Native fish pics

[SirMinion]

This morning I finished work at seven as usual and decided to go for a walk by the river to chill out a bit. It had been a tough night, what with a full moon and everything.
I took my camera along as usual.
I've never been to this particular section of the river before when there was no-one else around and was pleased to see the river teeming with life.
Large schools of unidentifiable fry were everywhere and several larger fish scooted into the deeper middle of the river on my approach. Bream?

Close to the bank were 20 or so smaller fish, completely un-bothered by my approach and they continued to sift sand through their gills like a Krib.
The largest was about six inches.

Now I'm no good with our native fish, I've no idea what they were, so I took a couple of (not very good) pics. (gotta get me a polarising filter)

Can anyone identify them?

Close-up

 

[-*-MicHAeL-*-]

they look like stone loaches but they could be common gudgeon

can you describe the larger fish and i will tell you if they are Bream

 

[SirMinion]

The larger fish were about 12 inches long, dark coloured and lateraly flattened.

They moved too fast to see more.

Thought the ones in the photo might be gudgeons too, but I've never seen then in the wild before.

Marvelous.

 

[CFC]

The fish in the pictures are certainly Gudgeon. The only latterally compressed native FW fish in Britain are Bream and their smaller rarer cousins Silver Bream.

 

[-*-MicHAeL-*-]

Here are some pics Sir Minion

A common Gudgeon
http/i7.photobucket.com/albums/y299/Litt...tishgudgeon.bmp[/IMG]

A Stone Loach
http/i7.photobucket.com/albums/y299/Litt.../stoneloach.bmp[/IMG]

and the other fish you described is definetly a Common Bream ( their nickname are slabs because they are so thin LOL )

Common Bream
http/i7.photobucket.com/albums/y299/Litt...commonbream.bmp[/IMG]

and a Silver Bream
http/i7.photobucket.com/albums/y299/Litt...silverbream.bmp[/IMG]

Hope this is Helpfull

 

[Paul_MTS]

my boss lives near you Sir and says he's recently been spotting Chubb in the river at the back of his garden and he also see's jack pikes yearly of a good size.

 

[SirMinion]

Thank you everyone.
There used to be fantastic pike and HUGE carp in the canal spur behind my house, but a couple of years ago it got invaded by duckweed which caused the water to stagnate and now all the fish have either died or moved back into the river and dissapeared.
So sad to see a gorgeous two-foot pike rotting on the water's surface.

 

[-*-MicHAeL-*-]

its always puzzled me how fish got into the canals in the first place

just curious does anyone round here fish or if tell anyone would i get that nagged at LOL

 

[SirMinion]

In closed system canals, fish are introduced intentionally for sport, for ecology and to controll aquatic pests such as mosquito lavae.
Other canals are connected to rivers so the fish simply migrate into the new habitat.

In the case of the canal I refered to, it's a spur off the river built by a boatyard 250 years ago and is therefore still connected to the river

 

[-*-MicHAeL-*-]

ohh ok thanks

 

[sylvia]

Very interesting ppics... I've never seen wild gudgeon before.