Fish

Title: Saltwater/Marine Fish Species #: 1

Common Name: Emperor Angelfish

Scientific Name: Pomacanthus imperator

Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: ChordataClass: Actinopterygii Order: PerciformesFamily: Pomacandthidae

Geography/ Habitat: The Emperor Angelfish is common from the east coast of Africa to the Red Sea, making rare appearances in the Hawaiian Islands. The Emperor makes its home on lagoon patch reefs, reef faces, channels and reef slopes at depths of 10 to 260 feet. Juvenile often swim under ledges and cave mouths, while adults often peruse open reefs.

Food/ Feed Strategy: Juvenile Emperors often scavenge off of other fish and moray eels. Adult diets consist of sponges and tunicates.

Life Strategy: Spawning occurs at specific sites where males may spawn with more than on female a night. The male positions itself behind the female, causing her to release her eggs while the male releases sperm, fertilizing the eggs. The female usually lays the eggs on vegetation.

Body Form/Style: Emperor Angelfish have a compressed/compressiform body type. As a result, the fish does not constantly move, requires bursts of speed, and have large eyes.

Swim/Locomotion Style: Subcarangiform: undulate most of the body, with their head very still. Movement concentrated in last 2/3 of body.

Mouth position: terminal mouth position including a beak.

Citation: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0Y6gtzwPpb2MGNOakR3WDBzRlE/edit and http://www.fishchannel.com/fish-species/freshwater-profiles/angelfish-2.aspx

http://www.fishchannel.com/fish-species/freshwater-profiles/angelfish-2.aspx

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0Y6gtzwPpb2MGNOakR3WDBzRlE/edit

http://www.google.com/imgres?sa=X&biw=1242&bih=559&tbm=isch&tbnid=S6Ca-YPCw0KQ2M:&imgrefurl=http://www.scubadivingaustralia.com.au/wildlife/angelfish/&docid=ufOoxNLrbcWvGM&imgurl=http://www.scubadivingaustralia.com.au/uploads/pics/JuvenileEmperorAngelfish.jpg&w=800&h=500&ei=o9-QUqHZL83qkAfrjICwCw&zoom=1&ved=1t:3588,r:28,s:0,i:183&iact=rc&page=3&tbnh=175&tbnw=258&start=25&ndsp=15&tx=63.54998779296875&ty=82.63999938964844

Title: Saltwater fish Species #: 2

Common Name: Yellow Boxfish

Scientific Name: Ostracion cubicus

Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: ChordataClass: Actinopterygii Order: TetradontiformesFamily: Diodontidae

Geography/Habitat: Yellow boxfish are found throughout the reefs of the Pacific Ocean, Indian Ocean, and southeastern Atlantic Ocean. Yellow Boxfish have been seen in the Red Sea, coast of East Africa, the reefs of the Hawaiian Islands, and the Ryuku Islands.

Food/Feed Strategy: Not an aggressive eater. Enjoy a meaty diet of krill, small shrimp, clams, shellfish, and algae.

Life Strategy: Male Boxfish breed with a small group of females, called a harem. The male spawns with all females in his harem each even then water are warming in the spring. The male hums to the female after which the male fertilizes the eggs with his sperm. The female releases the eggs in an area in which the eggs can be taken away by currents. After the eggs are released, the two fish swim away quickly so that egg-eating predators might not know they eggs have been released.

Body Form/Style: Globiform. Globe-shaped.

Swim/Locomotion Style: Ostraciiform. Cannot flex their bodies as they have too much protection/armor. They scull their tails like oars in a boat, with caudal peduncle fin beats.

Mouth Position: terminal (at the absolute from of their heads)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/79/Kofferfisch_(Ostracion_cubicus)_02.jpg

Citation: http://www.fishchannel.com/fish-species/saltwater-profiles/yellow-boxfish-2.aspx and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Kofferfisch_(Ostracion_cubicus)_02.jpg

Title: Marine Fish Species #: 3

Common Name: Robalo, Blue Wahoo

Scientific Name: Acanthocybium solandri

Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: ChordataClass: Actinopterygii Order: PerciformesFamily: Scombridae

Geography/Habitat: Common in the Gulf of Mexico and other tropical/sub-tropical seas, typically around banks, drop-offs, and weed lines.

Food/Feed Strategy: Over 97 percent of the Wahoo’s diet consists of other fish like mackerels, butterfishes, porcupine fishes, round herrings, scads, jacks, pompanos, and flying fish. The other 3 percent consists of invertebrates like squid and octopus.

Life Strategy: Blue Wahoos reproduce by spawning over long periods of time, usually at sites near the Caribbean and Florida.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Kofferfisch_(Ostracion_cubicus)_02.jpg

http://www.fishchannel.com/fish-species/saltwater-profiles/yellow-boxfish-2.aspx

Body Form/Style: Fusiform- streamlined and shaped like a plane fuselage. Shape allows for extremely fast movement.

Swim/Locomotion Style: Thunniform- fast and efficient movement. Narrow caudal peduncles and large caudal fins. Tails are reinforced by keels for strength and stability.

Mouth Position: Terminal

Citation: http://www.rodnreel.com/gulffish/gulffish.asp?cmd=view&FishID=83


Common Name: Bay Anchovy

Scientific Name: Anchoa mitchilli

Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: ChordataClass: Actinopterygii Order: ClupeformesFamily: Engraulidae

Geography/Habitat: Found in the bays of the Gulf of Mexico (Mobile Bay) and the Northeast (Chesapeake). They are most common in near-shore environments with muddy bottoms. These fish live in schools at a maximum depth of 100 feet. Can also live in fresh water estuaries.

Food/Feed Strategy: Feed on plankton, krill, zooplankton, and even fish larvae.

Life Strategy: Bay anchovies spawn, usually during the summer months. Eggs are released after a male has fertilized the female’s eggs into the pelagic zone. Larvae hatch within 24 hours of release. Growth is rapid and fish reach maturity a few months after hatching. Bay anchovies usually do not live past the age of two.

Body Form/Style: Compressiform- compressed laterally while being versatile.

http://www.rodnreel.com/gulffish/gulffish.asp?cmd=view&FishID=83

Swim/Locomotion Style: Carangiform- Can change directions quickly by throwing their bodies into a shallow, wave-like movement. The wave increases in amplitude as it moves farther down the body to the tail, which snaps like a whip.

Mouth Position: Terminal- mouth is at the direct front of the fish

Citation: http://www.chesapeakebay.net/fieldguide/critter/bay_anchovy


Common Name: Clownfish

Scientific Name: Amphiprion ocellaris

Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: ChordataClass: Actinopterygii Order: PerciformesFamily: Pomacentridae

Geography/Habitat: found in the Indian Ocean, Red Sea, South East Asia region, northern Australia, and the Western Pacific. They are not known to reside in the Caribbean, Mediterranean or the Atlantic Oceans. Clownfish live in anemones.

Feed Strategy: Clownfish chase off the anemone’s predators and lure prey in exchange for bits of food that the anemone catches.

Life Strategy: Spawning occurs year-round in tropical waters. Reproduction begins with courting. Males chase, bite, and extend their fins to females as courting gestures. When the female’s eggs (100 to 1,000) are fertilized, she lays them in batches on corals, next to their home sea anemone, and on rocks. The male guards the eggs until they hatch 4 to 5 days after being laid.

http://www.chesapeakebay.net/fieldguide/critter/bay_anchovy

Body Form: Compressiform- compressed laterally

Swim/Locomotion Style: Carangiform- unable to move the forward part of its body but uses a wave like motion that accelerates until it reaches the tail, which snaps like whip.

Mouth Position: Terminal- mouth is at the direct front of the fish

Citation: http://marinebio.org/species.asp?id=29


Common Name: Bicolor Dottyback

Scientific Name: Pictichromis paccagnellae

Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: ChordataClass: Actinopterygii Order: PerciformesFamily: Pseudochrominae

Geography/Habitat: This species is found in rich coral reefs in the western central Pacific Ocean, eastern Malay Peninsula, and waters around the Philippines. They are found as close as 15 feet to the surface and as much as 100 ft. deep. They are native in 4 countries: Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, and Thailand.

http://marinebio.org/species.asp?id=29

Food/Feed Strategy: Bicolor dottyfish are carnivorous and prey on small shrimp, amphipods, copepods and bristleworms in the wild. In captivity, special vitamins are necessary in keeping their stunning coloration.

Life Strategy: All Bicolors are hermaphroditic, meaning they can assume either male or female sex organs. Males perform a mating dance outside a cave to excite the female entering the cave to mate. After fertilization, the females can lay up to a thousand eggs, which the male guards until the transparent larvae hatch.

Body Form: compressiform- the most common fish shape is characterized by lateral compression and combines the efficiency of several other body types.

Locomotion/Swim Style: Carangiform- undulate the back part of their bodies as the forward part is incapable of movement. The wavelike movement with which they swim which increases in acceleration as it reaches the tail, which snaps likes a whip to create the fish’s motion.

Mouth Position: terminal- at the very front of the fish’s head.

Citation: http://www.aquariumdomain.com/viewSpeciesMarine.php?id=105


Common Name: Powder Blue Tang

Scientific Name: Acanthurus leucosternon

Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: ChordataClass: Actinopterygii Order: PerciformesFamily: Acanthuridae

http://www.aquariumdomain.com/viewSpeciesMarine.php?id=105

Geography/ Habitat: Blue tang range from the Gulf of Mexico to Barzil. They are also abundant in Florida, the Bahamas, and the Caribbean Sea.

Food/ Feed Strategy: Mostly feed on algae but also eat krill, Mysis shrimp, and Brine shrimp. The Blue Tang grazes periodically throughout a day, meaning it ingest a large amount of food.

Life Strategy: Spawning usually occurs in the late afternoon of winter months. Males broadcast spawning colors consisting of a pale head and tail then try to align themselves with a females body. After a courtship dance to confirm the partners, the female and at least one male (sometimes several) dart to the surface, releasing egg and sperm to fertilize.

Body Type: Globiform- common for saltwater fish. Fish are globe shaped with a domed head with a slightly thinner body towards the tail.

Locomotion/ Swim Style: Carangiform- Unable to undulate the forward parts of their bodies, the fish move the rear portion in a wave-like motion that increases n acceleration as it nears the tail, which snaps like a whip to propel the fish.

Mouth Position: terminal- at the very front of the fish head.


Title: Marine Fish Species Number: 8

Common Name: Yellow Tang

Scientific Name: Zebrasoma Flavescens



Geography/Habitat: Yellow Tangs are commonly found in shallow reefs, from 7 to 150 feet deep in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. East Japan and western Hawaii are also common habitats for Yellow Tang, Hawaii being the prime harvesting ground for the aquarium industry’s supply of the fish.

Food/ Feed Strategy: Cruise reefs as a school, grazing on algae along the way. Though they are primarily herbivores in the wild, Yellow Tang will eat a variety of foods like krill and small shrimp.


Body Type/Form: Globiform- common in saltwater fish, Yellow Tang have rounded bodies which thin out at the tail. Globe-shaped.

Locomotion/ Swim Style: Carangiform- Yellow Tang move the back part of their bodies only to generate movement. The wave-like maneuver accelerates as it reaches the tail, which snap like a whip to propel the fish.

