Update on the Fourspine Stickleback, Apeltes quadracus (Family Gasterosteidae), in North Carolina

By the NCFishes.com Team How did this fish, the smallest member of the Stickleback family, get here? And when? As written in our previous blog on sticklebacks (https://ncfishes.com/is-north-carolina-too-far-south-for-sticklebacks/), Dr. Hugh M. Smith, U.S. Commissioner of Fisheries, in 1907 made no mention of Fourspine Stickleback (Figure 1) in the Albemarle or Pamlico sounds (Smith 1907). In … Read more

Is North Carolina Too Far South for Sticklebacks?

By the NCFishes.comTeam In eastern North America, the family Gasterosteidae, known as sticklebacks, is a small family of five species commonly found in shallow brackish inlets, calm, heavily vegetated marshes and estuaries, tidal creeks, lagoons, and in the nearshore and offshore open ocean (Kells and Carpenter 2014; Rohde et al. 1994). Along the Atlantic coast, … Read more

Monospecific Families of Freshwater Fishes with no Saltwater Relatives Found in North Carolina

By the NCFishes.com Team There are 12 families of predominantly freshwater fishes that are monospecific (having only one species) in North Carolina (Table 1; Tracy et al. 2020). [Please note: Tracy et al. (2020) may be downloaded for free at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/sfcproceedings/vol1/iss60/1.] The Family Xenocyprididae (the single species of Grass Carp, Ctenopharyngodon idella) was previously discussed … Read more