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Fish Diversity of Western Pennsylvania Thanks to: Dr. Andy Turner Dept. of Biology Clarion University Clarion, PA 16214 Fish Diversity • > 25,000 species worldwide • 58% Marine • 41% Freshwater (9600 spp.) • 1% Move back and forth (anadromous and catadromous) • Diversity highest in tropics for both freshwater and marine fishes North American Freshwater Fauna • 1061 species • Worlds most diverse temperate fauna – – – – – Pennsylvania: 159 spp. Great Lakes: 176 spp. French Creek: 66 spp. Ohio’s Big Darby: 100 spp. Ohio’s Little Miami: 84 spp. Argent et al., JPAS, 2000 Argent et al., JPAS, 2000 Higher Taxonomic Organization • Superclass Agnatha - jawless fishes (lampreys, hagfishes) • Superclass Gnathostomata – Class Chondrichthyes - cartilaginous fishes (sharks, skates, rays) (800 spp.) – Grade Teleostomi -bony fishes (24,000 spp.) • Class Sarcopterygii (lobe-finned fishes) • Class Actinopterygii (ray-finned fishes) Petromyzontidae - Lamprey Chestnut lamprey Lampreys • Key Traits: eel-like body, circular mouth in adults (oral disk), horny teeth on tongue, seven gill slits, notochord, scaleless • Diversity: five species in Laurentian Great Lakes, seven species in PA • Two-stage life-history • Parasitic and non-parasitic sister species in each genera, parasitic forms ancestral Acipenseridae - Sturgeon Sturgeons • Key traits: heterocercal tail, five rows of large, bony scales (scutes), protrusable, ventral mouth, two pairs of ventral barbels in front of mouth, elongate snout, single dorsal fin placed far back near tail. • Diversity: 24 spp. Northern Hemisphere, 8 spp. North America, 4 spp. PA 5 of 8 species endangered or threatened • Long lived (White Sturgeon up to 80 years) Sturgeons - cont. • Largest of FW fishes: White Sturgeon up to 12 ft, 1,500 lbs. • Late maturity: 5-30 years for Atlantic Sturgeon • Fecund: ovaries 25% of body weight • Commercially exploited for meat and caviar • Some species anadromous • Formerly very abundant • Hurt by declining water quality and damming of large rivers Polyodontidae - Paddlefish Paddlefish Paddlefish • Key Traits: Elongated, paddle shaped snout, heterocercal tail, no scales, cartilaginous skeleton • Diversity: one sp. NA, two worldwide • Large: up to 7 ft., 200 lbs • zooplanktivore, filterfeeder, fine gill rakers • long-lived, slow maturing species • large river species • currently being reintroduced into lower Allegheney Lepisosteidae - Gar Longnose gar Gars • Key traits: heterocercal tail, ganoid scales, jaw and face extended into a long snout, elongate body, needle-like teeth • Diversity: Seven species in Northern Hemisphere, 2 in PA • Air gulpers: swim bladder connected to esophagus • Large fish: Alligator gar to 10 ft., 300 lbs • Piscivorous, ambush predators • Ask about the chickens Bowfin - Amidae Bowfin • Key traits: long dorsal fin, large mouth, massive bones covering head, cycloid scales • Diversity: 1 sp. Worldwide • Undulating dorsal fin allows backward movement • widely distributed in North America • Air gulper, tolerant of low O2 • Large, up to 1 meter length and 20 lbs • Highly developed parental care Hiodontidae - Mooneyes Mooneye Mooneye and Goldeye • Key traits: herring-like (laterally compressed), large eyes, teeth on tongue, dorsal fin placed far back • Diversity: two species in family, North American • Relict species • Most primitive of the teleostei • Resident of large rivers and large lakes • Nocturnal • Takes flies, good eating • Goldeye - more tolerant of turbid waters Angullidae - Eels American eel Eels • Key traits: snake-like shape, large mouth, pointed snout, elongate dorsal fin continuous with caudal fin • Diversity: 15 spp. worldwide, 1 in NA • Catadromous - migrate to open ocean to spawn. • Spawning ground discovered to be in Sargasso Sea in 1922. • Semelparous • Nocturnal Clupeidae Gizzard shad Clupeidae - Herrings • Key traits: Herring-like, laterally compressed, keeled ventral midline with sharp saw-tooth scales • Diversity: 181 spp., mostly marine, 10 freshwater, 6 spp. in PA • Examples: shads, herrings, sardines, menhaden, alwives • Huge economic importance b/c of commercial uses as people food, livestock feed, fish meal, fertilizer • Important forage fish in many systems • A few anadromous species Superorder Ostariophysi (Minnows, Suckers, Catfishes) • Weberian Ossicles - a series of small bones that connect the inner ear to the swim bladder, aids in hearing • Ostariophysan alarm system - speciealized cells in the skin that release an alarm substance when they are ruptured Cyprinidae - Minnows Blacknose dace Cyprinidae - Minnows • Key Characters: soft rays, highly protrusible upper jaw, pharyngeal teeth, anal fin far relatively far forward • Diversity: 2000 species worldwide, most diverse freshwater family 302 spp. in North America • Often small fish, but not always: carp - 60 lbs. • Colorful males, elaborate nest building and courtship behaviors Creek chub Striped shiner Colorado squawfish Common carp Catostomidae - Suckers Shorthead redhorse Catostomidae - Suckers • Key traits: soft-rays, ventral, protrusable mouth, anal fin relatively far back, pharyngeal teeth in a single row of > 16 • Diversity: 70 spp. in North America, 18 spp. Pennsylvania • Thick lips - papillate • Often the biomass dominant in lakes and streams Ictaluridae - Catfishes Black bullhead Ictaluridae - Catfishes • Key Traits: Teeth on roof of mouth, adipose fin, a spine at the front of dorsal and pectoral fins that produce a toxin in some species, no scales, small eyes, whisker-like barbels • Diversity: 37 spp., endemic to North America • Madtoms: diverse group of little catfishes, adipose fin continuous with caudal fin • Large: blue and flathead catfishes exceed 100 lbs. • Barbels serve chemosensory and tactile functions Esocidae - Pickerels Northern pike Esocidae - Pickerels • Key traits: extended snout, anal and dorsal fin placed far back, tail deeply forked, large mouth • Diversity: 5 spp., worldwide, all of which are commonly found in PA • voracious ambush predators • large: world record muskie: 5 1/2 feet, 70 lbs. Umbridae (Mudminnows) Central mudminnow Umbridae (Mudminnows) • Key traits: dark vertical bar at base of tail, cudal fin rounded, dorsal fin relatively far back • Diversity: 4 species in North America, 2 in PA • Can survive anoxic conditions, often is the sole fish species in ponds prone to winterkill Osmeridae - Smelts Rainbow smelt Osmeridae - Smelts • Key traits: elongate body, large mouth, adipose fin, teeth on tongue, soft rays • Diversity: one spp., rainbow smelt, an anadromous species that has been widely introduced to inland lakes • A cold water fish • Important food web effects, including a voracious predator on larval fishes Salmonidae - Trout and Salmon Steelhead Salmonidae - Trout and Salmon • Key traits: adipose fin, soft rays, a triangular flap at base of pelvic fin (pelvic auxillary process), gill membranes free from ventral side of head, physotomous gas bladder (connected to gut), vertical barring (parr marks) on sides of young, maxilla included in gape • Important group from aesthetic, economic, and scientific perspectives • Three subfamilies Coregoninae (Whitefishes) Lake whitefish Whitefishes and Ciscoes • • • • About 32 species, North America and Eurasia No teeth on jaws, large scales Generally planktivorous, cold-water lake species A great deal of within-species variation in morphology • Important in some commercial fisheries • Several species extinct due to overfishing, competition with exotic species Thymalinae - Graylings • 5 or so species worldwide • A high-latitude, cold-water fish • high, elongate dorsal fin Salmoninae • Key traits: small dorsal fin, small scales, teeth present on maxillary bones • Three genera and 20 spp. in North America • Salvelinus (Chars): Artic char, dolly varden, bull trout, brook trout, lake trout, Salvelinus (chars): artic char, dolly varden, bull trout, brook trout, lake trout Brook trout brook trout Lake trout Salmo (Atlantic salmon and trout): Atlantic salmon, brown trout Brown trout Oncorhynchus (Pacific salmon and trout): coho, chinook, chum, sockeye, and pink salmon; rainbow and cutthroat trouts, gila and golden trout (11 or so species total) Rainbow trout Chinook salmon Sockeye salmon Yellowstone cuttthroat Bonneville Cutthroat Gadidae - Codfishes Burbot Gadidae - Codfishes • Key traits:Slender body, single barbel on tip of chin, no