Species: Culaea inconstans
Brook Stickleback
Species
Encyclopedia of Puget Sound
Classification
Kingdom
Animalia
Phylum
Craniata
Class
Actinopterygii
Order
Gasterosteiformes
Family
Gasterosteidae
Genus
Culaea
NatureServe
Classification
Other Global Common Names
épinoche à cinq épines
Informal Taxonomy
Animals, Vertebrates - Fishes - Bony Fishes - Other Bony Fishes
Formal Taxonomy
Animalia - Craniata - Actinopterygii - Gasterosteiformes - Gasterosteidae - Culaea - This species exhibits significant clinal variation in dorsal and pelvic spine lengths and in body depth, as well as complex behavioral differences among populations (see Sublette et al. 1990). See Gach (1996) for information on geographic variation in mtDNA and biogeography. See McLennan (1993) for a phylogenetic analysis of the Gasterosteidae based on behavioral characters.
Ecology and Life History
Habitat Type Description
Freshwater
Migration
false - false - false - Migrationlike movements have been observed, (Becker 1983), but the context of the movements is not definitely known.
Non-migrant
false
Locally Migrant
false
Food Comments
Eats various aquatic invertebrates (including eggs and larvae), eggs and larvae of fishes, and algae. In a Manitoba lake, was opportunistic but heavily dependent on arthropods (Moodie 1986).
Reproduction Comments
Spawns spring and summer (about mid-May to mid-July in Manitoba, Moodie 1986). Females may spawn every few days when food is abundant. Eggs hatch in 7-11 days. Male tends eggs and fry. Sexually mature by age I, age II and III also are included in the breeding population (Becker 1983, Lee et al. 1980, Moodie 1986).
Ecology Comments
Population size varied greatly among years in a Manitoba lake; summer kill and winter kill common; recolonization via intermittent runoff streams (Moodie 1986).
Length
8
Conservation Status
NatureServe Global Status Rank
G5
Global Status Last Reviewed
2007-06-20
Global Status Last Changed
1996-09-20
Distribution
Conservation Status Map
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Global Range
H - >2,500,000 square km (greater than 1,000,000 square miles) - H - The range includes most of the southern half of Canada (Atlantic and Arctic drainages from Nova Scotia to Northwest Territories) and the northern part of the eastern United States, extending south in the Great Lakes-Mississippi River basins to Colorado (Woodling 1985), Nebraska, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania. A population in the Canadian River system in northeastern New Mexico was regarded as probably introduced (through bait bucket or incidental to stocking of exotic salmonids) by Sublette et al. (1990) and Gach (1996), though the apparent native status in eastern Colorado (Woodling 1985) suggests that the New Mexico population could be native. Brook sticklebacks have been introduced in various places south of the native range, such as in Alabama, Kentucky, Tennessee, northwestern Colorado, northeastern Utah (Modde and Haines 1996, Great Basin Nat. 56:281), and California. Present distribution was influenced by postglacial dispersal from separate refugia in the Mississippi and Ohio river basins (Gach 1996).
Global Range Code
H
Global Range Description
>2,500,000 square km (greater than 1,000,000 square miles)