White Catfish

1. KaitlynLawvere White Catfish The white catfish is a medium-sized catfish that has a back and upper sides that are light blue-gray to dark slate-gray. The belly is silvery or yellow-white. The whiskers are whitish. The head is very broad. Young white catfish are slender. Older fish become heavy bodied. The maximum size for the white catfish is about 24 inches. The white catfish is in the family Ictaluridae (North American freshwater) The white catfish’s scientific name is Ameiuruscatus. The White Cat fish’s original home was in the Atlantic Coast watersheds from the lower Hudson River in New York. In Pennsylvania the white catfish can be found in the Susquehanna and Delaware River systems, and it has been found in parts of the Ohio River watershed. Its genus name “Ameiurus” means un-forked caudal fins. Its species name “Catus” means cat. White catfish live in channels, pools and backwaters in rivers or streams, mostly in sluggish current over mud bottoms. They go into mildly swift water. Of all the catfishes, white catfish are the most tolerant of salt water. White catfish eat some plant material, but they eat mostly animal life like midge larvae and other aquatic insects, crustaceans and fish. White Catfish spawn in spring to early summer. Nests can be in holes in riverbanks, in the open, or under rocks. The female is clasped by the male and is stimulated to deposit a mass of sticky eggs. Male white catfish excavate a burrow nest or use an existing hole. The sticky egg mass is deposited there by the female. The male briefly guards the eggs and the young. Young catfish form tight schools and separate individually only to hide when they get scared. Adult catfishes are most active at night. When they are active in daytime, it is generally in muddy, clouded water. They have poor vision and use the sense of smell and the taste buds on the skin, lips and whiskers to find food.

2. Work sited - http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,1607,7-153-10370_12145_12203-58742--,00.html Blake Marsh Rainbow DarterEtheostoma Caeruleum • They grow to be about 3 inches, the dorsal fin has 6-15 spines, the second dorsal fin is only soft-rayed, and the anal fin has only 2 spines. • Their bodies are symmetrical – the same on both sides. • Their scales are ctenoid, which make them feel rough. • They are Ostrechthese, which means they are bony fish. • Males are usually blue between red, but while they are spawning, they range in colors from brilliant blues, reds, and oranges. • Females range in color from dark brown to a yellow white. • When spawning, females wait in the softer waters, and they lay about 3-7 eggs at a time. They spawn multiple times – sometimes laying up to 1,000 eggs per season. They also burry their eggs. • The Rainbow Darter meets sexual maturity at one year. • Two chamber hearts. • In the Rainbow Darter - water enters the gills through the fish’s mouth, and leaves through the gills. Blood continues to flow through the gill filaments and takes in oxygen from the water. • Dorsal, caudal, and the anal fins are red with blue margins, but males are usually more colorful. • Rainbow darter uses it’s muscle fibers to move their fins to swim. They also keep themselves leveled by a swim bladder. • They feed on aquatic larva and invertebrates. • They are heterotrophy. • They are food for many larger freshwater fish. • Part of the family Etheostoma – which contains 90 species. • They prefer moderate gradients composed primarily of gravel and small cobble. • Can be found state wide in smaller and medium sized freshwater streams.

3. Thy are found in lakes, small farm ponds and slower parts of warm water streams and rivers They normally live where aquatic weeds are you they can feed and hide. Young bluegills eat plankton and as they get older there diet changes to aquatic insects and midge larvae. Almost every carnivores fish eats the bluegill. Spawning takes place in may or the June when the water is around 70 and until the water goes cold and there is a over population of them . They nest in shallow water 1 to 2 feet deep. Then the males guard the nest till the eggs hatch and the fry leave. They can spawn more than one time a year. Bluegills Lepoomis/ Marcochirus The heart has 2 chambers. Oxygenated blood flows from the gill filaments to the organs of the head and body. Water enters the gill chamber through a fish’s mouth and exits through gill openings under the operculum. Blood flowing through the gill filaments absorbs oxgen from he water. While swimming steadily bluegill use their pectoral fins only. Dorsal and anal fins remain motionless or have smalltreding water. Movements. There symmetry is bilateral. World record weight for a bluegill is 4lbs-12oz

4. - This fish spawns May to early August and they lay their eggs in a little nest that they dig out of the mud or rocks in the bottom of the lakes and ponds. - The color of the body is olive green. This is the background color is overlaid with attractive blue line. They favor clear water (3-6.5 ft) deep in areas with lots of vegetation. They share their habitats almost always with bluegill, rock bass, largemouth bass, and many species of minnows. - This fish is symmetrical. - The pumpkinseed fish is found in the Dakotas and Iowa. The Pumpkinseed eats snails beetles, nymphs and occasionally any small fish, including it's own young. http://www.google.com/#hl=en&source=hp&q=pumpkinseed+fish&aq=f&aqi=g5g-m1&oq=&fp=435311d5ec9ae78f Pumpkinseed SunfishLepomisGibbosus

