Largemouth Bass (Safari Ltd - Incredible Creatures)

[brontodocus]

Walk-around of the Safari Ltd Incredible Creatures 2015 Largemouth Bass, Micropterus salmoides (Lacépède, 1802). A typical Incredible Creatures figure, this one is quite large at 150 mm total length (TL, i.e. including caudal fin) so the scale falls between approx. 1:3 and 1:6. It is sculpted in a dramatic looking preying pose with open mouth and is nicely detailed with well-defined scales (although they are a bit too large so there are fewer of them along the position of the lateral line than typical for the species). The head looks especially good with its detailed mouth interior and operculum with branchiostegal rays. The number of spines and soft rays in the dorsal and anal fins (which are key characters in identifying bony fish species) does not match the ray count in real specimens but this is admittedly rarely ever the case in a fish figure. Usually, the Largemouth Bass has a dark lateral band along its body which is merely adumbrated by one of the rows of dark spots on the figure.
This North American species is very popular in sports fishing and has been introduced in many other parts of the world where it can sometimes be an invasive species. Since it is so widespread and common (and even a pest in some countries where it has been introduced), IUCN considers it "Least Concern".
Here is a link to the figure at Safari Ltd: https://safariltd.com/products/view/incredible-creatures-large-mouth-bass-figurines-265629






















Edit 2017-02-05: Fixed broken image urls.

[Jetoar]

Details of its scales are awesome  .

[brontodocus]

Many thanks, Jetoar! 

[brontodocus]

IC Largemouth Bass photos are back!