Muskellunge
Muskellunge (Esox masquinongy )
The muskellunge (Esox masquinongy ), often referred to as " Musky " for short, is a predator of the family of pike ( Esocidae ). Its natural occurrence is located in eastern North America before in the area of the St. Lawrence River, the Great Lakes, Hudson Bay and upper Mississippi River and was introduced to various other waters.
Etymology
The name of the fish has nothing to do with muscles with lungs, but is derived from his name in the language of the Ojibwa, maashkinoozhe ( " ugly pike " or " big fish " ), from. To date, can be found in Canada and the U.S. have different spellings for the fish; as found in Longfellow's The Song of Hiawatha variant Maskenozha. Folk etymology the Indian word with French masque allongé ("long form " ) has been associated.
Features
With an average of about one meter in length and 10 kilograms in weight and maximum dimensions of 1.83 meters and 32 kilograms of the muskellunge is the largest Hechtart. The body is elongated and slender. The coloring of the animals is highly variable. The basic color is usually light - brown to yellowish- green. This is what usually find dark drawings, which may consist of vertical, straight or twisted strips or numerous spots. A dark stripe under the eye always missing. In addition, completely unmarked animals occur. The drawing is in young animals especially rich in contrast and can almost completely fade in very old animals, the animals will then appear silvery.
The mouth is large and wide and shaped like a duck's beak. The Maul column reaches at least to the posterior edge of the eye. The cheeks and gill covers are unlike other pike species scaly only at the top. Is 5 to 10, usually 6 to 9 present mandibular and 10 or 11 Submandibularporen. The number of Branchiostegalstrahlen is 14 to 16 The lateral line has 130-176, usually 145 to 155 scales on. The dorsal fin with 15 to 19 soft rays sits far back on the body over the 14 - to 16- rayed anal fin. The pectoral fins have 14 to 19 rays, the pelvic fins, sitting about halfway between the pectoral fins and tail, 11 to 12 The caudal fin has pointed ends.
Subspecies
In the United States, three types can be distinguished. E. m. masquinongy occurs in the Great Lakes region, E. m. immaculatus in Wisconsin and Minnesota, and E. m. ohionensis in the area of the Ohio River.
Habitat
The inhabited muskellunge medium to large rivers and lakes, pools and ponds of about 300 square meters. They prefer this flat, cool waters with rich vegetation, which can serve as cover, but can be found in good loot offer in other locations.
Way of life
Muscle lungs are site- faithful loner. They lurk mostly in hiding, in order to advance for potential prey from there quickly. Adult animals feed mainly on larger fish, but also occasionally prey on waterfowl and mammals up to the size of a muskrat. The spawning time is in the late spring, usually in early May. Eggs are laid in small streams in plant -covered pits. A female produces, depending on the size of 60,000 to 100,000 eggs, occasionally this results in hybridizations with the most earlier ablaichenden pike (Esox lucius). The pups are growing up fast. In the first period they feed primarily on zooplankton and small crustaceans, from about a week they begin to prey on small fish. It also cannibalism occurs.
Tiger Hecht
The tiger pike is a barren cross between muskellunge and pike (Esox lucius), which occasionally occurs naturally, but is usually produced artificially. Tiger pike outwardly resemble the muskellunge, her drawing but consists of numerous thinner, partially broken strips, giving a tiger -like appearance. Since Tiger pike do not reproduce, they are particularly well suited to be used for inventory control of smaller fish in fish ponds.