Mouth Position: terminal- mouth is at the front of the fish’s head.

Citation: http://piratefx.hubpages.com/hub/Yellow-Tang

http://piratefx.hubpages.com/hub/Yellow-Tang

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Ocean

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Ocean

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reef


Common Name: Orbiculate Batfish

Scientific Name: Platax orbicularis

Kingdom: Kingdom Phylum: ChordataClass: Actinopterygii Order: PerciformesFamily: Ephippidae

Geography/Habitat: Orbicular batfish are found around the Indo-Pacific. This includes the Red Sea, eastern Africa to Indonesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. They have also been found from Northeast Australia and New Caledonia (French island in southwest Pacific Ocean) to southwest Japan. Juveniles live in solidarity or small groups, among mangroves or other inner sheltered lagoons. Adults are found in more open waters and at greater depths than their young.

Food/Feed Strategy: Orbiculates are omnivores that will eat plankton, small invertebrates (worms), sessile invertebrates (coral) and marine algae in the wild.

Life Strategy: Not much is known about the genders and gender roles of these fish so their reproduction cycle is not well-known. Many theorists believe these fish spawn externally when males and females release gametes into the water column.

Body Type: Globiform – Shape as a globe; round

Locomotion/Swim Style: Carangiform- the forward part of the body is incapable of movement. Back portion swims with a wave-like motion, accelerating until it reaches the tail, which snaps like a whip to propel the fish.

Mouth Position: Terminal- mouth is at the very front of the fish

Citation: http://nas.er.usgs.gov/queries/FactSheet.aspx?speciesID=2309



http://nas.er.usgs.gov/queries/FactSheet.aspx?speciesID=2309

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagoon

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mangrove

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Platax_Orbicularis_in_the_Egyptian_Red_Sea.jpg


Common Name: Blue Damsel Fish

Scientific Name: Chrysiptera cyanea

Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: ChordataClass: Actinopterygii Order: PerciformesFamily: Pomacentridae

Geography/Habitat: The Blue Damselfish inhabits a large range. It is found in the Indo-West Pacific. It is found from eastern edge of the Indian Ocean and Western Australia to New Guinea, around Britain, Solomon Islands (east of New Guinea), Marianas and Caroline Islands, Indonesia, Philippines, Taiwan and Ryukyu Islands (in the western Pacific Ocean, near the East China Sea). In the southern hemisphere, it is found near Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Samoa, and Palau and Yap in Micronesia. They live among corals in sheltered lagoons and subtidal reef flats. They tend to form groups consisting of an adult male and several females/juveniles.

Food/ Feed Style: Blue Damselfish is omnivorous and feeds chiefly on algae, copepods (cousins of crayfish and water fleas) and pelagic tunicates (cousins of jellyfish).

Life Strategy: Males breed with a small group of females, called a harem. The male spawns with all females in his harem each even then water are warming in the spring. The male hums to the female after which the male fertilizes the eggs with his sperm. The female releases the eggs in an area in which the eggs can be taken away by currents. After the eggs are released, the two fish swim away quickly so that egg-eating predators might not know they eggs have been released.

Body Type: Compressiform- laterally compressed. Allows for efficient movement. Compressiform body style is combined with multiple body forms.

Locomotion/Swim Style: Carangiform- forward part of body is not capable of undulation. Therefore, the back half moves in a wave-like form in which the wave accelerates until it reaches the tail which snaps like a whip.

Mouth Position: Terminal- mouth is at the front end of the fish.

Citation: http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/Damselfish/BlueDevil.php



Common Name: Panther Grouper

Scientific Name: Cromileptes altivelis

Kingdom: Animalia ChordataClass: Actinpterygii Order: PerciformesFamily: Serranidae

Geography/Habitat: Generally found throughout the Indo-Pacific excluding the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman. Panther Grouper are commonly found in the Red Sea, coasts of South Africa and Polynesia, and through the Pitcairn Islands (four volcanic islands located in the Southern Pacific Ocean). They have also been known to live off the coast of northern Australia, Lord Howe Island and southern Japan.

Food/ Feed Style: Largely hunt and kill small fish and crustaceans like crab and shrimp.

Life Strategy: Almost nothing is known about how the Panther Grouper reproduce.

Body Type: Compressiform – compressed laterally. Highly versatile, it is combined with the body types of several other fish for efficient movement.


http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/Damselfish/BlueDevil.php

Locomotion/Swim Style: Subcarangiform – undulate most of their bodies but keep their heads mostly still.

Mouth Position: terminal – mouth is at the very front of the fishes’ head

Citation: http://www.freshmarine.com/panther-grouper.html

http://nas.er.usgs.gov/queries/factsheet.aspx?SpeciesID=966


Common Name: Atlantic Bluefin Tuna

Scientific Name: Thunnus thynnus


Geography/Habitat: Due to the fact that Atlantic Bluefins are warm-blooded, they are comfortable in the cold waters off Newfoundland and Iceland. They are also found in the tropical waters of the Gulf of Mexico and the Mediterranean Sea, where they migrate to spawn every year.

Food/ Feed Style: Bluefins gorge themselves constantly on smaller fish, crustaceans, squid, and eels. When their primary food is not immediately available, they will turn to filter-feeding, mostly on zooplankton and other small organisms. Reports of Bluefins eating kelp have even been recorded.

Life Strategy: Bluefins are oviparous. Spawnig has only be known to occur in two areas: the Mediterranean and the Gulf of Mexico. In the Pacific, spawning reproduction occurs only off the coast of the Phillipines. Little else is known about the reproduction of the Bluefin Tuna.

http://nas.er.usgs.gov/queries/factsheet.aspx?SpeciesID=966

http://www.freshmarine.com/panther-grouper.html

Body Type: Fusiform- shaped like a torpedo and built for speed and endurance. Their bodies are streamlined for quick, efficient movement.

Locomotion/Swim Style: Thunniform – Narrow caudal peduncles (attachment point of tail fin to body) and large caudal fins (tail fins) that are lunate (crescent shaped). Tails are reinforced by keels, for strength and stability. Designed for efficient and fast movement.

Mouth Position: terminal – mouth is at the direct front of the head

Citation: http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/fish/bluefin-tuna/


Common Name: Longhorn Cowfish

Scientific Name: Lactoria cornuta

Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: ChordataClass: Actinopterygii Order: TetraodontiformesFamily: Ostriicidae

Geography/Habitat: Found in the Red Sea off the coasts of east Africa. Also inhabit the Marquesan and Tuamoto islands (southern Pacific Ocean, near French Polynesia) to southern Japan, and Lord Howe Island (Tasman Sea in between Australia and New Zealand). They reside inshore on coastal muddy or sandy habitats in still bays, mostly harbors and estuaries. Juveniles often form small groups in protected shallow mudflats with brackish water. Adults are generally solitary, living in weedy areas near rocks or reefs.

Food/ Feed Style: The omnivorous Cowfish searches for benthic invertebrates, snails, tubeworms in the sand. They also eat small fish and various algae.

http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/fish/bluefin-tuna/

http://www.google.com/imgres?biw=1188&bih=585&tbm=isch&tbnid=tOg39joZbrzWuM:&imgrefurl=http://aftermathnews.wordpress.com/2012/05/31/radioactive-tuna-migrate-from-fukushima-japan-quake-zone-across-pacific-to-california/&docid=Lg63K5PCQYRKYM&imgurl=http://aftermathnews.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/tuna.jpg&w=1800&h=1185&ei=iEuuUoPGFoay2gWZzoGYCQ&zoom=1&ved=1t:3588,r:26,s:0,i:186&iact=rc&page=3&tbnh=179&tbnw=214&start=25&ndsp=13&tx=73.08999633789062&ty=111.25997924804687

Life Strategy: Adults are usually solitary creatures but are found in pairs when mating. Fertilization is external when both genders release gametes into the water. Eggs are pelagic, meaning they float through the open ocean.

Body Type: Globiform – boxy and cumbersome. Not ideal for quick movement.

Locomotion/Swim Style: Ostraciiform – Boxy body form. Hampered by protective armoring. Unable to flex their bodies, they scull their tails like oars.

Mouth Position: Terminal- mouth is at the direct front of the fish head.


http://animal-world.com/encyclo/marine/puffers/cowfish.php


Common Name: Achilles Tang

Scientific Name: Acanthurus Achilles


Geography/ Habitat: In the western Pacific, Achilles Tang resides in the oceanic islands of Oceania to the Hawaiian and Pitcairn islands (four volcanic Islands in the southern Pacific) Also known from Wake, Marcus, and Mariana islands. Eastern Central Pacific: southern tip of Baja California, Mexico

Food/ Feed Style: Achilles Tang are herbivores. The feed constantly, spending most of their day grazing on marine algae.

http://animal-world.com/encyclo/marine/puffers/cowfish.php



Body Form: Globiform- common for saltwater fish. Achilles are globe shaped with a domed head with a slightly thinner body towards the tail.

Locomotion/ Swim Style: Carangiform- Unable to undulate the forward parts of their bodies, the fish move the rear portion in a wave-like motion that increases in acceleration as it nears the tail, which snaps like a whip to propel the fish.

Mouth Position: Terminal – mouth is at the direct front of the fish head

Citation: http://www.fishbase.org/summary/4306

http://www.freshmarine.com/achilles-tang.html


Common Name: Blue Marlin

Scientific Name: Makaira nigricans

Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: ChordataClass: Actinopterygii Order: PerciformesFamily: Istiophoridae

http://www.freshmarine.com/achilles-tang.html

http://www.fishbase.org/summary/4306

Geography/Habitat: Native to the tropical and temperate waters of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans. The spend most of their lives far out at sea in the high temperature surface waters. They are highly migratory and follow warm ocean currents for miles.

Food/ Feed Style: Marlins use their spears to slash through dense schools of their main prey, tuna and mackerel. They also have been known to dive to hunt deep-sea squid. Feeding on mackerel and tuna, but will also dive deep to eat squid.

Life Strategy: Sexual maturity is based upon size. When males and females are at the optimal size, males spawn with females through external fertilization during late summer and early fall. Females release up to 7 million eggs per season though less than one percent will make it to maturity.

Body Type: Fusiform – streamlined and shaped like a fuselage. This incredibly efficient shape allows the Marlin to be one of the fastest fish in the ocean.


Mouth Position: Terminal – mouth is at the very front of the fish head

Citation: http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/fish/blue-marlin/?user_id=10085116&email=ellaoprandy%40yahoo.com&conf=f5d820a0-aeba-4208-a6cf-6739d88b66c2#


Common Name: Atlantic Mackerel

http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/fish/blue-marlin/?user_id=10085116&[email protected]&conf=f5d820a0-aeba-4208-a6cf-6739d88b66c2



Scientific Name: Scomber scombrus


Geography/Habitat: The Atlantic Mackerel occurs on both sides of the North Atlantic. In the western North Atlantic, Mackerel range from Labrador to as far south as Cape Hatteras on North Carolina. In Canada, it lives seasonally over the continental shelf around Newfoundland and Labrador, the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia, the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the Gulf of Maine. Less frequently, it occurs in the Bay of Fundy. In the eastern Atlantic Ocean it ranges from Iceland and Norway, around the British Isles, the North and Baltic seas south to the North African Coast, the Mediterranean and the Black Seas.

