nathanrains's Identifications

Note: We would like assistance in identifying, if it is possible to do so, what kind of catfish fry these might be. Anyone and everyone’s assistance would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

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Cooper Creek Catfish Fry - Needing to Identify Species

20 August 2015: Walked the seasonally dry rock-hard bed of Cooper Creek not far downstream from Avondale Park in Denton, Texas. We came upon one of the larger standing pools of water on the creek bed where we observed a little school of dark (black to gray-colored) catfish fry swimming along the edge of the itinerant pool of water. We counted up to 21 in the tiny school of fish. They seemed to be swimming in tight formation keeping very close together for protection one would assume and at the same time appeared to be foraging at the edges of the pool. But they definitely had a pattern going, it was interesting behavior. They moved in a counterclockwise direction.

We know that Cooper Creek is a creek that empties into the Elm Fork Trinity River by way of Lake Lewisville here in the greater North Texas metropolitan area. We know that the Elm Fork Trinity River is one of the main tributaries to the Trinity River and that it constitutes part of the greater Trinity River Basin. And so do these little catfish fry. How many types of catfish are there in the Elm Fork Trinity River (and thus presumably also in Cooper Creek)? Well our research to date reveals that there are at least three types of catfish including Blue Catfish, Channel Catfish, and Bullhead Catfish. We would assume (incorrectly perhaps) that Blue and Channel Catfish are easily the most common of the three.

With pools drying fast in lieu of rainfall during the late summer heat of North Texas, it’s possible that the once deep pool of water these fish fry are in will evaporate in a matter of days. That is, if the wading aquatic birds like Snowy Egret, Great Egret, Cattle Egret, Yellow-crowned Night Heron, and Great Blue Heron, all which frequent Cooper Creek periodically at different times of the year, don’t arrive first at the pool to dispatch these tiny fish fry and release them from their predicament. It’s much easier for the big birds to do so given the shallow pools that remain throughout the creek’s bed until further rainfall refills the creek’s course.

Our only concern is to identify the type of catfish species these tiny fry belong to if it’s doable. If not, then they shall remain in the category of catfish fry.

Avondale Park is administered by the City of Denton, Texas. Cooper Creek is also overseen by the representative agencies of the City of Denton.