KittieKat

i need help with IDing this fishie...

i bought it at a bait shop with a bunch of fathead minnows to feed my snakes and since this was the only one that looked like this i kept it.. even though i dont know what it is! its in its own tank for now..

ive done a lot of research and the only thing i could come up with was a Northern Pike...

it has a long, slender body with a pretty flat head (no teeth yet.. not that ive seen), its dorsal fin is far back by its tail, has the coloring of a pike but the only thing is it has 5 little spikes.. ive never seen a pike or seen a picture of a pike with spikes like that.

i thought it might be a muskie as well but they have 2 dorsal fins on top. there is also a pikeminnow but their pattern isnt the same.

thanx in advance!!

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Tom

I want to say perch, but I'm probably wrong on that one.
Tom

Tavel

It's a Brook Stickleback.



cold water fish (obviously), feeds on invertebrates and grows to about 3 inches long.

http://fieldguide.mt.gov/detail_AFCPA02010.aspx

http://www.rook.org/earl/bwca/nature/fish/culaea.html

sunstrip

Looks and sounds like a mean fish...one not to be trusted in a community tank !!!

Tavel

yep, the literature says they're very territorial. At least they're small!

KittieKat

thats definately my fish. thanx alex!! i had moved it to my female betta tank... boy was that a mistake... im lucky my girls still have fins!! right now the little booger is in the big 125 gallon with the aggressive fish.. he'll have fun! lol

Tavel

You used my real name! Now they'll find me, after all this time...

KittieKat

lol... u better lock your doors at night!

susitna-flower

I don't know where you got the stickleback, but I wouldn't have it in ANY tank with fish that might eat it. It will get stuck in the fishes throat and kill it! These fish are only found in "dead" lakes and streams where they wipe out healthy fish populations....

sirdarksol

Thank you, Susitna. I was just going to put a post out there not to put this fish into any lakes/ponds.
Variants of the species are native to Europe, Alaska, and Japan. They are potentially invasive nearly everywhere else (and, apparently, serious pests in their native locale, probably due to a shift in predation. It has happened around here with perch/sunnies. The big bass and walleyes got overfished, and now many of our lakes are loaded with little fingerlings and little else), and if even two end up in the same body of water, they can explode and destroy the ecosystem.

(I'd also take the advice of not keeping the fish with anything large enough to eat it, though keeping it in the semi-aggressive tank could work if everything is similarly sized)

Tavel

She got it with a batch of bait intended for her snakes, but realized that one was different and decided to keep it.

The spines don't pose a threat to predators any more than any other fish's spines do, like a bluegill's. They certainly don't stop predation as the stickleback is is till preyed on by carnivorous fish and birds (wading birds and raptors a like).

And I, unfortunately, am having a hard time seeing how a native animal could be a "pest". The fish is prolific, but it doesn't do any harm to other populations. They may show up in so called "dead" lakes, but the lakes were dead before they got there.

However, I have a feeling "dead" simply means "no game fish". So that would actually mean a major stickleback population limiter was removed, not that sticklebacks themselves are limiting other populations. Just like when rabbit populations boom because coyotes were removed, or when pigeon populations boom when Raptors are removed.

And sure, technically it only takes 2 individuals to start a new population...but the genetics will be absolutely horrendous and the population will suffer from genetic defects and high susceptibility to disease. That population won't last very long at all, if it even starts. Most "invasive" populations are created by repeated exposures to the new species, like fishermen consistently dumping bait buckets over many years.

The whole carp thing was started by the government ACTIVELY STOCKING lakes and rivers with carp...not at all by accident.

The only real threat to existing fish populations from releasing this fish into the wild would be from diseases garnered in captivity. But most of these diseases would be specific to stickleback and prove little threat to other species.