Food/ Feed Style: Atlantic mackerel eat amphipods (Talitrus saltitor and whale lice), euphausids (Euphausia superba), shrimps, crab larvae, small squid, and fish eggs. Mackerel eat small fishes such as capelin, Atlantic silversides, young herring, smelt and mackerel. When this prey is unavailable, mackerel move through the water column to feed on plankton by filtering the microorganisms.

Life Strategy: After eggs are internally fertilized by a male, a female will lay her eggs individually or in batches.

Body Type: Fusiform – streamlined and shaped like a fuselage, the mackerel’s body type is ideal for efficient movement and great speed.



Citation: http://www.novascotia.ca/fish/sportfishing/species/atlmack.shtml


http://www.novascotia.ca/fish/sportfishing/species/atlmack.shtml

Common Name: Barred Hamlet

Scientific Name: Hypoplectrus puella

Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: ChordataClass: Actinopterygii Order: PerciformesFamily: Serranidae

Geography/Habitat: This species is found in the tropical Western Atlantic Ocean around Bermuda, the eastern Gulf of Mexico, and throughout the Caribbean Sea.

Food/ Feed Style: Barred Hamlets feed on crustaceans such as crabs and shrimp, and only occasionally eat fishes. Barred hamlets actively hunt for food during the day. They comb the reefs in which they live for prey which they capture using a lightning-fast strike. Hamlets sometimes follow behind schools of grazing fishes, such as parrotfishes, in order to pick off the animals that are flushed out of the reef as they pass. If they come across a group of shrimp, they will rush through the group with mouths wide open to feed.

Life Strategy: Females barred hamlets release eggs while males release sperm into the water column.

Body Type: Compressiform - the most common fish shape is characterized by lateral compression and combines the efficiency of several other body types.

Locomotion/Swim Style: Carangiform – Forward parts of the Hamlet’s body is not capable of undulation. Therefore, they throw their bodies into a wave-like motion that increases in acceleration until it reaches the tail which snaps in a whip-like motion.

Mouth Position: terminal – mouth is at the very front of the fish head

Citation: http://oceana.org/en/explore/marine-wildlife/barred-hamlet

http://www.eoearth.org/view/article/150428/

http://www.eoearth.org/view/article/150428/

http://oceana.org/en/explore/marine-wildlife/barred-hamlet

http://www.eoearth.org/article/Bermuda

http://www.eoearth.org/article/Species


Common Name: Yellow-Striped Squirrelfish

Scientific Name: Sargocentron xantherythrum

Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: ChordataClass: Actinopterygii Order: PerciformesFamily: Holocentridae

Geography/Habitat: The Striped Squirrelfish lives on coral reefs of the Indo-West Pacific from the Red Sea and East Africa to New Caledonia (islands southwest of France) and southern Japan. Most commonly found in Australia and Hawaii. In Australia it is known from the offshore reefs of north-western Australia and from the northern Great Barrier Reef to New South Wales.

Food/ Feed Style: The Squirrelfish is nocturnal and feeds at night. This carnivorous fish eats a variety of crustaceans, like shrimp and crab, marine worms, brittle and serpent stars, and other motile invertebrates.

Life Strategy: Squirrelfish spawn year round in warm regions only during summer months through external fertilization.


Locomotion/Swim Style: Carangiform – unable to undulate the forward part of their bodies, the Squirrelfish throws itself into a wave-like motion that increasingly accelerates as it reaches the tail, which snaps like a whip.

Mouth Position: terminal – mouth is at the very front of the fish head.

Citation: http://www.freshmarine.com/striped-squirrelfish.html

http://saltaquarium.about.com/cs/fishcares_z/p/hirwsquirrel.htm

http://saltaquarium.about.com/cs/fishcares_z/p/hirwsquirrel.htm

http://www.freshmarine.com/striped-squirrelfish.html


Common Name: Zebra Dartfish

Scientific Name: Ptereleotris zebra

Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: ChordataClass: Actinopterygii Order: PerciformesFamily: Ptereleotridae

Geography/Habitat: Zebra Dartfish are found in Indo-Pacific Ocean including the Red Sea and around western Indian Ocean. Zebra Darts are found throughout the following islands: Line (chain of eleven atolls and low coral islands in the central Pacific Ocean, south of the Hawaiian Islands) and Marquesan Islands (volcanic islands in southern Pacific Ocean near French Polynesia), Ryukyu Islands (volcanic islands in the western Pacific Ocean near Japan), the Mariana (archipelago islands in northwestern Pacific Ocean), and the Marshall Islands (island country in northern Pacific Ocean). Zebra Dartfish are also found in the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Australia.

Food/ Feed Style: Zebra Dartfish are carnivores. They are found patrolling the water column and reefs for planktonic life such as amphipods, copepods, tiny crustaceans, various larvae, and other zooplankton.

Life Strategy: Little is known about the reproduction of these fish though it is believed that they mate in caves.


Locomotion/Swim Style: Carangiform – unable to undulate the forward part of their bodies, the Dartfish throws itself into a wave-like motion that increasingly accelerates as it reaches the tail, which snaps like a whip.

Mouth Position: Terminal – the mouth is at the immediate front of the fish head.

Citation: http://www.freshmarine.com/bar-goby.html



Common Name: Great Barracuda

Scientific Name: Sphyraena barracuda

Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: ChordataClass: Actinopterygii Order: PerciformesFamily: Sphyraenidae

Geography/Habitat: Found in tropical regions of the Atlantic and Indo-Pacific Oceans to the Red Sea and the Western Atlantic Bermudas, Great Barracudas are only absent from the Eastern Pacific side of the ocean. Adult Great Barracuda live in and around the edges of coral reefs. They mostly avoid brackish water unless they are getting ready to reproduce. After they are hatched, larvae live in more protective estuaries as oppposed to reefs. When large enough to protect themselves, the larvae may move out into the open ocean and coral reefs. They prefer water that is betweent he temoeratures of 74 degrees Fahrenheit and 82 degrees Fahrenheit.

Food/ Feed Style: Great barracuda are carnivorous and piscivorous (consume other fish).They posses large teeth and a large gaping mouth which combine to allow the fish to chop its large prey in half. Barracuda catch their prey by sit-in-wait and active preadtor hunting styles. They commonly feed in killifish, herring, gobies, sardines, anchovies, small mullet, silversides, and lizardfish. As they mature, barracuda have the ability to feed in mackerel and even dolphin.

Life Strategy: Barracudas reproduce when the ocean begins to warm. They swim to shallow waters to mate; releasing sperm and eggs into the water column, the eggs are fertilized and drift down the current.


http://www.freshmarine.com/bar-goby.html

Body Type: Sagittiform – shaped like an arrow, barracuda are able to strike quickly from a hiding place.

Locomotion/Swim Style: Subcarangiform - The forward 2/3 of the Barracuda’s body is not capable of undulation. Therefore, it throws its body into a wave-like motion that increases in acceleration until it reaches the tail which snaps in a whip-like motion.

Mouth Position: terminal – mouth is at the very front of the barracuda’s head

Citation: http://www.nature.org/newsfeatures/specialfeatures/animals/fish/giant-barracuda.xml\

http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/accounts/Sphyraena_barracuda/


Common Name: Mahi Mahi or Dolphinfish

Scientific Name: Coryphaena Hippurus

Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: ChordataClass: Actinopterygii Order: PerciformesFamily: Coryphaenidae

Geography/Habitat: Mahi mahi are found in the warm pelagic zones of tropical and subtropical Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans. They can occasionally be found in coastal waters near structure and have been found as far North as the Candian Maritime Provinces and as far South as Brazil.

Food/ Feed Style: Mahi-mahi are carnivorous. They actively hunt crabs, squid, flying fish, mackerel and many small fishes. When these foods are not available, they have been known to eat zooplankton.

Life Strategy: Mahi-Mahi spawn in warm waters through external fertilization.

http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/accounts/Sphyraena_barracuda/

http://www.nature.org/newsfeatures/specialfeatures/animals/fish/giant-barracuda.xml%5C

Body Type: Compressiform- the most common fish shape is characterized by lateral compression and combines the efficiency of several other body types.

Locomotion/Swim Style: Unable to undulate the forward parts of their bodies, the fish move the rear portion in a wave-like motion that increases in acceleration as it nears the tail, which snaps like a whip to propel the fish.

Mouth Position: Terminal – mouth is at the front of the fish head

Citation: http://www.fishhound.com/fishspecies/mahi-mahi-dolphinfish

http://www.reference.com/browse/mahi+mahi?s=t


Common Name: Florida Pompano

Scientific Name: Trachinotus carolinus

Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: ChordataClass: Actinopterygii Order: PerciformesFamily: Carangidae

Geography/Habitat: Pompano are school-forming, warm-water fish that inhabite beaches, bays, and estuaries from Massachusetts to Florida to Brazil. They are migratory and swim north in the spring and south in the winter.

Food/ Feed Style: Pompano eat mollusks, crustaceans (clams, crabs, shrimp), and other small invertebrates like sand fleas.

Life Strategy: Pompano reproduce through external fertilization when males and females release gametes into the water.

http://www.reference.com/browse/mahi+mahi?s=t

http://www.fishhound.com/fishspecies/mahi-mahi-dolphinfish


Locomotion/Swim Style: Carangiform - Unable to undulate the forward parts of their bodies, the fish move the rear portion in a wave-like motion that increases in acceleration as it nears the tail, which snaps like a whip to propel the fish.


Citation: https://srac.tamu.edu/index.cfm/event/getFactSheet/whichfactsheet/200/


Common Name: Atlantic Tarpon

Scientific Name: Megalops atlanticus

Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: ChordataClass: Actinopterygii Order: ElopiformesFamily: Megalopidae

Geography/Habitat: Tarpon range from Brazil in the Western Atlantic to Virginia. They are seen along the coast of Africa in the eastern Atlantic, the Caribbean Sea, and the Gulf og Mexico. Tarpon generally inhabit coastal estuaries but are also found in open marine waters and near coral reefs.

Food/ Feed Style: Tarpon feed on sardines, anchovies, Snook, Mullet, crabs, and school-forming Cichlids.


https://srac.tamu.edu/index.cfm/event/getFactSheet/whichfactsheet/200/


Locomotion/Swim Style: Unable to undulate the forward parts of their bodies, the fish move the rear portion in a wave-like motion that increases in acceleration as it nears the tail, which snaps like a whip to propel the fish.

Mouth Position: mouth is at the very front of the Tarpon’s head

Citation: http://eol.org/data_objects/20914273

http://www.sms.si.edu/irlspec/Megalo_atlant.htm


Common Name: Pacific Halibut

Scientific Name: Hippoglossus stenolepis

Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: ChordataClass: Osteichthyes Order: PleuronectiformesFamily: Pleuronectidae

Geography/Habitat: Found near the continental shelf thorugh most of the northern Pacific Ocean. Halibut range from California to the Chukchi Sea (part of the Arctic Ocean near northwestern Alaska), to Russia’s Gulf of Anadyr to Hokkaido, Japan. As flatfish, halibut are found at depths ranging from 20 to 1,000 feet and have even been found as far down as 3,600 feet. Preferred water temperature’s 37 to 46 degrees Fahrenheit.

http://www.sms.si.edu/irlspec/Megalo_atlant.htm

http://eol.org/data_objects/20914273

Food/ Feed Style: Halibut in the larval stage eat zooplankton, while juvenile and adults prey on fish like Pollock, cod, sablefish, rockfish, Sculpins, turbot, sand lance, and herring. The non-fish portion of their diet consists of octopus, crabs, and clams.

