Spoonhead sculpin
| Spoonhead sculpin | |
|---|---|
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Actinopterygii |
| Order: | Scorpaeniformes |
| Family: | Cottidae |
| Genus: | Cottus |
| Species: | C. ricei |
| Binomial name | |
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Cottus ricei (E. W. Nelson, 1876) |
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| Synonyms | |
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Cottus onychus |
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Cottus onychus
Cottus pollicaris
The spoonhead sculpin (Cottus ricei) is a North American freshwater fish of the Cottidae family that lives in the United States and Canada. This species is not as common as its cousin species the mottled sculpin.
Spoonhead sculpins do not have scales but instead are covered in small, fine, curved spines. They have a flat triangular shaped head and a cylindrical shaped body that is from top to bottom and their body tapers from the head down to the tail. They have very defined preopercular spines. Their fins are long and round and their coloration ranges from greenish brown to light yellow and they are white underneath and their bodies are speckled. Spoonhead sculpins average length is about 1.5 to 2.4 inches, however, the largest sculpin on record was 5.3 inches. Their eyes are positioned on top of their head and they have a very large mouth that opens on the ventral surface, in the inferior position. This allows them to feed on the bottom of rivers and lakes. They also have a complete lateral line that extends to the caudal peduncle (between the end of the anal fin and the base of the caudal fin), this allows them to detect movement in the water. Spoonhead sculpins have four soft pelvic rays (soft-rays are thin and flexible), 14-16 pectoral rays, one chin pore and three preopercular spines. They do not have palatine teeth. These fish usually live to be 6 years old compared to slimy sculpins that usually live for 5 years and deepwater sculpins live for 7 years. The spoonhead sculpin does not contain a swim bladder which, allows it to rest on the bottom of lakes and rivers. Also they are sensitive to low frequencies of sound and less sensitive to high frequencies of sound. They have a caudal or tail fin. .
The spoonhead sculpin can be found in Canada from southern Quebec to the Mackenzie River in the Northwest and Yukon Territories and in British Columbia. They are also found in northern Ohio, Montana, and in many of the Great Lakes like Lake Superior and Lake Erie. However, due to the large amount of pollution in Lake Erie the spoonhead population there is dwindling. The spoonhead is also a native Montana fish that can be found in the St. Mary and Waterton river drainages of Glacier National Park. They are generally found in fast flowing rivers and deep lakes.
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Wikipedia