The Fishes of North Carolina
By the NCFishes.com Team This is the last blog in the series focusing on the freshwater fishes of North Carolina, which was launched on June 17, 2020 (https://ncfishes.com/identification-of-north-carolina-freshwater-fishes/). In some respects, this last blog should have been the first, but learning about fishes is never along a straight stream, unless it is in a channelized … Read more
By the NCFishes.com Team Engraulidae is a small family comprising six species in North Carolina (Table 1). Their common name, anchovy, is possibly from the Spanish word anchova, but the term’s ultimate origin is unclear (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/anchovy, accessed December 18, 2020). North Carolina’s anchovies range in size from about 100 mm Total Length for Bay Anchovy … Read more
By the NCFishes.com Team The waters along and off the coast are where you will find all five species within the Family Belonidae known from North Carolina (Table 1). One of the five species, Atlantic Needlefish, is also found upstream in the lower Piedmont (more about that later). Because of their superficial resemblance to the … Read more
By the NCFishes.com Team Along North Carolina’s shore there are three families of flatfish comprising five or six species having eyes on the right side of their body facing upward when lying in or atop the substrate (NCFishes.com; Tracy et al. 2020; Table 1; Figure 1). Please note: Tracy et al. (2020) may be downloaded … Read more
By the NCFishes.com Team North Carolina is home to three species of mullets: Mountain Mullet, Dajaus monticola, Striped Mullet, Mugil cephalus, and White Mullet, Mugil curema (Tracy et al. 2020; NCFishes.com). [Please note: Tracy et al. (2020) may be downloaded for free at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/sfcproceedings/vol1/iss60/1.] The family name, Mugilidae, is derived from the Latin, mugil, meaning … Read more
By the NCFishes.com Team Atherinopsidae is a small family comprising six species in North Carolina (Table 1). The common name, silversides, refers to a distinct silver stripe on the side, which often reflects sunlight like a mirror when these fishes turn near the water surface (Rohde et al. 2009). Silversides are generally delicate, slender, laterally … Read more
By the NCFishes.com Team What exactly are gobies? To a freshwater-centric ichthyologist, gobies look like the marine equivalent of our freshwater darters (Family Percidae, https://ncfishes.com/freshwater-fishes-of-north-carolina/). In fact one of the species is named Darter Goby, Ctenogobius boleosoma, because of its resemblance to Tessellated Darter, Etheostoma olmstedi. But to the more widely learned and marine-centric ichthyologists, … Read more
By the NCFishes.com Team There are four species of trout and salmon in North Carolina (Table 1; NCFishes.com; Tracy et al. 2020). [Please note: Tracy et al. (2020) may be downloaded for free at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/sfcproceedings/vol1/iss60/1.] Unlike most fish species found in North Carolina’s waters, the Family Salmonidae are known collectively and commonly as just trout. … Read more
By the NCFishes.com Team The Family Cichlidae, known collectively as cichlids, is a very diverse (about 1600 species) family of fishes indigenous to tropical and subtropical fresh and brackish waters of Mexico, Central and South America, the West Indies, Africa, the Middle East, and the Indian subcontinent. Only one species, the Ro Grande Cichlid, Herichthys … Read more
By the NCFishes.com Team Three of our largest freshwater fishes are found in our coastal waters, rivers, and estuaries and even in our largest mountain river. These three species are: Shortnose Sturgeon, Acipenser brevirostrum, Lake Sturgeon, A. fulvescens, and Atlantic Sturgeon, A. oxyrinchus (NCFishes.com; Tracy et al. 2020). [Please note: Tracy et al. (2020) may … Read more