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Rare Redhorse Fish Found In The Escambia River
January 6, 2019
A rare fish not seen for over 40 years in Florida has been found in the Escambia River.
Researchers from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation (FWC) Fish and Wildlife Research Institute captured a river redhorse during a night trawl, a fish not documented in the Escambia River since 1976. In Florida, the river redhorse is known only to exist in the Escambia River and is listed as a Species of Greatest Conservation Need.
The fish prefers large, clean rivers with sand or gravel bottoms and swift currents. The river redhorse was implanted with an acoustic tag and released. The movement of thefish will be monitored to estimate site occupancy and assess population trend, according to the FWC. The fish was found as freshwater biologists were working on imperiled species trawl survey in the Escambia River.
Photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Comments
24 Responses to “Rare Redhorse Fish Found In The Escambia River”
For those of you wondering in the answers above there is a class of fish called redhorse with a number of specific species which are distributed across north america. This specific species is the river redhorse a somewhat rarer one in general.
For more information on redhorse this a good resource:
http://moxostoma.com/
I used to catch Redhorse suckers on the St. Croix River in Minnesota. I wonder if they are related species or a subspecies of sorts?
This is very interesting.
Here is another way to think about the fact that there are several kinds (species) of suckers in the Escambia River. Many of you know that there are many kinds of sunfish in the Escambia River. Some people call them bream and others call them panfish. A favorite is the Bluegill. There are also Shellcracker (or Redear Sunfish), Longear Sunfish, and Warmouth (or Goggle Eye). All of these fish look similar, but when you know the key features that differentiate them, you can see that they are different. The suckers in the Escambia River are the same way. You can tell the FWC caught a River Redhorse by looking at the bright red tail in the pictures provided. A Blacktail Redhorse would have black on the bottom of the tail and Spotted Sucker do not have red on their tail.
My aunt used to catch a lot of them in Jacks branch and Styx river. They are similar to the bonefish I catch in the caribbean . VERY bony and not very appetizing .Havent seen one in years around here .
“Night Trawl”?
I just might have to try one of those.
Roll tide
There are many different types of red horse. The ones some people are referring to may not be the rare one. It’s hard to distinguish.
This is indeed a rare fish that the FWC found. There are three types of suckers found in the Escambia River that all look very similar, but it is not too hard to tell them apart. The River Redhorse has a bright red tail. The Blacktail Redhorse can also have red fins, but the bottom part of the tail always has black and distinguishes it from the River Redhorse. The Spotted Sucker has spots all over its body, whereas the other two suckers do not. You can confirm these identifications for yourself using a very credible website called fishbase.org. You may want to use the scientific names to make sure you are looking at the correct fish. Common names can be different for the same fish based on where you live, but scientific names never change. Here are the scientific names (in parentheses) for the three suckers: River Redhorse (Moxostoma carinatum), Blacktail Redhorse (Moxostoma poecilurum), Spotted Sucker (Minytrema melanops). The Blacktail Redhorse and Spotted Sucker are indeed very common in the Florida Panhandle, as many of you know, but the River Redhorse is rare in Florida and is only found in the Escambia River. This sucker situation is similar to the gar in the Escambia River. Not all gar are Alligator Gar. There are three kinds of gar in the Escambia River: Alligator Gar (wide snout and reach 100+ lbs), Longnose Gar (very slender snout, not as spotted), and Spotted Gar (medium snout and has the most spots).
ha ha haaa
基辛格
comes back as “Kissinger” on Google Translate
funny
still, always cool to see a good “fish story”
Since 1984, me, dad and many others have caught way more than our fair share of the Redhorse Suckers! To this very day they are way more populated in all the small creeks and Rivers that I know of!!! Even caught them on the Alabama river alot of times! These few folks may have not fished all of these places growing up here in the South but be rest ASSURED and these fish are very VERY MUCH plentiful in these waters and that your team’s should be doing alot more fishing and hunting around here to catch up on many years of knowledge and knowing what’s in these here waters and woods, they’d all be well surprised what they find out!!!
Used to catch them in small branches off of Pine Barren Creek.
red horse suckers been in that river all my life,i catch some every year while bream fishing,its great 2 know that the game n fish commision has made a discovery after maybe a hundred years.they r really on the job.
Lol they failed again lol you can also find them in the creek on cedartown rd in molino
These fish are not “rare” I’ve caught hundreds of them on escambia can catch them every day if I wanted..so goes to show what these folks really know…btw these are the same smart ppl that say red snapper numbers are declining…yea right look to me like all that schooling dosnt teach much
my dad and I would catch this fish in the big Escambia creek in the spring above Flomaton . they have a great taste but are full of bones shaped like a y we would grind the meat up real fine and make patties they were in all the small creeks I guess to spawn
Awesome !
I have old photos of my dad and one of his old fishing buddies holding a string of Red Horse Suckers caught in Holmes Creek, near Vernon. Holmes Creek is a tributary of the Choctawhatchee River. All you needed was a snatch hook, a shiny (reflective) sinker and clear water.
I’ve caught plenty of these fish sitting right down at the Molino boat ramp
Red Horse Sucker. River used to have plenty – probably still does. Bait you up a sucker hole!
See — our young people can do an outstanding job!
This fish is what we have called a red horse sucker.
WOW, never even heard of a Redhorse fish.
Thank you for this.
I wonder if this is the same fish as the Redhorse Suckers that my dad used to talk about catching on the Choctahtchee River many years ago?