Life Strategy: Pacific halibut reproduce during the winter. Females lay two to three million eggs every season. When the eggs are fertilized they become buoyant. They hatch around 15 days after fertilization. When the larvae emerge, they begin to undergo a metamorphosis unique to flatfish. During the age of three to five months of age, the left eye shifts to the right and they begin to flatten. When they reach “flounder-shaped”, they become bottom dweller.

Body Type: Depressiform – body is flat, allowing the fish to rest on the bottom of the ocean and hide using either camouflage or burying itself in sand.

Locomotion/Swim Style: carangiform

Mouth Position: terminal – mouth is located at the very front of the fish’s head

S http://www.pcouncil.org/pacific-halibut/background-information/

http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=halibut.main

http://www.alaskasealife.org/master/animal_fact/halibut.html


Common Name: Albacore Tuna

Scientific Name: Thunnus alalunga


http://www.alaskasealife.org/master/animal_fact/halibut.html

http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=halibut.main

http://www.pcouncil.org/pacific-halibut/background-information/

Geography/Habitat: The Albacore Tuna is found throughout the Pacific Ocean, in tropical and subtropical open waters. They are mostly fished off the coasts of islands: New Caledonia, Fiji, Tonga, Niue, Samoa, Cook, French Polynesia, Hawaii, New Guinea, and Vanuatu (New

Food/ Feed Style: Differing from their cousins Bigeye and Yellowfun tuna who primarily eat fishes, Albacores eat mostly cephalopods like squid and octopus, hunting them in open water. When they do not eat cephalopods, they prey on other fish and crustaceans


Body Type: Fusiform Fusiform- shaped like a torpedo and built for speed and endurance. Their bodies are streamlined for quick, efficient movement.


Mouth Position: terminal- mouth is located at the very front of the fish head

Citation: http://awsassets.panda.org/downloads/albacore_fs.pdf

Title: Freshwater Fish Species #: 26

http://awsassets.panda.org/downloads/albacore_fs.pdf

Common Name: Largemouth Bass

Scientific Name: Micropterus salmoides

Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: ChordataClass: Actinopterygii Order: PerciformesFamily: Centrarchidae

Geography/Habitat: Largemouth Bass live in clear, quiet lakes, rivers, and ponds in the United States, mostly west of the Rocky Mountains and have expanded into Canada, Mexico, and Central and South America.

Food/ Feed Style: Newly hatched largemouth bass feed on small crustaceans and zooplankton. After they reach a length of about 2 inches, the bass will begin to eat insects and small fish. As they grow into adults, largemouth bass prey mainly on fish but will also eat worms, frogs, crayfish, and insects.

Life Strategy: Largemouth Bass spawn in the spring when waters are about 60 degrees Fahrenheit. They spawn in shallow bays, channels, and backwaters from 1 to 4 feet deep. Females lay about 2000 to 7000 eggs per pund of body weight. Females either deposits eggs in one nest or several others, which the males guards until the eggs hatch about 2 days after fertilization.


Locomotion/Swim Style: Carngiform - Unable to undulate the forward parts of their bodies, the fish move the rear portion in a wave-like motion that increases in acceleration as it nears the tail, which snaps like a whip to propel the fish.

Mouth Position: terminal – mouth is at the very front of the head

Citation: http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/huntwild/wild/species/lmb/

http://www.time4me.com/theme/outdoors/fish/lm3.htm

http://www.time4me.com/theme/outdoors/fish/lm3.htm

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/huntwild/wild/species/lmb/


Common Name: Brown Bullhead

Scientific Name: Ameiurus nebulosus

Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: ChordataClass: Actinopterygii Order: SiluriformesFamily: Ictaluridae

Geography/Habitat: Brown Bullheads live in the fresh waters of eastern and central North America. They are found from the Maritime Provinces (eastern Canadian provinces consisting of New Brinswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island) to Florida. To the west, they can be found as far as Missouri, Texas, and south Saskatchewan (in the prairie region of Canada, bordered by Alberta).

Food/ Feed Style: Brown Bullheads feed at night on the bottom of shallow and muddy areas of slow-moving streams and lakes. Bullheads use their barbels (fleshy filament on the fish’s snout) to locate their prey, which include insects, fish eggs, mollusks, worms, leeches, algae, aquatic plants, and small fish. Young bullheads typically feed on small insects and plankton.

Life Strategy: Brown bullhead form mating pairs thorugh courtship near neasting sites that include head butting, touching of barbels, and jaw, tail, and tail holding by the male. Thse fish typically reproduce during the spring and early summer. Fish reach sexual maturity at age 3. Nests are built by females out of logs and vegetation in shallow water. Females can lay egg clusters of 50 to 10,000 eggs.



Mouth Position: terminal – the bullhead’s mouth is located at the very front of its head

Citation: http://www.novascotia.ca/fish/sportfishing/species/bull.shtml


Common Name: Channel Catfish

Scientific Name: Ictalurus punctatus


Geography/Habitat: Channel Catfish are found from the Hudson Bay region to Florida, to Mexico. In the western United States, Channel’s are found through New Mexico, Colorado, and Montana. They mostly live in moderate to fast-flowing streams but are also found in large reservoirs, ponds, and lakes. They prefer sandy, gravelly, rubbly, and muddy water bottoms.

Food/ Feed Style: Adult Channel Catfish eat aquatic insects, snails, green algae, crawfish, seeds, aquatic plants, small fish, and terrestrial insects. Young fish feed on insect larvae and small aquatic invertebrates.

Life Strategy: Channel catfish reproduce from late May through July. The male finds a nesting site, usually a protected cavity around logs, banks, or in old beaver/muskrat dens. The female deposits the fertilized eggs but does not participate in further parental duties. The male guards the nest until the eggs hatch about a week after fertilization.

http://www.novascotia.ca/fish/sportfishing/species/bull.shtml


Locomotion/Swim Style: Subcargiform - undulate most of the body, with their head very still. Movement concentrated in last 2/3 of body.

Mouth Position: terminal – mouth is at the very front of the fish’s head

Citation: https://srac.tamu.edu/index.cfm/event/getFactSheet/whichfactsheet/23/

http://rosamondgiffordzoo.org/assets/uploads/animals/pdf/ChannelCatfish.pdf


Common Name: Common Carp

Scientific Name: Cyprinus carpio

Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: ChordataClass: Actinopterygii Order: CypriniformesFamily: Cyprinidae

Geography/Habitat: Common Carp are found throughout the continental U.S. They range from central Canada to central Mexico. Carp can tolerate a variety of environments and conditions, allowing for such large geographical invasion.

Food/ Feed Style: Carp feed mainly on organisms that live at the bottom slow-moving rivers, lakes, and ponds that they live in. These organisms include insect larvae, small snails, crustaceans, snails, and vegetable matter. Young carp feed on planktonic crustaceans at first, and then graduate to rotifers, algae, and young water-fleas.

Life Strategy: Carp reproduce through exterbal fertilization in the spring and early summer in shallow waters. Fertilized eggs drift through the current or fall to the muddy floor. Carp do not provide any further parental care.

http://rosamondgiffordzoo.org/assets/uploads/animals/pdf/ChannelCatfish.pdf

https://srac.tamu.edu/index.cfm/event/getFactSheet/whichfactsheet/23/



Mouth Position: terminal- mouth is located at the very front of the fish head

Citation: http://www.in.gov/dnr/files/COMMON_CARP.pdf

http://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=163344


Common Name: Black Crappie

Scientific Name: Pomoxis nigromaculatus

Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: ChordataClass: Actinopterygii Order: PerciformesFamily: Centrarcidae

Geography/Habitat: Black crappie are widespread throughout ponds, lakes, and streams through most of the United States (excluding Hawaii and Alaska). They are less widespread through Canada, but exist in relatively large quantities. They like water abundant in plants and underwater logs, stumps, and rocks. When it gets hot in the summer, crappie move out to deeper water.

Food/ Feed Style: Black crappie eat during the day and at night, but they feed most during the evening. Young crappie eat zooplankton, water fleas, insect larvae (mostly mosquito), paramecium, amoeba, rotifers, nematodes, and euglena. As they mature, the crappie begin preying on small fish, adult insects, crayfish and tadpoles.


http://www.in.gov/dnr/files/COMMON_CARP.pdf

Life Strategy: Black crappies spawn during the spring and summer (March-July). Females produce arpund 40,000 eggs on average each spawning season. Nests are dug out by the male in the sand, gravel, or mud substrate of their habitat. After fertilization and release of eggs into the nest by the female, males guard the nest for 2 to 3 days until the eggs hatch.



Mouth Position: terminal- mouth is at the very front of the fish’s head

Citation: http://www.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ecology/black_crappie.htm


Common Name: Yellow Perch

Scientific Name: Perca flavescens

Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: ChordataClass: Actinopterygii Order: PerciformesFamily: Percidae

Geography/Habitat: Yellow perch are some of the most common fish in the continental United States and Canada. They are also found in lakes, ponds, creeks, and small or large rivers of the Atlantic, Mississippi River, Arctic, and especially the Great Lakes Basins..

http://www.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ecology/black_crappie.htm

Food/ Feed Style: Young perch eat insect larvae and small organisms. As they grow, perch eat a variety of animals including crayfish, fish eggs, smaller fish, and aquatic insects.

Life Strategy: When a female perch is ready to mate, many males surround her. As she releases eggs into the water, which fall and stick to the vbottom, males rush to release sperm and fertilize the eggs. This occurs once a year from March to july. Females usually lay eggs in the evening or after rain and can lay between 20,000 to 200,000 eggs a season. After eggs are deposited and fertilized, the males and females do not parent their young.




Citation: http://belleislenaturezoo.org/animals/yellow-perch.html



Common Name: Lake Sturgeon

Scientific Name: Acipenser fulvescens


http://belleislenaturezoo.org/animals/yellow-perch.html

Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: PerciformesClass: Actinopterygii Order: AcipenseriformesFamily: Acipenseridae

Geography/Habitat: Lake Sturgeon dwell in freshwater lakes, as well as rivers. They are found primarily in North America, mostly in the Great Lakes, Mississippi River, Hudson Bay ecosystems and occur from Canada to Alabama. Though they used to be very abundant, their population has suffered due to intense fishing.

Food/ Feed Style: Lake Sturgeon use their barbels to locate their prey: snails, clams, insect larvae, and fish eggs, all of which dwell at the bottom of lakes and rivers that the sturgeons are found in.

Life Strategy: Spawnig occurs from April sometimes into June. Males do not reach sexual maturity until age 20; females at 25 year old. Females spawn eabout every 5 years whereas males spawn every other year. Spawning is brief as the male and female swim against a current while the male fertilizes the female’s eggs. A female can lay from 50,000 to 1,000,000 eggs each mating season. Depending on water temperature, the eggs take 5-10 days to hatch.

