[mascencerro]

The owner of my LFS gets these fish in sometimes with his pond and aquarium plant orders, but has no idea what they are. Usually they are in his plant tanks, and a couple other tanks, but none are for sale, but I've taken him some zoa frags and anthelia in the past, so I managed to persuade him to sell me 4 of them for my 5 gallon planted cube I built. They're pretty interesting to watch, and have even bred in one of his planted tanks.

They are about an inch, maybe slightly longer, but just barely, and from the others that were in the tank, that is about as long as they get.

Anyway, would anyone happen to have an ID on these:

The pics aren't the best in the world, they're kind of hard to get a shot of because of their movements. Usually when I walk by they'll come to the glass and watch me for a bit, then go about their usual investigations.

 

[yonp11]

I'm going to guess Flying Fox? It looks like an SAE but the black stripe stops at the start of the tail fin. I've never seen a Flying Fox in person before, so I could be wrong.

 

[Wingsdlc]

I don't think its a flying fox. Not brown enough and it really doesn't quite look like an SAE either.

Every once in a while we get in some random fish with our feeder shimp. I think they are some sort of dace. Sometimes they are quite pretty.

Best of luck finding an ID.

 

[crazie.eddie]

I doubt it is a flying fox as well, since the mouth appears to be a regular mouth, not a sucker type mouth.

 

[spdskr]

The fish is most likely Fundulus notatus. It is native to the eastern half of the USA. They typically are found in ponds used to grow out plants for resale, and hence end up in retailer's tanks. Not the most colorful native killifish, but still a nice find.

 

[JenThePlantGeek]

^^ Yup, what spdskr said!

I've also heard them called "top minnows" by the big native fish buffs.

I always grab them when they come in on ghost shrimp shipments or with floating pond plants in the summer - great find!

 

[mascencerro]

From what I could find about the topminnows, that would mostly likely be the correct ID. Thanks all.

About them being a great find, I kinda thought so too, not because of anything beautiful about them, but they really reminded me of a small minnow or such that you would find in the shallows of a riverbank or stream, and that was what I was wanting. Also their personalities make them really neat to watch. Lately they've been getting a treat from my fruit fly cultures I have going for my D. auratus when I get them. They can really pack some flies away. Now I just hope they will make some babies.

 

[AMidnightSoul]

http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/SpeciesSummary.php?id=3197