White CatfishThe white catfish is in the family Ictaluridae (North American freshwater)

The white catfish’s scientific name is Ameiurus catus. 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.

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.

Kaitlyn Lawver

e

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.

Work sited - http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,1607,7-153-10370_12145_12203-58742--,00.html

Blake Marsh

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

While swimming steadily bluegill use their pectoral fins only. Dorsal and anal fins remain motionless or have smalltreding water. Movements. There symmetry is bilateral.

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.

World record weight for a bluegill is 4lbs-12oz

Pumpkinseed Sunfish

Lepomis Gibbosus

- 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 snailsbeetles, 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

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

fkfkhjgf

Quillback- Carpiodes Cyprinus

Hunter KiblerP.32-2-10

Blackbanded SunfishEnneacanthus chaetodon

The Blackbanded Sunfish live in the Delaware.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

The spawning season in Pennsylvania, extended from mid-June to mid-August. The spotfin spawns in horizontal crevices in rocks and logs.

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

HabitatThey 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.

IdentificationThe 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

Atlantic Sturgeon

Acipenser oxyrhynchus 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.

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.

White Perch- Morone AmericanaThe 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.

Blue Spotted SunfishEnneacanthus Gloriosus

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.

Siera Bathgate

SMALL MOUTH BASS/ MICROPTERUS DOLOMIEUI

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.

Small mouth bass swim by using muscles. They use there caudal fins and swish from side to side.

They reproduce by females laying lots of eggs.

It has fins on both sides. It has paired eyes, paired gills, and paired organs.

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.

The circulatory system functions in the delivery of oxygen, nutrient molecules, and hormones and the removal of carbon dioxide, ammonia and other metabolic wastes.

The respiratory system is when the gills mediate the gasexchange 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 respiratorysurface created by the gill filaments provides the whole animal with an efficient gas exchange. The surrounding water keeps the gills wet.

It’s unique because it located in the US and Canada.

They are fresh water fish.

American EelAnguilla rostrata

Eels use their caudal fin to move in the waterLives in freshwater as adults, they swim at the bottom of lakes searching for

food, and they hunt at nightElongate, snakelike body with a small, pointed headEels are bilateral symmetricalThe eels are found in the Ohio, Potomac, Susquehanna, and Delaware RiverEels are not in the Erie or Genesee RiverGrows 4 feet and 161.5 poundsFull grown females 2-3.5 feet, males are smallerFemales lay up to 4 million buoyant of eggs, Males fertilized themEat aquatic insects, small crustaceans, and dead fish

BowfinAmia calva

Growth and DevelopmentEarly growth is rapid. In southeast Missouri, 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 yearsold .

What it eatsThe bowfin will eat mainly fish but itwill also go for crawfish, frogs, mollusks, and aquatic insects.

Unique CharacteristicMale bowfins have a dark spoton 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.

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 ReproducesThe 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.

SymmetricalIf you were to cut down the middle of the bowfin it would look the same on both sides.

LocationThe bowfin can be found in Lake Erie, the Ohio, Susquehanna, and Delaware Rivers