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Fish and Crabs

To make it easier to picture the various fish and crabs in the wild, browse the images below.

 

The largemouth bass (micropterus salmoides) also called black bass, is native to southeastern Canada, the eastern United States and northern Mexico. A member of the sunfish family, this gamefish can be found in streams, rivers, lakes, ponds and reservoirs. Generally look for the smaller fish in the shallower water and the larger fish in the deeper water.​

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The Florida gar (lepisosteus platyrhynchus) can be found from the Georgia watersheds of the Savannah and Ochlokonee rivers down into and throughout Florida. Look for them in medium to large lowland streams and rivers, canals and lakes with muddy or sandy bottoms with nearby underwater vegetation.

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The Atlantic tarpon (megalops atlanticus) can be found on the western coast of the Atlantic Ocean, from Virginia in the United States, south through the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean, all the way to Brazil in South America.

Blue Tilapia

This blue tilapia was swimming in the Hillsborough River in Tampa, Florida's Lettuce Lake Park.

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Common Pleco

A common pleco shares the water of the Hillsborough River in Tampa, Florida's Lettuce Lake Park, with a bream.

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Common Pleco With Bream

A common pleco swims beside bream in the Hillsborough River in Tampa, Florida's Lettuce Lake Park.

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Largemouth Bass

This largemouth bass was in the Hillsborough River in Tampa, Florida's Lettuce Lake Park.

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Florida Gar

These Florida gar were basking near the surface of the Hillsborough River in Tampa, Florida's Lettuce Lake Park.

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Atlantic Tarpon

An Atlantic tarpon swimming in the manatee viewing area of the Big Bend Power Plant on Tampa Bay, Florida.

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A Flash Of Silver

These tarpon were part of a school of between twenty and thirty that had come into the warm water of the outlet for the Big Bend Power Plant in Apollo Beach, Florida in December of 2016. Tarpon can grow up to eight feet long and weigh up 280 pounds.

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Bowfin

This 3-4 pound bowfin/mudfish (amia calva) had just come through one of the culverts between ponds in the Circle B Bar Preserve in Lakeland, Florida. It made so much noise in the culvert that it scared away the snowy egret that had been waiting in the shallows at the end of the culvert looking for a meal. It would have been too big for the snowy anyway.

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Blueblood

This Atlantic horseshoe crab (limulus polyphemus) came ashore at E.G. Simmons Park in Ruskin, Florida. They come ashore to mate and lay their eggs. You usually find them in mating pairs. Their blood is one of the closest in nature to human blood and is used medical research because ot that.

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Red and Blue Beauty

This fancy goldfish I got in a bag of feeder goldfish. I raised it from about 3/4" to about 5" in length. I have not been able to find any others with its special coloring.

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