain Minnow that looks like a hybrid striped bass

Hey guys,
I was catching gambusia minnows in the ditch down my street. I caught several hundred pregnant ones, but i noticed one that was different than the rest. It looked just like a hybrid striped bass that was pregnant, only it was the size of the gambusia. After i noticed it i pulled it out, but my daughter said there was more in with the gamms, so can any of you guys tell me what it is. is it going to give me problems.
thanks

Can you get a picture of it posted up? There are a few species that can resemble a HSB, especially that size. White bass, white perch, and yellow perch are a few that are commonly mistaken as a HSB.

ill try, i dont know how to post a pic. would any of those be pregnant at the size of a gambusia minnow, its no larger than a gam but it is definately pregnant.

Sounds like a sailfin molly to me... They often swim with gambusia and their spotting is usually patterned in stripes. They are also found throughout much of LA.

I don't know if it is plausible that what you caught is a zebra danio, - but they are one minnow-sized fish that looks a lot like a HSB.

Take a look:
http://www.google.com/search?q=zebra+dan...192&bih=559

That would be an interesting find... But, I am still betting they are wild sailfin mollies. Mollies are livebearers just like gambusia and get that tell tale black spot near their rear reproductive organ and as I said, their spotting pattern is in stripes usually.

When checking this link, go down a bit to the picture on the right of a female sailfin molly. Although this one isn't pregnant, you get an idea of the striping pattern without being drawn to the massive sailfin of the male.
http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/gallery/descript/sailfinmolly/sailfinmolly.html

I tell you what CJ you are good, that picture looks exactly like her just not quite as fat. Sailfin Molly it is. Seems like a good little minnow, do you know of any other forage i can catch wild down here?

Sailfin mollies are neat fish - and very prolific. My son nets them from the ditch behind our house to stock his aquarium - where these pictures were taken (male, female, fry).

Monty, there are a number of species that can be found wild in LA that are good pond candidates as forage... With that being said, please keep in mind the inherent risks of catching forage from the wild and placing it in your pond. Disease, parasites, improper ID leading to unwanted fish, hitchhikers like unwanted molluscs or aquatic plants, etc... There are a couple of threads that talk about this. Many people are still willing to go the wild route taking those risks into account and there are things you can do to mitigate them. With that said, here is a list of species found in south Louisiana that could make good forage fish in a pond:

golden shiner
red shiner
lake chubsucker
tadpole madtom
blackstripe topminnow
golden topminnow
western starhead topminnow
least killifish
sailfin molly
mosquitofish/gambusia
bantam sunfish
orangespotted sunfish
swamp darter

I don't have personal experience with many of these species because they are too far south and won't survive colder waters or are not found in my area for me to collect. However, based on their habitat preference and biology, I feel they would be suitable as forage fish because of certain characteristics(able to survive and reproduce in a pond, are sizes suitable to serve as forage, won't be detrimental to game fishes, etc).

If you just wanna see what's out there and are unsure what you've caught, take some good photos and post them on here. We'll help you out with IDing the catch.

i sure appreciate it, ill try to catch others and get yall to help me id them.
Monty

im glad i found this post, in my minnow trap in my pond i have been catching 20-30 at a time and never knew what they were until now.(sailfin molly) thanks for the help from mississippi

Glad you found it helpful!