Stickleback
Encyclopedia
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Family (biology)
In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...
of fish
Fish
Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...
including the sticklebacks. FishBase
FishBase
FishBase is a comprehensive database of information about fish species . It is the largest and most extensively accessed online database on adult finfish on the web...
currently recognises sixteen species in the family, grouped in five genera. However several of the species have a number of recognised subspecies, and the taxonomy of the family is thought to be in need of revision. Although some authorities give the common name of the family as "sticklebacks and tube-snouts", the tube-snouts are currently classified in the related family Aulorhynchidae.
An unusual feature of sticklebacks is that they have no scales, although some species have bony armour plates. They are related to pipefish
Pipefish
Pipefishes or pipe-fishes are a subfamily of small fishes, which, together with the seahorses, form the family Syngnathidae.-Anatomy:...
and seahorse
Seahorse
Seahorses compose the fish genus Hippocampus within the family Syngnathidae, in order Syngnathiformes. Syngnathidae also includes the pipefishes. "Hippocampus" comes from the Ancient Greek hippos meaning "horse" and kampos meaning “sea monster”.There are nearly 50 species of seahorse...
s.
Stickleback are most commonly found in the ocean, but can be found in some freshwater lakes. The freshwater species were trapped in freshwater lakes in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
and North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
after the ice age, and have evolved different features from the ocean variety. They feed on small crustaceans and fish larvae.
Sticklebacks are distinguished by the presence of strong and clearly isolated spines in the dorsal fin
Dorsal fin
A dorsal fin is a fin located on the backs of various unrelated marine and freshwater vertebrates, including most fishes, marine mammals , and the ichthyosaurs...
. Their maximum length is about 4 inches, but few of them are more than 3 inches long. They mature sexually at a length of about 2 inches. All species show a similar mating behaviour, which is also unusual among fish. The males construct a nest from vegetation held together by secretions from their kidneys. The males then attract females to the nest. The female will lay their eggs inside the nest where the male can fertilise them. The male then guards the eggs until they hatch.
Three-spined stickleback
The family includes the three-spined sticklebackThree-spined stickleback
The three-spined stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus, is a fish native to much of northern Europe, northern Asia and North America. It has been introduced into parts of southern and central Europe.-Distribution and morphological variation:...
Gasterosteus aculeatus aculeatus, common in northern temperate climates around the world including Europe, most of northern North America and Japan and colloquially known in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
as the "tiddler", or "sprick". In the Republic of Ireland they are commonly known as "pinkeens" due to the reddish colour of the male three spined stickleback's throat during breeding season. Niko Tinbergen's studies of the behaviour of this fish were important in the early development of ethology
Ethology
Ethology is the scientific study of animal behavior, and a sub-topic of zoology....
as an example of a fixed action pattern
Fixed action pattern
In ethology, a fixed action pattern , or modal action pattern, is an instinctive behavioral sequence that is indivisible and runs to completion...
. More recently, the fish have become a favorite system for studying the molecular genetics of evolutionary change in wild populations and a powerful "supermodel" for combining evolutionary studies at molecular, developmental, population genetic, and ecological levels.
Species
- Genus ApeltesApeltesApeltes is a genus of fish in the Gasterosteidae family.It contains only one species, the Fourspine stickleback or Bloody stickleback, , which lives in freshwater, brackish and benthopelagic environments of the northwestern Atlantic Ocean between Newfoundland and South Carolina.Adults may reach...
Mayer, 1956.- Fourspine Stickleback, Apeltes quadracus (Mitchill, 1815)
- Genus Culaea
- Brook SticklebackBrook sticklebackThe Brook stickleback is a small freshwater fish that is distributed across the US and Canada. It grows to a length of about 2 inches. It occupies the northern part of the eastern United States, as well as the southern half of Canada...
, Culaea inconstans (KirtlandJared Potter KirtlandJared Potter Kirtland was a naturalist, malacologist, and politician most active in the U.S. state of Ohio, where he served as a probate judge, and in the Ohio House of Representatives...
, 1840)
- Brook Stickleback
- Genus GasterosteusGasterosteusSticklebacks is a genus of fishes in the family Gasterosteidae. Consists of six species:* Gasterosteus aculeatus Linnaeus, 1758 - Three-spined stickleback* Gasterosteus crenobiontus Băcescu & Mayer, 1956 - Techirghiol stickleback...
- Gasterosteus aculeatus
- Three-spined SticklebackThree-spined sticklebackThe three-spined stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus, is a fish native to much of northern Europe, northern Asia and North America. It has been introduced into parts of southern and central Europe.-Distribution and morphological variation:...
, Gasterosteus aculeatus aculeatus Linnaeus, 1758 - Santa Ana Stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus santaeannae Regan, 1909
- Unarmored Threespine Stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus williamsoni GirardCharles Frédéric GirardCharles Frédéric Girard was a French biologist specializing in ichthyology and herpetology.Born in Mulhouse, France, he studied at the College of Neuchâtel, Switzerland as a student of Louis Agassiz. In 1847, he accompanied Agassiz as his assistant to Harvard...