Body Type: Sagittiform – characterized by having the form of an arrowhead but lacking flared lobes on the base. This body type allows for the sturgeon to strike its prey quickly.

Locomotion/Swim Style: Subcarangiform - undulate most of the body, with their head very still. Movement concentrated in last 2/3 of body.

Mouth Position: subterminal – a sturgeon’s mouth is located directly under the tip of its head

Citation: http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/freshwater/lake-sturgeon/#finished

http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/freshwater/lake-sturgeon/#finished

http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/freshwater/lake-sturgeon/#finished


Common Name: Rainbow Trout

Scientific Name: Oncorhynchus mykiss

Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: ChordataClass: Actinopterygii Order: SalmoniformesFamily: Salmonidae

Geography/Habitat: Rainbow Trout are found in large rivers, lakes, and streams west of the Rocky Mountains to northwest Mexico. Their range expands into Alaksa, mainly the Kuskokwim River (in southwest Alaska). They have recently been introduced into Canada.

Food/ Feed Style: Rainbow trout eat leeches, insects (caddis and black flies), mollusks, and salmon eggs when available.

Life Strategy: Females fine good nest sites while males stand guard. The female digs with her anal fin and vents the nest while the male joins her in a parallel position. They both open their mouths and deposit either eggs or sperm at the same time. The eggs are enveloped in the sperm cloud and fertilized. After fertilization, the female cover the nest with gravel and repeats the process until all of her eggs are deposited.



Mouth Position: terminal – mouth is at the very front of the of the trout’s head

Citation: http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/wld/documents/fishfacts/rainbowtrout.pdf

http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/wld/documents/fishfacts/rainbowtrout.pdf


Common Name: Veiltail Betta/ Japanese Fighting Fish

Scientific Name: Betta splendens

Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: ChordataClass: Actinopterygii Order: PerciformesFamily: Osphronemidae

Geography/Habitat: The Fighting Fish is native to central Thailand, specifically the Chao Phraya River Watershed that runs the length, north to south, of Thailand. It can be found from the Chiang Rai Province in northern Thailand to the Isthmus of Kra at the top of the Malay Peninsula (in Southeast Asia, the southernmost point of the Asian mainland). They prefer still, sluggish waters like rice paddies, roadside ditches, swamps, streams, and ponds with little dissolved oxygen.

Food/ Feed Style: Fighting fish prey on small insects, zooplankton, and small aquatic invertebrates in the wild.

Life Strategy: Females lay eggs and the males fertilize them, then place each fertilized egg into an air bubble. The male cares for the eggs until they hatch.



Mouth Position: terminal – mouth is located at the very front of the Betta’s head

Citation: http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/betta-splendens/


Common Name: Goldfish

Scientific Name: Carassius auratus


Geography/Habitat: Goldfish are native to China and have spread to the nearby nations of Japan and Korea. They can also be found in waters throughout the United States: California, Minnesota, North Carolina, New Jersey, Missouri, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Iowa, Louisiana, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Arkansas, and Massachusetts. They prefer calm, sluggish freshwater that is thick and muddy with an ample amount of aquatic plants.

Food/ Feed Style: Goldfish are omnivorous. In the wild, they eat aquatic algae, plants, snails, leaves, larvae, worms, roots, and even small fish.

Life Strategy: Goldfish breed from July to August when waters warm up. Females lay their eggs on solid rock or wood. Males fertilize the eggs.

http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/betta-splendens/




Citation: http://animals.pawnation.com/goldfish-live-4748.html

http://goldfish2care4.com/goldfish-feeding.html


Common Name: Bluegill Sunfish

Scientific Name: Lepomis macrochirus

Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: ChordataClass: Actinopterygii Order: PerciformesFamily: Centrarchidae

Geography/Habitat: Bluegills live in slow-moving, warm rivers, lakes, ponds, and streams of the eastern half of the United States, southestern Canada, northeastern Mexico, the coastal plain of Virginia, and Texas. They prefer shallow, weedy areas near shore that are not in direct contact with sunlight.

Food/ Feed Style: Bluegill usually feed on a terrestrial and aquatic insects, insect larvae, crustaceans, vegetation, mollusks, snails, and sometimes, small fish.

Life Strategy: Spawning occurs inl ate may to early August at water temperature of 67 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Maless arrive first at mating sites and scoop out round nests. Communities are formed of 40 to 50 of these nest, of which the mails are very protective, chasing away anything from their nests. When femakes apper, males circle their nest and make grunting sounds. If a female swims into the nest, the two mate. After fertilization the males chases the female away and spawns with another.

http://goldfish2care4.com/goldfish-feeding.html

http://animals.pawnation.com/goldfish-live-4748.html



Mouth Position: terminal – mouth is at the very front of the Bluegill’s head

Citation: http://www.wildlifedepartment.com/wildlifemgmt/species/bluegillsunfish.htm

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/huntwild/wild/species/bgl/


Common Name: Chain Pickerel

Scientific Name: Esox niger

Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: ChordataClass: Actinopterygii Order: EsociformesFamily: Esocidae

Geography/Habitat: Chain Pickerel are limited to eastern and southern-central North America (central Florida, eastern Texas, Missouri, and the Tennessee River system in Alabama) and Nova Scotia (Colchester County [north central Nova Scotia, Essex] and east of the Allegheny-Appalachian mountains). They prefer shallow vegetated lakes, swamps, rivers, and ponds of 75 to 85 degrees (Fahrenheit).

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/huntwild/wild/species/bgl/

http://www.wildlifedepartment.com/wildlifemgmt/species/bluegillsunfish.htm

Food/ Feed Style: Chain Pickerel are an ambush predators in that they lies in wait in weeds, near stumps, rocks, fallen logs, docks, and lily pads until their prey is within striking distance. Their prey includes fish like yellow perch and minnows, crayfish, mice, frogs, and snakes.

Life Strategy: Chain Pickerel spawn in the spring in shallow water protected by dense vegetation. Females scatter their eggs while males come by and fertilize them. Neither parent proves care for the young or the eggs.



Mouth Position: terminal – mouth is at the very front of the Pickerel’s head

Citation: http://www.novascotia.ca/Fish/sportfishing/species/chain.shtml

http://www.justsportfishing.com/pickerel.html


Common Name: Blue Tilapia

Scientific Name: Oreochrmomis aureus

Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: ChordataClass: Actinopterygii Order: PerciformesFamily: Chichlidae

Geography/Habitat: Tilapia, originally from the Middle East and Africa can now be found in lakes, wetlands, water courses, and estuaries throughout the southeast, most prominently Florida,

http://www.justsportfishing.com/pickerel.html

http://www.novascotia.ca/Fish/sportfishing/species/chain.shtml

Texas, and Alabama. Blue Tilapia prefer warm water ranging from 25 to 30 degrees Celsius or 77-86 degrees Fahrenheit.

Food/ Feed Style: Tilapia eat plankton, benthic invertebrates, fish larvae, detritus, and decomposing plant/animal

Life Strategy: Breeding pairs are formed. The pairs find a nest site, cleaning and digging it together. The female then lays the eggs on a hard surface in the open (does not hide them in a cave or overhang) and the male fertilizes them. The eggs and young are cared for by the parents for a short period.



Mouth Position: terminal – the mouth is located at the very front of the fish’s head

Citation: http://www.thefishsite.com/articles/58/tilapia-life-history-and-biology

http://massbay.mit.edu/seafood/tilapia.pdf


Common Name: Bullseye Snakehead

Scientific Name: Channa marulius

http://massbay.mit.edu/seafood/tilapia.pdf

http://www.thefishsite.com/articles/58/tilapia-life-history-and-biology

Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: ChordataClass: Actinopterygii Order: PerciformesFamily: Channidae

Geography/Habitat: Native to Pakistan, Malaysia, and Southern China, the Snakehead has been recently introduced throughout the United States. The live usually live in canals with dense vegetation and even debris. They are tolerant of waters with low dissolved oxygen like stagnant water.

Food/ Feed Style: Snakehead young feed on zooplankton, quickly maturing into juveniles that consume crustaceans, insects, and insect larvae. As adults, Snakeheads can eat frogs, small reptiles, crustaceans, frogs, and small birds or mammals, though most heavily prey on other fishes.

Life Strategy: Little is known about how these fish reproduce though they probably lay eggs.



Mouth Position: terminal – mouth is located at the very front of the fish head

Citation: http://www.in.gov/dnr/files/SNAKEHEADS.pdf

http://myfwc.com/wildlifehabitats/profiles/fish/freshwater/nonnatives/bullseye-snakehead/


Common Name: Spotted Gar

Scientific Name: Lepisosteus oculatus

http://myfwc.com/wildlifehabitats/profiles/fish/freshwater/nonnatives/bullseye-snakehead/

http://www.in.gov/dnr/files/SNAKEHEADS.pdf

Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: ChordataClass: Actinopterygii Order: SemionotiformesFamily: Lepisosteidae

Geography/Habitat: Spotted Gar are widespread through the clear, quiet, and vegetated streams, swamps, and lakes from Central Texas to Western Florida through the Mississippi River drainage into Illinois, lower Ohio River, and Lake Erie Drainage.

Food/ Feed Style: Spotted Gar eat crustaceans as juveniles but begin feeding on fish as they mature. Gar stalk their prey, slowly following it until they quickly strike with their sharp teeth in a sideways motion.

Life Strategy: Spawning occurs during the spring and summer. Gar prefer mating in shallow water. The process can involve a single female with up to fifteen males. When a female is ready, she leads the male in an elliptical pattern for around 15 minutes. They then go to a spawning nest where the male nudges the female’s pectoral and lateral sides. The, both fish put their heads and snouts to the bottom of the lake or pond and release egg and sperm. A single female lays about 30000 eggs a year. The eggs take 3 to 9 days to hatch depending on water temperature.

Body Type: Sagittiform – shaped like an arrow, gar are able to strike quickly while following their hapless prey

Locomotion/Swim Style: Subcarangiform - the forward 2/3 of the Gar’s body is not capable of undulation. Therefore, it throws its body into a wave-like motion that increases in acceleration until it reaches the tail which snaps in a whip-like motion.

Mouth Position: terminal – mouth is at the very front of the Gar’s head for quickly catching prey.

Citation: http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/huntwild/wild/species/spottedgar/

http://mnfi.anr.msu.edu/abstracts/zoology/Lepisosteus_oculatus.pdf

http://mnfi.anr.msu.edu/abstracts/zoology/Lepisosteus_oculatus.pdf

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/huntwild/wild/species/spottedgar/


Common Name: Butterfly Peacock Bass

Scientific Name: Cichla ocellaris

Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: ChordataClass: Actinopterygii Order: PerciformesFamily: Cichlidae

Geography/Habitat: Peacock Bass are native to the Amazon River Basin of South America. They can also be found in Colombia, Panama, Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, and more tropical regions of the U.S. like Puerto Rico, Florida, Hawaii, and the Virgin Islands. Peacock Bass thrive in the warm, slow-flowing waters.

Food/ Feed Style: Peacock bass almost exclusiveky feed on other fish, helping redice the numbers of undesirable exotics like the spotted tilapia. Peacocks generally feed during daylight hours.

Life Strategy: Peacock bass reproduce on tropical areas capable of spawning more than once a year. Some reproduce every month. Males display a type of courting dance. When a female stops for him, the dance intensifies and the male begins digging the nest bed. The female leaves and returns several times before bonding with the male. Once bonded, the pair spawn.




