Fish identification

markhawkman

Soo... I saw these in a creek near where I live and I'm trying to figure out what they are. I might get a picture later, but I don't have one now.

Area: North America, Arkansas, so it's a freshwater fish that can tolerate cold weather.

diet: they seem to eat algae. When I sprinkled chopped tuna in the water they simply swam around it and let the other fish and crawdads eat the tuna.

size: the fish I saw were around 3-4 inches

appearance: long, thin fish with a generally dull coloration and orang-red-ish fins. Also when they eat they tend to twist side to side and that makes their scales sometimes reflect light.

another thing that I noticed is that their dorsal fin seems to be hinged so that they can use it like a rudder.

My best guess it that it's some sort of carp, but I have no idea what sort.

rattler2

Gonna have to wait for a picture for sure.

jonsills

Judging from your description and this website, you're probably looking at one of the sunfish varieties - sounds like either the orange-spotted or breeding male green.​​

markhawkman

Well... I looked them up on Wikipedia and they had a different shape. Sunfish are kinda tall and flat, not long and thin(except the bass family, but those are larger). Also they don't have a hinged dorsal fin.