Stickleback
Three-spined stickleback ( Gasterosteus aculeatus )
The sticklebacks ( Gasterosteidae ) are a family of fish that is common in almost the entire northern hemisphere.
The facing swimmers are found in freshwater and coastal brackish and sea water. The name is derived a series of three to sixteen single spines in front of their dorsal fin. These are converted to fin rays. The anterior rays of the pelvic fins are also modified into spines. All spines can be worn permanently erect and without further effort, as they snap in hinges.
Sticklebacks do not have scales, their skin is either naked, or more or less fully signposted with bone plates. Most species are relatively small and can reach a size of four to eight inches, only the Stickleback stands out with a length of up to 20 inches away from.
All sticklebacks build from the spawning season with a kidney secretion bandaged plant material nests and show distinct, sometimes very complex, brood care behavior. The construction of the nest and care for their offspring is up to the male animals ("Father Family "). They defend the breeding territory against intraspecific competitors and, within its capabilities against Different type of threats. Often male stickleback mate with more than one female, and they are able to in a breeding season several times spawn.
They feed mainly on small animals. Sticklebacks on their part, a not insignificant source of food for predatory fish (such as pike ) and fish-eating birds (eg herons ) dar. addition sticklebacks are often the only fish capable of small water bodies in human culture scenery as straightened streams or drainage ditches to colonize, .
Its economic importance is small, edible fish in the true sense were the sticklebacks never. They were eaten in Europe only in times of famine. According to descriptions from the 16th century, the three-spined stickleback found in the Tiber region as emergency food use. Similarly, in Gdansk, during the siege of the city in 1807 by Napoleon. Otherwise sticklebacks were only sporadically and regionally limited to the manufacture of fish meal or oil used, such as in the 1890s by the Sea Fisheries Society Germania in pillau, today Baltijsk. During the Second World War sticklebacks were processed in the Netherlands for the production of animal feed. The production of fertilizer was also still an occasional use and there are also reports on the production of a burn ointment from the recovered fish oil. However, in particular, stand out as spawning predators and competitor for food for farmed fish in the fishing industry the tendency for proliferation three-spined stickleback.
System
- Genus Apeltes Vierstachliger stickleback ( Apeltes quadracus )
- North American brook stickleback ( Culaea inconstans )
- Three-spined stickleback ( Gasterosteus aculeatus )
- † Techirghiol stickleback ( Gasterosteus crenobiontus )
- Schwarzgefleckter stickleback ( Gasterosteus wheat landi )
- Nine-spined stickleback ( Pungitius pungitius )
- Southern nine-spined stickleback ( Pungitius platygaster )
- Greek nine-spined stickleback ( Pungitius hellenicus )
- Stickleback ( Spinachia spinachia )