Citation: http://www.flyfishpeacocks.com/info.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peacock_bass

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peacock_bass

http://www.flyfishpeacocks.com/info.htm


Common Name: Grass Carp

Scientific Name: Ctenopharyngodon idella


Geography/Habitat: Grass carp are native to China but have been introduced and have thrived throughout the United States. Grass carp can be found in ponds, lakes, and the backwaters of large rivers abundant in vegetation. They prefer large standing or slow flowing waters and can tolerate temperature from freezing to over 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

Food/ Feed Style: Grass carp are herbivores and feed on aquatic plants like pondweed, duckweed, and hydrilla. Because of their affinity for plants, they are capable of consuming all vegetation within a lake or pond, creating chaos within an ecosystem.

Life Strategy: Grass carp reproduce in flowing water. Females lay their eggs on plants or rocks while males come by and fertilize them.




Citation: http://www.in.gov/dnr/files/GRASS_CARP.pdf

http://www.in.gov/dnr/files/GRASS_CARP.pdf

http://nsgl.gso.uri.edu/penn/penng02012.pdf


Common Name: Oscar

Scientific Name: Astronotus ocellatus

Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: ChordataClass: Actinopterygii Order: PerciformesFamily: Cichlidae

Geography/Habitat: Oscars are native to South America, specifically the Amazon, Orinoco (river beginning in Venezuela, close to the Brazilian border, that flows to the Atlantic.), and Parana Basins. They range from French Guiana, Brazil, Guyana, Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, and Paraguay. In the United States, Oscars can be found near Puerto Rico, Hawaii, and southern Florida.

Food/ Feed Style: Oscars generally eat tiny fish and insect larvae but are not picky and will eat anything of sustenance like crustaceans, water bugs, and gastropods. Though they are usually slow and calm, when hunting for food, they can be very agile.

Life Strategy: Oscar pair off together and mate in warm waters. Females lay the eggs into nesting beds while the make fertilized them. Females can lay up to 2000 eggs per spawn and can spawn every month, though most do not spawn every month.

Body Type: Globiform – shaped like a globe. Oscar have a domed head with a slightly thinner body towards the tail.

http://nsgl.gso.uri.edu/penn/penng02012.pdf

Locomotion/Swim Style: Subcarangiform – Oscar fish undulate the back 2/3 of their bodies and keep their heads still.


Citation: http://animals.pawnation.com/oscar-cichlids-native-habitat-3947.html


Common Name: Redeye Piranha

Scientific Name: Serrasalmus rhombeus

Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: ChordataClass: Actinopterygii Order: CharaciformesFamily: Characidae

Geography/Habitat: The Redeye Piranha is widespread throughout the tropical rivers in South America. They have been recorded in Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, Colombia, French Guiana, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, and Bolivia. The most common rivers they can be seen in are the Amazon, Orinoco, Negro, and Araguia. These rivers are relatively large and deep.

Food/ Feed Style: Redeyes can be found hinting in deep water and near rapids. They are opportunistic feeders, sometimes scavenging on the carcasses of dead animals and even humans. Piranhas sometimes feed on the flesh and fins of their cousins fish species, other small fish, insects, crustaceans, and some piranha reportedly eat fruits and seeds.

Life Strategy: Females lay eggs in open water and males come by and fertilize them. The parents do not provide care for their young.

http://animals.pawnation.com/oscar-cichlids-native-habitat-3947.html

Body Type: compressiform- the most common fish shape is characterized by lateral compression and combines the efficiency of several other body types.



Citation: http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/serrasalmus-rhombeus/


Common Name: Blue Catfish

Scientific Name: Ictalurus furcatus


Geography/Habitat: Blue catfish are native from Minnesota to Ohio, extending into Mexico. They are most abundant in large river basins like the Ohio, Mississippi, and Missouri River basins. They have laso been introduced to the Atlantic drainage system, the Potomac River, and several areas around the Chesapeake Bay. They prefer these rivers as they all possess deep channels, quick currents, and sandy bottoms.

Food/Feed Style: Blue catfish are omnivores. Their diet is very diverse, consisting of fish, crustaceans, mollusks, insects, and plant matter. They use the barbels on the tip of their snouts which are equipped with taste buds, to help them locate their food.

Life Strategy: Catfish reproduce from late May through July. The male finds a nesting site, usually a protected cavity around logs, banks, or in old beaver/muskrat dens. The female deposits the fertilized eggs but does not participate in further parental duties. The male guards the nest until the eggs hatch about a week after fertilization

http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/serrasalmus-rhombeus/




Citation: http://www.dnr.state.md.us/fisheries/fishfacts/bluecatfish.asp


Common Name: Brown Hoplo

Scientific Name: Hoplosternum littorale

Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: ChordataClass: Actinopterygii Order: SiluriformesFamily: Callichthyidae

Geography/Habitat: Brown Hoplo are native to eastern South America. They are widespread throughout the east Andes and Buenos Aires river systems. Brown Hoplo can also be found in peninsular Florida in some basin from St. Johns, the Kissimmee River, and Lake Trafford.

Food/ Feed Style: Brown hoplo are opportunistic omnivores/scavengers. They eat a variety of benthic invertebrates, algae, detritus, rotifers, copepods, crustaceans, insect larvae, and insects. Brown Hoplo typically feed at night.

http://www.dnr.state.md.us/fisheries/fishfacts/bluecatfish.asp

Life Strategy: They mate from November through May. Males create bubble nests in shallow waters. The female lays the eggs while the male fertilizes them and puts them into a protective bubble. The male protects the eggs until they hatch. Females can lay 5,000 to 50,000 eggs per spawn season.




Citation: http://www.sms.si.edu/irlspec/Hoplosternum_littorale.htm


Common Name: American Shad

Scientific Name: Alosa sapidissima

Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: ChordataClass: Actinopterygii Order: ClupeiformesFamily: Clupeidae

Geography/Habitat: American Shad go to the Chesapeake Bay each spring to spawn I freshwater streams and rivers like the Potomac and James Rivers. After the spawning season is over, the

http://www.sms.si.edu/irlspec/Hoplosternum_littorale.htm

shad move downstream, leaving the Bay by summer. They can also be found in the rivers of Canada and Mexico.

Food/ Feed Style: American Shad feed on plankton, crustaceans, and small fish when migrating through the ocean. Adults stop eating once they begin upstream spawning migration. When spawning season ends, water temperatures return to warmth, and the Shad’s diet back to normal.

Life Strategy: Shad spawn during the winter. One or more males chase a female against a current until she releases her eggs into the water. The males then release sperm and fertilize the eggs which drift downriver until they hatch 6 to 10 days later. Females can lay 200,000 to 250,000 eggs every year.



Mouth Position: terminal – mouth is at tbe very front of the shad’s head

Citation: http://www.chesapeakebay.net/fieldguide/critter/american_shad


Common Name: Walking Catfish

Scientific Name: Clarias batrachus

Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: ChordataClass: Actinopterygii Order: Siluriformes

http://www.chesapeakebay.net/fieldguide/critter/american_shad

Family: Clariidae

Geography/Habitat: The Walking Catfish is known from Pakistan in the Middle East to Eastern India, Bangledesh, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Malaysia, Burma, Indonesia, the Phillipines, and Singapore in Asia. In the United States, Walking Catfish have spread rapidly and have invaded almost the entire southern peninsula of Florida. The Walking Catfish usually lives in lakes and rivers but is well-known for thriving where most fishes simply cannot. They can live in the warm, stagnant, oxygen-poor water of canals, ditches, swamps and flooded prairies. They spend most of their time on the bottoms of such water.

Food/ Feed Style: Walking catfish are benthic omnivores. They feed at night as they are nocturnal, sifting through detritus and substrate on the bottom of their habitat, using their barbels to locate prey. They will eat a variety of foods; anything they can catch including fish eggs and larvae, small fish, crustaceans, insects, annelids (worms), and number of other invertebrates. If none of their usual food is available, they will eat the detritus they sift through and plant matter.

Life Strategy: Catfish reproduce from late May through July. The male finds a nesting site, usually a protected cavity around logs, banks, or in old beaver/muskrat dens. The female deposits the fertilized eggs but does not participate in further parental duties. The male guards the nest until the eggs hatch about a week after fertilization.


Locomotion/Swim Style: Anguiliform – The fish moves its entire against the water. Surprisingly the method is efficient.

Mouth Position: terminal – mouth is at the very front of the fish head

Citation: http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/Gallery/Descript/WalkingCatfish/WalkingCatfish.html

http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/Gallery/Descript/WalkingCatfish/WalkingCatfish.html


Common Name: Northern Pike

Scientific Name: Esox lucius

Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: ChordataClass: Actinopterygii Order: EsociformesFamily: Esocidae

Geography/Habitat: Northern Pike live in the clear waters of bays, marshlands, and large river systems with dense vegetation like logs, tree limbs, and various plants. Northern Pike are found in the western basin of Lake Erie, Sandusky Bay, and Maumee Bay. There also small concentration of Northern Pike in Ohio’s large river systems including the Cuyahoga River, upper Scioto River, St. Joseph River, Tiffin River, Portage River, and Killbuck Creek.

Food/ Feed Style: The Northern pike’s diet consists of primarily of fish but they will eat almost anything depending on their size, like small ducks, frogs, and muskrats.

Life Strategy: Northern Pike spawn in the spring after ice melts in April. They prefer day lit, heavily vegetated floodplains for spawning. Males fertilize the female’s eggs internally. The female then releases the eggs into the water. The eggs hatch after 12 to 24 days.

Body Type: Sagittiform – shaped like an arrow, pike are able to strike quickly while following their hapless prey

Locomotion/Swim Style: Subcarangiform - the forward 2/3 of the pike’s body is not capable of undulation. Therefore, it throws its body into a wave-like motion that increases in acceleration until it reaches the tail which snaps in a whip-like motion.

Mouth Position: terminal – mouth is at the very front of the pike’s head for quickly catching prey.

Citation: http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/Home/species_a_to_z/SpeciesGuideIndex/northernpike/tabid/6703/Default.aspx

http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/Home/species_a_to_z/SpeciesGuideIndex/northernpike/tabid/6703/Default.aspx

http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/Home/species_a_to_z/SpeciesGuideIndex/northernpike/tabid/6703/Default.aspx


Common Name: Tiger Barb

Scientific Name: Puntius tetrazona


Geography/Habitat: Tiger barbs are native to southeast Asia, Indonesia, and Malaysia. They live on the Malay Peninsula and the islands of Sumatra and Borneo. By introduction, Tiger Barbs can be found in Australia, Singapore, Suriname, and Colombia. They are found in clear water, shallow with moderate flow speed where the water is warm.

Food/ Feed Style: The Tiger Barb is omnivorous. It feeds on plant matter, small crustaceans, and worms.

Life Strategy: Tiger Barbs reach sexual maturity at six to seven weeks. They form breeding pairs. The female scatters the eggs randomly, but releases them in ones, twos, and threes. The eggs hatch 48 hours after fertliziation.




