Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose identifying fry of various fish species

Are there any good sources (books, websites, etc.) that can help with the identification of the fry of different species of fish, especially game fish stocked in ponds? I did some netting in the weeds of my pond to see what kinds of fish have been reproducing. There were some small fish, 1" long, that could be largemouth bass or bluegill, but I'm not sure which. They are definitely not the common forage fish (golden shiners, fatheads, mosquito fish) that I've seen before. Thanks.

It's tough. Even with pictures.

I think at 1" you're just big enough to tell family, but tough to tell species.

Can you get a picture? We're probably as good at guessing as the textbooks would be.

Welcome calpond to the PB forum. We have a lot of very good fry sleuths here. We also have lots of pics of small fish here. You should try fishbase - http://www.fishbase.org/search.php -. Here is an example of id info sources from the archives :

http://www.pondboss.com/cgi-bin/ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=22;t=000021

BG yoy





LMB fry



RES yoy




YP fry



FH yoy

I'm working on photographs of small fish for future articles in Pond Boss Mags. First one will be on bgills. I'm not sure what the second one will be about maybe yellow perch, redears, or bass. I'm haveing a hard time right now finding real small green sunfish. Ewest is providing some pretty good photos to help you out for right now.

Well, from the pictures posted by ewest, it looks like they are large mouth bass. I took some pictures, but from my reading of the forum faq, it seems that the only way to incorporate them into a message on this forum is to first post them on some other website and then refer to them with UBB code. Is this true? I can do that if necessary, but it is awkward. I appreciate the help.

You are correct, photos must be hosted somewhere else on the web. The image function here uses the URL of the photo.

Hiya Calpond. It's good to hear from another Californian. DIED (Dave in El Dorado) and I have ponds in El Dorado county.

It's very easy (and free) to set up a photobucket account and have that site host your photos. I'm sure there are other good hosting sites as well. Then it's a simple matter of linking to the photobucket address to your PB post. Once you've done it you'll find it's very easy to do.

OK, I'm trying a picture for the first time, so hopefully, it works. As I said, it looks like the fry are large mouth bass. See picture below, and let me know what you think.

i vote LMB, nice pic calpond.

bill cody, i will try and help you on the GSF pics....i have observed alot of what i determined to be GSF fry, just need to take the time to go net and photograph.

It worked Cal! Looks like LMB fry to me also - streamlined body and it looks like the mouth line (if I'm seeing the line correctly) extends to under the eye.

Definately a small LMB but it is way past the fry stage. Technically it is a small fingerling.

Here's a little fish.

Here's another shot of a similarly sized largemouth bass.

Bill Cody brings up an interesting point. When does a wee fishy graduate from fry to fingerling? It it some percent of adult size, or some percentage growth from hatching size, or age, or ...?

I have discussed this before in a couple other topics. It has to do primarily with developmental or growth stages of the fish. There are a couple schools of thought or philosophies on this, depending on who you are talking to. Technically fry are the earliest stage and still contain egg yolk material. Very few people see the fish when they are at or in this stage of development. When the yolk is absorbed the fry swim out of the nest or away from the hatch site and become a free swimming larvae often referred to as post larvae or sometimes early or late larvae - post meaning post yolk fry or stage. When the larvae develops a complete set of fins and scales then it is usually referred to as a fingerling. Sometimes terms of early and late fingerling are used for small and large fingerlings. I will discuss this in more detail when I write the articles about small hatchling fish for PBoss Mag. Look for the first one about Bgill in 2008.