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Check all these amazing fish out!!
No sooner have the reedbeds been installed - than hundreds of minnows have moved in underneath them.
Minnow is general term used to refer to small freshwater and saltwater fish, especially those used as bait fish or for fishing bait. More specifically, it refers to small freshwater fish of the carp family.
There have been a few carp drifting by - so look out a soon-to-come entry on them. In the meantime - it seems the best time of day to see these tiny beauties is in the afternoon - for some reason.
Stay in the same spot for a few minutes - and these shy minnows will soon cloud by.
6 comments:
Do you know if these minnows become as big as the carp? Or do they simply stay this size all their lives?
Minnows will only grow to the size of a small finger, carp can be whoppers. In the spring when they're mating in the canal over this side of Victoria Park or in the shallow bit of the lake in the west side of the park it's a real spectacle watching them thresh around breaking the surface of the water. They're big!
Thanks Owen, I don't know why, but I always thought that 'minnows' was the same as 'fry', just small fish of every kind, waiting to grow up.
What other fish do you get over Viccie Park side?
Matt
Hello Matt - there are smallish silvery things like dace and rudd which I'm not very good at identifying, but the easiest to spot are the perch. On a sunny day when you can see a bit deeper into the water I'm sure you'll see some over your end - with vertical black stripes on their silvery sides and some red on the fins - unfortunately they eat the minnows (which are members of the carp family).
I've seen people catch eels (and get annoyed) by the Old Ford lock and I've seen something else moderately largish that didn't look like a carp (never worked out what it was) near the bridge where Old Ford road crosses the canal diagonally south of the Park.
There are crucian carp as well as common carp, and possibly mirror carp as well - I can't tell the difference between the two - and I've also seen occasional painted terrapins - the ones with the yellow and red cheek marks.
Sona, I checked to see if think bluntnose minnow is another name for common minnow (Phoxinus phoxinus to its friends, but only if you've not been drinking), which is what they probably are, though I can't quite see from here. Bluntnose minnows seem to be a US species.
Ooops! That's what comes from only listening to a very boring fisherperson with one ear (my ear that is!).
There is just so much fish talk I'm prepared to have while the seedlings are gasping for water.
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