Citation: http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/barbs/tigerbarb.php

http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/barbs/tigerbarb.php

Title: Saltwater/Marine Invertebrate Species #: 51

Common Name: Aggregating Anemone

Scientific Name: Anthopleura elegantissima

Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: CnidariaClass: Anthozoa Order: ActinariaFamily: Actiniidae

Geography/Habitat: Aggregating anemones love on rocks and in crevices and tide pools on the rocky shores of the North American Pacific Coast from Alaska to Baja, California to Mexico. Aggregating anenomes can live alone or in a dense mass.

Food/ Feed Style: Aggregating anemones acquire food in two ways: The anemone is supplied food by one of two types of algae living in its tissue as the anemone bends towards sunlight to provide the algae with sunlight for photosynthesis. Anemones also use the stinging cells (nematocysts) on their tentacles to paralyze their prey, which includes fish, small crabs, copepods, isopods, and amphipods.

Life Strategy: Aggregating anemones can reproduce sexually and asexually. Sexually, the anemones broadcast both sperm and eggs into the open ocean. If and when a sperm and egg combine, a new anemone begins to form, creating many new gene combinations and colonies in different locations. Asexually, a mass of Aggregates, which are all genetically identical, will split in half, spreading rapidly over their surroundings.

Body Type: adhesive foot attached to bottom of cylindrical body, topped by tentacles.

http://www.oceanlight.com/lightbox.php?sp=Anthopleura_elegantissima

Locomotion/Swim Style: the Aggregating anemone does not swim but holds onto rocks with its adhesive foot, known as a basal disc.

Mouth Position: mouth is located in the center of the anemone, beneath the mass of tentacles

Citation: http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/animals/AnimalDetails.aspx?enc=VsGX+Lst7QaKTaPiIgckew

Title: Marine Invertebrate Species #: 52

Common Name: Wolf Eel

Scientific Name: Anarrhichthys ocellatus

Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: ChordataClass: Actinopterygii Order: PerciformesFamily: Anarhichadidae

Geography/Habitat: The Wolf Eel ranges from the pacific Coast of North America and Baja, California to Kodiak Island of Alaska and the Sea of Japan. They prefer shallow water.

Food/ Feed Style: Adult wolf eel use their long, thin bodies and wind themselves into small cracks and crevices. They stick out only their head and wait for their prey (crabs, sand dollars, snails, sea urchins abalone, mussels, fish, and clams) to come by.

Life Strategy: Wolf eels mate for life. Around 7 years old, a female will lay up to 10,000 eggs at a time, using her body as a shield, coiing around the eggs to make a grapefruit-sized sphere. After this, the male does the same around her, adding more protection. They massage the eggs periodically, keeping them supplied with oxygen-rich water. The eggs take 4 months to hatch.

Body Type: anguilliform – ribbon-like, allowing the eels to wind its way into crevices and resist currents.

Locomotion/Swim Style: Anguilliform- The fish moves its entire against the water. Surprisingly the method is efficient.

Mouth Position: terminal – mouth is at the very front of the eels head

http://www.oceanlight.com/lightbox.php?sp=Anarrhichthys_ocellatus

http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/animals/AnimalDetails.aspx?enc=VsGX+Lst7QaKTaPiIgckew

http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/animals/AnimalDetails.aspx?enc=VsGX+Lst7QaKTaPiIgckew

Citation: http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/animals/AnimalDetails.aspx?enc=C53nR+hhcrWkm4cqZXxSlg


Common Name: Moon Jellyfish

Scientific Name: Aurelia aurita

Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: CnidariaClass: Scyphzoa Order: SemaeostomeaeFamily: Ulmaridae

Geography/Habitat: Moon jellies can be found in the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans in open water (pelagic zones). They prefer warm/tropical waters and are generally found near the coast. They have also been known to frequent reefs.

Food/ Feed Style: Moon jellies are carnivorous, feeding on zooplankton, mollusks, crustaceans, rotifers, nematodes, tunicate larvae, copepods, protozoans, and fish eggs. They will also eat small fish.

Body Type: tentacles connect to a bell-shaped upper body pulses as it moves.

Locomotion/Swim Style: Moon jellies swim by pulsing the bell-shaped “head”. They swim horizontally, keeping their bell nearest the surface, allowing their tentacles to spread over the largest area. The coronal muscle is the primarily used for pulsation.

Mouth Position: The Moon jelly does not have a mouth but moves its prey from its tentacles into its bell to be digested.



http://www.oceanlight.com/lightbox.php?sp=Aurelia_aurita

http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/animals/AnimalDetails.aspx?enc=C53nR+hhcrWkm4cqZXxSlg

http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/animals/AnimalDetails.aspx?enc=C53nR+hhcrWkm4cqZXxSlg


Common Name: Bat Sea Star

Scientific Name: Asterina miniata

Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: EchinodermataClass: Stelleroidea Order: SpinulosidaFamily: Asterinidae

Geography/Habitat: The Bat Sea Star can be found in the Pacific Ocean from Alaska to Baja California on rocks, among surfgrass and on the sandy or rocky bottom.

Food/ Feed Style: The Bat Sea Star is omnivorous and is also a scavenger. It feeds on dead or alive plants and animals. They cannot open bivalve mollusks like clams. They hunt using their sense of smell. When a sea star locates its prey, it covers it, pushing its stomach out of its body onto its prey. The stomach releases juices containing enzymes that break down the food and cilia move the meal into the sea star for nutritional absorption.Life Strategy: For Bat Sea Stars, genders are separate and reproduction is external and sexual. The female sea star produces and releases thousands of eggs into the open ocean while males release sperm. If and when the two combine, new sea star begin to form and will eventually hatch.

Body Type: Sea Stars are of course shaped like stars. They are radially symmetrical and have a rough “skeleton” made up of calcareous plates called ossicles.

Locomotion/Swim Style: Sea stars crawl across the floor of the sea using tube-like feet on their arms. Water is sucked into the sea star through the madreporite on the top of the animal and moved through channels throughout the star. When there is a change in water pressurewithin the canals, the tube feet move.

Mouth Position: a seas stars mouth is located centrally and underneath the body.

Citation: http://www.indyzoo.com/SiteAssets/pdfs/BatSeaStar.pdf


Common Name: Rock Scallop

Scientific Name: Crassedoma giganteum

Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: MolluscaClass: Bivalvia Order: OstreoidaFamily: Pectinidae

Geography/Habitat: Rock Scallops can be found in the Pacific Ocean from Queen Elizabeth Island in the United Kingdom to Baja California. They attach themselves to exposed rock crevices from the low intertidal zone to sub tidal zones.

Food/ Feed Style: Rock scallops filter plankton and tiny organic particles as the water passes over and through them.

Life Strategy: Genders are separate. Males release sperm while females release eggs into the open ocean.

Body Type: Rock scallops are made up of two coarsely ribbed shells called valves. The upper valve is usually the most scallop-shaped of the two as the lower valve takes the shape of the surface to which the scallop is attached.

Locomotion/Swim Style: Adult rock scallops are sessile and do not swim. Juveniles, however, swim by clapping their valves together, jetting water out of either side of the valve hinge.

Mouth Position: Mouth is located between the scallop’s valves

Citation: http://aquarium.org/exhibits/rocky-shores/animals/giant-rock-scallop

http://aquarium.org/exhibits/rocky-shores/animals/giant-rock-scallop

http://www.oceanlight.com/lightbox.php?sp=Crassedoma_giganteum

http://www.indyzoo.com/SiteAssets/pdfs/BatSeaStar.pdf


Common Name: Sea Lemon

Scientific Name: Diaulula nobilis

Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: MolluscaClass: Gastropoda Order: NudibranchaeFamily: Doridae

Geography/Habitat: Intertidal areas of the Pacific Ocean from Alaska to the Baja, California. They often move through kelp forests or along the sandy or rocky ocean bottom.

Food/ Feed Style: To feed, sea lemons use a file-like tongue called a radula to saw sponges away from the rocks they live on. Sea lemons are particularly partial to breadcrumb sponge but will also eat detritus and other nudibranches.

Life Strategy: Sea lemons are hermaphroditic, meaning they can produce both sperm and eggs. The ribbon-like masses are secreted from the Lemon and float through the sea as sperm and egg combine, creating new sea lemons.

Body Type: Sea lemons have soft, short bodies with 2 “horns”, called rhinophores, on their heads for smelling out prey.

Locomotion/Swim Style: Sea Lemon use cilia on the bottom of their body to grip sandy or rocky floors and propel them forward.

Mouth Position: has file-like tongue on that originates from the bottom of its body.

Citation: http://aquarium.org/exhibits/rocky-shores/animals/sea-lemon

http://aquarium.org/exhibits/rocky-shores/animals/sea-lemon

http://www.oceanlight.com/lightbox.php?sp=Diaulula_nobilis


Common Name: Chesapeake/Atlantic Blue Crab

Scientific Name: Callinectes sapidus

Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: ArthropodaClass: Malaconstraca Order: DecapodaFamily: Portunidae

Geography/Habitat: Blue Crab are found in the western Atlantic Ocean from Nova Scotia to Argentina. They are also found in the Chesapeake Bay and its tidal rivers. Distribution depends on the age and gender of crab and the season as males spend more time in less salty bays and rivers while females gather in saltier water. Blue crab prefer shallow water and bay grass beds in the spring and summer and hibernate bay trenches in the winter.

Food/ Feed Style: Blue crab eat most anything they can find or catch like animal/plany detritus, recently deceased fish, smaller crustaceans, mussels, clams, oysters, and even smaller blue crab.

Life Strategy: Blue crab mate from May to October in brackish waters of the Chesapeake Bay. Males cradle females in their legs, carrying them for several days, searching for a protected area. Once the females molts one final time, the male fertilizes the eggs. After, males continue holding the females until the shell hardens, then leave to find another mate. The female develops an external mass of eggs containing 750,000 to 2 million eggs. Two weeks later, larvae are releases. Blue crab rarely live longer than 3 years.

Body Type: Blue crab have shells with nine marginal teeth on each side. Attached to the body are three pairs of walking legs and a pair of paddle shaped swimming legs.

Locomotion/Swim Style: Blue crabs use three pairs of legs to walk on the sandy oceans floor.

Mouth Position: mouth is at the front of the crabs head, in the middle of its ninth teeth.

Citation: http://www.chesapeakebay.net/fieldguide/critter/blue_crab


Common Name: Vampire Squid

Scientific Name: Vampyroteuthis infernalis

Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: MolluscaClass: Cephlapoda Order: VampyromorphidaFamily: Vampyrotheuthidae

Geography/Habitat: Vampire squid prefer cold (less than 45 degrees Fahrenheit) waters, dark enough to camouflage them from predators.

Food/ Feed Style: Vampire squid have extremely powerful jaws. Though the exact diet of Vampires quid is not known, but theorists believe they eat a variety of deep water invertebrates. They only feed a few times per week due to their slow metabolism.

Life Strategy: Males deposit sperm into the egg sac of the female. Females create significantly fewer eggs than other species and may even store the male’s sperm before allowing the eggs to be fertilized. The process of fertilization and hatching can take about 13 months. Females die soon after offspring are born.

http://www.chesapeakebay.net/fieldguide/critter/blue_crab

Body Type: Like all squid, Vampires have gelatinous bodies with 8 arms connected by a webbing of skin. The arms that are farthest from the body have suckers. Its globular eyes are either red or blue.