, 1854
- Three-spined Stickleback
- Gasterosteus crenobiontus Bacescu & Mayer, 1956
- Gasterosteus gymnurus CuvierGeorges CuvierGeorges Chrétien Léopold Dagobert Cuvier or Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric Cuvier , known as Georges Cuvier, was a French naturalist and zoologist...
, 1829 - Gasterosteus islandicus Sauvage, 1874
- Gasterosteus microcephalus GirardCharles Frédéric GirardCharles Frédéric Girard was a French biologist specializing in ichthyology and herpetology.Born in Mulhouse, France, he studied at the College of Neuchâtel, Switzerland as a student of Louis Agassiz. In 1847, he accompanied Agassiz as his assistant to Harvard...
, 1854. - Blackspotted sticklebackBlackspotted sticklebackBlackspotted stickleback is a fish species, found in the western Atlantic from the coasts of Newfoundland to Massachusets . Brackishwater / marine benthic fish, up to 7.5 cm length.- Links :*...
, Gasterosteus wheatlandi Putnam, 1867.
- Gasterosteus aculeatus
- Genus PungitiusPungitiusPungitius is a genus of fish in the Gasterosteidae family.It contains the following species:* Pungitius bussei * Pungitius hellenicus Stephanidis, 1971 Ellinopygósteos...
- Pungitius bussei (Warpachowski, 1888)
- Pungitius hellenicus Stephanidis, 1971.
- Smoothtail ninespine stickleback, Pungitius laevis (CuvierGeorges CuvierGeorges Chrétien Léopold Dagobert Cuvier or Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric Cuvier , known as Georges Cuvier, was a French naturalist and zoologist...
, 1829). - Southern ninespine stickleback, Pungitius platygaster (Kessler, 1859).
- Ninespine sticklebackNinespine sticklebackThe ninespine stickleback , also called the ten-spined stickleback, is a freshwater species of fish in the Gasterosteidae family that inhabits temperate waters...
, Pungitius pungitius (LinnaeusCarolus LinnaeusCarl Linnaeus , also known after his ennoblement as , was a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist, who laid the foundations for the modern scheme of binomial nomenclature. He is known as the father of modern taxonomy, and is also considered one of the fathers of modern ecology...
, 1758). - Amur sticklebackAmur sticklebackAmur stickleback is a species of fish in the family Gasterosteidae. Freshwater / brackishwater / marine benthopelagic fish, up to 6.5 length. Widespread in Asia: Korean peninsula, Japan, Kuril Islands, Kamchatka peninsula, and the basin of the Amur River.- Links :*...
, Pungitius sinensis (GuichenotAlphone GuichenotAntoine Alphone Guichenot was a French zoologist who taught, researched, and participated in specimen collecting trips on behalf of the National Natural History Museum in Paris, including an extensive biological survey of Algeria. His primary fields of research included fish and reptiles...
, 1869). - Sakhalin sticklebackSakhalin sticklebackSakhalin stickleback is a fish of the Gasterosteidae family. Freshwater benthopelagic fish, up to 7.0 cm length. Endemic of the islands of Hokkaido і Sakhalin.- Links :*...
, Pungitius tymensis (NikolskiiAlexander Mikhailovich NikolskyAlexander Mikhailovich Nikolsky was a Russian zoologist born in Astrakhan.From 1877 to 1881 he studied at the University of St. Petersburg, earning his doctorate several years later in 1887. From 1881 to 1891 he took part in numerous expeditions to Siberia, the Caucasus, Persia, Japan, et al. In...
, 1889).
- Genus SpinachiaSpinachiaSpinachia is a genus of fish in the Gasterosteidae family.It contains only one species, the Sea Stickleback, also known as Fifteen-spined or Fifteenspine stickleback, , which lives in benthopelagic and in brackish environments of the northeastern Atlantic Ocean.Although it is the largest form of...
- Sea stickleback, Spinachia spinachia (LinnaeusCarolus LinnaeusCarl Linnaeus , also known after his ennoblement as , was a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist, who laid the foundations for the modern scheme of binomial nomenclature. He is known as the father of modern taxonomy, and is also considered one of the fathers of modern ecology...
, 1758).
- Sea stickleback, Spinachia spinachia (Linnaeus
Stickleback trap
The common freshwater three-spined stickleback of Europe, Asia and North America may easily be caught in a simple trap made from a two-litre PET plastic soda bottlePlastic bottle
A plastic bottle is a bottle constructed of plastic, with a neck that is narrower than its real body and an opening at the top. The mouth of the bottle is normally sealed with a plastic bottle cap. Plastic bottles are typically used to store liquids such as water, soft drinks, motor oil, cooking...
(capped) and the tapered top part of a one-litre PET plastic soda bottle (uncapped), glued or taped together as shown, weighted with a small piece of metal (a few inches of rebar
Rebar
A rebar , also known as reinforcing steel, reinforcement steel, rerod, or a deformed bar, is a common steel bar, and is commonly used as a tensioning device in reinforced concrete and reinforced masonry structures holding the concrete in compression...
is ideal) and left on the bottom of a pond or stream, or suspended horizontally in mid-water by two pieces of string, for an hour or two—the sticklebacks enter through the wide (but narrowing) entrance and cannot find their way back out. Bait is not necessary.
External links
- 1930 Newsreel of Stickleback Building Nest by British Pathé