5. Spawn in temperatures of about 60° • Females release hundreds of thousands of eggs in shallow water, sand or mud • Eggs are left un to develop unguarded for about 12 days • They usually live for about 10 years • They eat decaying matter off the floor where it is soft • Eats as much dead mater as living matter • They are a copper-brown color with darker fins • Some patches of yellow or copper, usually near the gill coverings • They have clear areas along the last two thirds of their lateral line • Whitish underside • swims by moving its tail which pushes it forward • Has a 2 chambered heart • Uses gills to breath • Has spines on its back which are slightly poisonous • http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/habitat/habitatprotection/profile/pacific/quillback_rockfishhome.htm Quillback- CarpiodesCyprinus fkfkhjgf Hunter Kibler P.3 2-2-10

6. Blackbanded SunfishEnneacanthus chaetodon The black-banded sunfish, Enneacanthus chaetodon, has a compact body with a striking array of black bands on a white body, its ventral fins etched with orange. It is symmetrical on both sides. At first, wild caught Black-bandeds will eat only blackworms and other moving live foods. However, if you first pour frozen offerings through the filter stream to simulate movement, Black-bandeds will greedily accept frozen brine shrimp, bloodworms, glass worms, and finely chopped cooked shrimp. Oxygen and carbon dioxide dissolve in water, and most fishes exchange dissolved oxygen and carbon dioxide in water by means of the gills. The gills lie behind and to the side of the mouth cavity and consist of fleshy filaments supported by the gill arches and filled with blood vessels, which give gills a bright red color. Water taken in continuously through the mouth passes backward between the gill bars and over the gill filaments, where the exchange of gases takes place. To survive, Black-bandeds need soft, acid water with no discernible hardness. Black-bandeds breed like other sunfish, with the male staking out a nest site among plants or other cover. Females lay their eggs in the site, and then the males will drive them off. Like other sunfish, Black-bandeds males will guard their eggs until hatching and perhaps for a week after until the fry are free swimming. The Blackbanded Sunfish live in the Delaware.

7. The Allegheny in Ohio River, susquhanna, Delaware ,Potomac , and Erie river watersheds have a wide diversity of shiners, including the emerald, ghost (rare, recorded from the Monongahela River), striped, bigmouth, spottail, silver, rosyface, spotfin, sand, redfin and mimic. The Lake Erie watershed in Pennsylvania has been confirmed to have the emerald, striped, blackchin (in Lake Pleasant), spottail, silver, rosyface, spotfin, sand, redfin and mimic. SpotFin Shiner The spawning season in Pennsylvania, extended from mid-June to mid-August. The spotfin spawns in horizontal crevices in rocks and logs. Some Pennsylvania shiners are of unknown status The common shiner and striped shiner are assigned to the scientific genus Luxilus. Most other small shiners are in the genus Notropis. The golden shiner is in the genus Notemigonus, and is common across Pennsylvania, found in all the major watersheds.

8. Redfin Pickerel Esox Americanus Distribution • Facts • Rarely grows over 12 inch's and grows slower than other pikes they usually don’t live more than 8 years. • They only spawn when the water hits 50° • They eat anything smaller than them • They can get Ick if to much of there slime gets removed • It uses its muscles to swim Habitat They live in the shallows of slow moving streams and lakes and ponds. They are usually found on soft mud bottoms. They like to live in Clear water. They are most commonly found in north east region of Pennsylvania. Identification The redfin is greenish gray to olive bronze The belly is whitish yellow tinted and the fins are red that’s where it gets its name. Jonathan Hauck

9. Atlantic Sturgeon Acipenseroxyrhynchus Interesting Facts Atlantic sturgeon enter large freshwater river systems to spawn during the spring. Only a few states still have spawning populations. The Hudson River in New York has the only spawning population in New England. Four smaller plates usually in pairs of 2 on each side of the fish. Sturgeon are among the oldest living species of fish. They have a two chambered heart that works their circulatory and respiratory system. Hatched in rivers, the young live in them for about six years before going back to the ocean to mature. They may live up to 100 years old. They are in the Delaware Region in the United States. • Atlantic sturgeon have been aged to 60 years. There is usually faster growth and earlier age at maturation in more southern populations. They are bottom feeders. They root in the sand and mud with their mouths. They do not make their own food. Have five rows of bony plates, they grow to be six to eight feet and no more than three hundred pounds. It has a longer snout than other sturgeons and has four barbells at the side of its mouth. Sturgeons have rows of bony plates along their bodies, and a mouth like a vacuum cleaner. They eat crabs, mussels, worms, and insects on the bottom.