spines, long dorsal and anal fins • Diversity: 25 NA spp., one of which is FW: burbot • Burbot inhabit deep, cold waters of lakes and large rivers, a northern fish • Spawns in winter, often under the ice • Feeds on crayfish and fish Advanced Teleosts • Upper jaw mobility and protrusibility are maximal • Pharyngeal dentition highly developed • Spiny rays • Pelvic fins places far forward • Physoclistous gas bladder • Two distinct dorsal fins • Pelvic and anal fins with spines, pectoral fins placed laterally on body Atherinidae (Silversides) Brook silversides Atherinidae (Silversides) • Key traits: quite elongated, nearly transparent, superior mouth, large keel-like anal fin, small dorsal • Diversity: 170 spp. world-wide, mostly marine. One important North American freshwater representative: brook silversides • Schools near waters surface, feeds on plankton and emerging insects, quite fragile. Fundulidae (topminnows) Northern studfish Fundulidae (topminnows) • Key traits: flattened head and back, upturned mouth, large eyes, spineless fins, one dorsal far back on body • Diversity: 40 spp. in family, two freshwater species in PA (banded killifish, mummichog) • Found in fresh, brackish, and salt water • Center of diversity in SE US • Great aquarium fish • Surface feeders Plains killifish Gasterosteidae (sticklebacks) Brook stickleback Gasterosteidae (sticklebacks) • Key traits: spiny rays, each dorsal spine connected to back with its own membrane, scaleless, narrow caudal peduncle • Diversity: 7 spp. worldwide, 4 spp. NA • Complex mating behaviors • Phenotypic plasticity • Distinctive morphs, or subspecies Cottidae (sculpins) Mottled sculpin Cottidae (sculpins) • Key traits: enlarged, flattened head, expansive pectoral fins, no scales • Diversity: about 300 spp. worldwide, mostly marine, PA reps include mottled, slimy, and spoonhead sculpins • Bottom dwellers in clean, cold water • Males defend nests under rocks • Muddler flies? The Perciformes • • • • Most diverse order of fishes (and of all verts) 148 families, 9300 spp. (all birds = 9000 spp.) Most highly derived of all fishes Cichlids, croakers, gobies, wrasses, temperate basses, sea basses, centropomids (snooks), sunfishes, drums, perch, and damselfishes Moronidae - Temperate Basses Striped bass Moronidae - Temperate Basses • Key traits: laterally compressed, deep bodied fish, 2 dorsal fins, first with 9 spines, 2nd with 1 spine and 11-14 rays, 3 anal spines, large spine on gill cover, strongly sawtoothed preopercle • Diversity: 4 spp. in NA, 3 spp. in PA • Striped bass and white perch - anadromous (in part), yellow bass and white bass FW • Pelagic, schooling piscivores • Important sport fishery Sciaenidae - Drums Freshwater drum Sciaenidae - Drums • Key traits: deep body, highly arched back, 2 dorsal fins, 1st short with spines, 2nd long with rays, 1-2 anal spines, lateral line extends across tail • Diversity: 210 spp. worldwide, mostly marine spp. (red drum, black drum of US Gulf coast) • One NA FW species: Freshwater drum – lives in medium to large rivers, large lakes – huge range: Guatamala to Canada – quite vocal: uses gas bladder as a reasonating chamber Centrarchidae - Sunfishes Bluegill Centrarchidae - Sunfishes • Key traits: laterally compressed, 2 dorsal fins, 1st with spines, 2nd with rays, broadly joined so as to be a single fin • Diversity: 32 spp., 9 genera, endemic to NA freshwaters east of Rocky Mountains, 16 spp. PA • Genera include Lepomis (true sunfishes), Micropterus (black basses), Ambloplites, (rock basses), Pomoxis (Crappies), Enneacanthus (banded and bluespotted sunfishes) Black crappie Green sunfish Longear sunfish Orangespotted sunfish Rockbass Smallmouth bass Largemouth bass Percidae - Perches Rainbow darter Percidae - Perches • Key traits: seperate dorsal fins, thoracic pelvic fins with 1 spine, five rays • Diversity: three subgroups – Perca - 1 NA species, yellow perch – Stizostedion - 2 NA species, walleye and sauger – darters - 150 spp., mostly in the genera Etheostoma and Percina • small, benthic fish that live in streams and less frequently, lakes. Amazingly colorful. Endemic to North America. • French Creek darter diversity = 15 spp. Walleye Gilt darter Greenside darter