10. White Perch- Morone Americana The white perch can live in a wide range of salinity. They live in fresh water and mostly in landlocked lakes with temperatures anywhere from 58-64° and depths up to ten ft. They range anywhere from 2 inches long, and move around with the use of their two dorsal fins located on there sides. They spawn in fresh water the males release milt into the female during them chasing each other through the water and the females lay many eggs approx. 150,000 eggs per pound that the female weighs and those eggs hatch within 5 days of being laid. It is almost illegal to stock the whit perch in pa because they could very easily overpopulate an area. The perch can be found all throughout PA due to the wide range of waters that the species can live in as long as the water is of the right temperatures and depth.

11. Blue SpottedSunfish Bluespotted fish are small and dark and have 9 to 10 rays. Males have rows of blue and silver spots along the dark side of their bodies. Females have light sides and with fewer spots. It moves with its caudal fin moving back and forth. It is bilaterally symmetrical. Spawning for this fish occurs when the water temperatures are 73°F and then the eggs hatch about 60 hours later. The fish will grow to about 3 to 4 inches big. It lives around vegetation and around swamps, lakes, and slow moving streams.It can be found in the Delaware and Susquehanna regions of Pennsylvania. It eats small crustaceans, insects, and small mollusks. EnneacanthusGloriosus Siera Bathgate

12. Small mouth bass/ Micropterusdolomieui Eggs hatch in two to three days. Dark-colored fry develop. They leave the gravel. Young smallmouth disperse into shallow stream margins, usually close to aquatic vegetation like water willow. remaining young move to submerged cover in the deeper pools as winter approaches. They reproduce by females laying lots of eggs. It has fins on both sides. It has paired eyes, paired gills, and paired organs. The circulatory system functions in the delivery of oxygen, nutrient molecules, and hormones and the removal of carbon dioxide, ammonia and other metabolic wastes. It shows it’s a heterotroph by eating worms and not being able to make it own food to eat so it eats other things. Small mouth bass swim by using muscles. They use there caudal fins and swish from side to side. It’s unique because it located in the US and Canada. They are fresh water fish. The respiratory system is when the gills mediate the gas exchange in fish. These organs, located on the sides of the head, are made up of gill filaments, feathery structures that provide a large surface for gas exchange. The filaments are arranged in rows in the gill arches, and each filament has lamellae, discs that contain capillaries. Blood enters and leaves the gills through these small blood vessels . Although gills are restricted to a small section of the body, the immense respiratory surface created by the gill filaments provides the whole animal with an efficient gas exchange. The surrounding water keeps the gills wet.

13. American EelAnguilla rostrata Eels use their caudal fin to move in the water Lives in freshwater as adults, they swim at the bottom of lakes searching for food, and they hunt at night Elongate, snakelike body with a small, pointed head Eels are bilateral symmetrical The eels are found in the Ohio, Potomac, Susquehanna, and Delaware River Eels are not in the Erie or Genesee River Grows 4 feet and 161.5 pounds Full grown females 2-3.5 feet, males are smaller Females lay up to 4 million buoyant of eggs, Males fertilized them Eat aquatic insects, small crustaceans, and dead fish

14. Circulatory and Respiratory System When the oxygen level is low which often happens in still waters the bowfin can rise to the surface and gulp air into its swim bladder, which is lined with blood vessels and can serve as a lung. How it Reproduces The bowfin will lay about 23,000 to 64,000 eggs. It makes a nest with its fins. As the male guards the eggs he will also watch over the female. Symmetrical If you were to cut down the middle of the bowfin it would look the same on both sides. BowfinAmia calva Growth and Development Early growth is rapid.In southeastMissouri, fish are about 178-229 mm long by the end of the first year, and grow to Be about 508 mm when 5 or 6 years old . What it eats The bowfin will eat mainly fish but it will also go for crawfish, frogs, mollusks, and aquatic insects. Unique Characteristic Male bowfins have a dark spot on the upper side of the base of the tail fin. It is ringed with bright-orange or yellow-green during the breeding season. This spot looks like a false eye to direct predators to the bowfin’s tail, instead of the head, making it easy to escape danger. Location The bowfin can be found in Lake Erie, the Ohio, Susquehanna, and Delaware Rivers