Locomotion/Swim Style: Like all squids, Vampires move by jet propulsion. As its mantle opens, water is taken in through a nozzle-like structure below the eyes called a siphon. When the mantle closes, water is expelled through the siphon, resulting in propulsion. By bending the siphon Vampires can swim in any direction, though they usually swim backwards.

Mouth Position: Mouth, called a beak, is located in the mantle behind the squid’s tentacles.

Citation: http://www.squid-world.com/vampire-squid/

http://animal.discovery.com/marine-life/squid-info.htm


Common Name: Red Urchin

Scientific Name: Strongylocentrotus franciscanus

Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: EchinodermataClass: Echinioidea Order: EchinoiaFamily: Stronglylocentrotidae

Geography/Habitat: Urchins are found in the rocky subtidal zones of oceans from Alaska to Baja, California, to Mexico. They live just below the low tide line where waves are not extreme.

Food/ Feed Style: Red Urchins graze on drifting or attached seaweed and kelp. Giant, bull, and brown kelp are all favorite of Red Urchins. Urchins also scrape algae off rocks for consumption.

Life Strategy: Genders are separate. Females release orange eggs into the ocean while males release sperm. The two sex cells combine in the water column, developing new urchins. Wheen born, the urchins are hatched, they are bilaterally symmetrical but eventually for radial symmetry as they settle to the bottom as adults.

http://animal.discovery.com/marine-life/squid-info.htm

http://www.squid-world.com/vampire-squid/

Body Type: Urchins’ bodies are domed above and flat below. Their exoskeleton, names test, is comprised of 10 chalky plates with spines. Every other section has holes through which the tube feet are extended. Among the spines near the mouth are pincer-like structures used for feeding.

Locomotion/Swim Style: Sea Urchins use their tube feet for movement much like that of a starfish

Mouth Position: Mouth is located at the on the underside of the urchin in the oral surface

Citation: http://www.aquariumofpacific.org/onlinelearningcenter/species/red_sea_urchin


Common Name: King Crab

Scientific Name: Paralithodes camtschaticus

Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: ArthropodaClass: Malacostraca Order: DecapodaFamily: Lithodidae

Geography/Habitat: Red King Crab occur from British Columbia and Japan to the Bering Sea, Bristol Bay, and Kodiak in Alaska. King Crab generally live in the intertidal zone.

Food/ Feed Style: The King crabs diet with their age and how deep in the ocean they live. Larval King crab float in the open sea eating plant plankton. Juvenile crabs fall to the ocean floor and feed on benthic organisms. Adults eat worms, bivalves like clams, echinoderms, and algae.

Life Strategy: Females transfer their eggs onto a pair of small legs at their very rear where the male fertilizes the eggs. Adult females brood thousands of embryos underneath their tail flaps for about a year after fertilization. When the embryos hatch, they feed on plant and animal planknton and molt into non-swimmers that sit on the ocean floor.

http://www.aquariumofpacific.org/onlinelearningcenter/species/red_sea_urchin

Body Type: Red King Crab have large shells that are up to 11 inches long and 5 feet wide. They have fan-shaped “tails” under the rear of the shell. They have 5 pairs of legs, comprised of pincers, walking legs, and small specialized legs used in reproduction.

Locomotion/Swim Style: King crab use their 3 pairs of walking legs to move around the ocean floor.

Mouth Position: mouth is at the front of the crabs head, in the middle of its ninth teeth.

Citation: http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=redkingcrab.main


Common Name: Chambered Nautilus

Scientific Name: Nautilus pompilius

Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: MolluscaClass: Cephalopoda Order: NautilidaFamily: Nautilidae

Geography/Habitat: the nautilus lives in tropical waters from the Andaman Sea to Fiji and from Southern Japan to the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Australia. They live where the slopes of coral reefs descend into deep water from 900 to 2000 feet at night and 200 to 500 feet in the day time.

Food/ Feed Style: Nautilus are nocturnal, hunting/ scavenging fro hermit crabs, fish, and the exoskeletons of molting crustaceans in the night. They locate their prey by smelling the ocean currents for dead or dying prey.

Life Strategy: Nautilus reproduce once annually when they reach sexual maturity at around age 7. Four fused tentacles form the male sex organ, the spadix. The spadix passes sperm to the female, who fertilizes about a dozen eggs and deposits them on by one or in small groups throughout a year.

http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=redkingcrab.main

Body Type: Nautilus have smooth, white shells that expands as it grows, coated in mother of pearl. The body is set in the last chamber of the shell while about 90 thin tentacles and 2 large eyes peer out.

Locomotion/Swim Style: Nautilus move in a see-saw motion using jet propulsion similar to squid and octopus. They alternately pull water into their mantle and push it back out, directing the siphon to control their direction.

Mouth Position: mouth is located behind the tentacles in the shell

Citation: http://nationalzoo.si.edu/animals/invertebrates/facts/cephalopods/factsheets/chamberednautilus.cfm


Common Name: Pacific Octopus

Scientific Name: Enteroctopus dofleini

Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: MolluscaClass: Cephaloapoda Order: OctopodaFamily: Octopodidae

Geography/Habitat: Pacific Octopus are of course found in the Pacific Ocean; from southern California to the coast of the United States’ Pacific northwest to Japan. These Octopus live at many different depths from shallow coasts to depths of 1500 meters (almost 5000 feet)

Food/ Feed Style: Pacifics feed on bivalves, crab, lobster, fish, sharks, and even birds if they can catch them. Octopus have salivary papilla which is covered in small teeth that is used to penetrate tough mollusk and crustacean shells. It also secretes saliva that further weakens the shell and the prey inside so that it detaches from its shell, into the octopus’s strong beak. Most octopus hunt at night.

http://nationalzoo.si.edu/animals/invertebrates/facts/cephalopods/factsheets/chamberednautilus.cfm

http://nationalzoo.si.edu/animals/invertebrates/facts/cephalopods/factsheets/chamberednautilus.cfm

Life Strategy: Males have a sex arm, called a hectocotylus that stores ropes of sperm to be inserted into the female’s oviduct and fertilize her eggs. After fertilization, the female will ay 20,000 to 100,000eggs in several string which will be hung in her den. Female Pacifics brood immensely, not eating until they hatch seven months later. Females die shortly after eggs hatch and males die months after mating.

Body Type: The Pacific Octopus is the largest in the world. It has eight arms that can measure over 6 feet with an arm span of over 14 feet. Females are larger than males. They both have soft and fleshy bodies with loose, billowy skin.

Locomotion/Swim Style: Octopus crawl on the ocean floor, using all of their legs; bipedal walking, using just two of their legs; and jet propulsion, sucking water into their mantles, and pushing it out through a siphon.

Mouth Position: mouth is located in the mantle, behind the tentacles and arms.

Citation: http://nationalzoo.si.edu/animals/invertebrates/facts/cephalopods/factsheets/pacificoctopus.cfm


Common Name: Caribbean Hermit Crab

Scientific Name: Coenobita clypeatus

Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: ArthpropodaClass: Crustacea Order: DecapodaFamily: Coenobitidae

Geography/Habitat: Caribbean hermit crabs are found on tropical and subtropical islands in the pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans. They can live throughout the Caribbean, into Florida and Bermuda.

http://nationalzoo.si.edu/animals/invertebrates/facts/cephalopods/factsheets/pacificoctopus.cfm

http://nationalzoo.si.edu/animals/invertebrates/facts/cephalopods/factsheets/pacificoctopus.cfm

Food/ Feed Style: Caribbean hermits are omnivorous scavengers that will eat almost anything including carrion, dead fish, fallen fruit, rotting wood, and sea turtle eggs. The crab uses chelipeds (eating feet) to move food to its mouth.

Life Strategy: Genders are separate. Females have gonophores on the pair of their legs, where the eggs lay for fertilization. Males pass over gonophores with spermocytes while both crabs emerge slightly from their shells. Females brood their eggs for about a month before returning to the ocean to release them.

Body Type: Hermit crabs have exoskeletons. They have 5 head appendages: antennae, mandibles, and two sets of maxilla. They also have biramous appendages, meaning one appendage has two parts, each part having a different function. Like most Decopoda, hermits possess 5 pairs of walking legs.

Locomotion/Swim Style: Hermit crabs use the five pairs of walking legs to move across the ocean floor and sandy shores.

Mouth Position: mouth is at the front of the hermit crab

Citation: http://www.thecephalopodpage.org/MarineInvertebrateZoology/Coenobitaclypeatus.html


Common Name: Caribbean Spiny Lobster

Scientific Name: Panulirus argus

Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: ArthapodaClass: Molocostraca Order: DecapodaFamily: Palinuridae

http://www.thecephalopodpage.org/MarineInvertebrateZoology/Coenobitaclypeatus.html

Geography/Habitat: Caribbean spiny lobsters inhabit tropical and subtropical waters of the Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of Mexico, and Caribbean Ocean. They hide during the day in crevices and under ledges in their coral reef habitats.

Food/ Feed Style: They feed mainly on gastropods, chitons, bivalves, and carrion on the ocean floor. Sometimes they feed on sea urchins, worms, some types of vegetation, and crustaceans when regular food is not available.

Life Strategy: Caribbean/Florida Lobsters mate between March and June through external fertilization. Reproductive glands are on the 6th thoracic segment of females and 8th segment of males. Males pass a single thick spermatophore to the females “tarspot”. Females then carry the eggs on their thoraxes until they become hard and black. will Caribbean spiny lobsters, Panulirus argus, mate between March and June using external fertilization for reproduction. Their reproductive glands are found on the sixth thoracic segment of females and on the eighth thoracic segment of males. During mating, the males pass a thick spermatophore to the females known as a "tarspot" that fertilizes their eggs. They carry the fertilized eggs externally on their thoraxes where they become hard and black. At this point the female At this stage the females deposit their eggs in protected places where they will hatch

Body Type: These lobsters can grow to 60 cm in length. They have large pinching claws with large spines covering their shell to protect them from predators. They have segmented tails used to swim rapidly, confusing predators.

Locomotion/Swim Style: Lobsters walk using their 4 pairs of walking legs and can move their tails rapidly for quick escape from a predator.

Mouth Position: mouth is at the very front of the lobster’s head




Common Name: Common Cuttlefish

Scientific Name:

Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: MolluscaClass: Cephalapoda Order: SepiidaFamily: Sepiidae

Geography/Habitat: Cuttlefish can be found throughout the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic coast of Europe and Africa.

Food/ Feed Style: Cuttlefish use their tentacles, beak, and two arms to break open the shells of crabs and shrimp and to catch fishes.

Life Strategy: Cuttlefish breed once a year. Males change color in order to alert their intent to mate. If the female is receptive, the two genders face each and grasp each other. The male transfers a packet of sperm called a spermatophore into a pocket near the female’s mouth. Once transferred, the spermatophores burst open and move up the oviduct to fertilize the eggs. The females lay their eggs in bunches, encased in inky jelly for protection.

Body Type: Cuttlefish have soft bodies, much like the texture of a squid’s. However, cuttlefish have a pair of undulating fins that spans the length of their body. They also possess 8 forward facing tentacles with two elongated arms.

Locomotion/Swim Style: cuttlefish have a pair of undulating fins that plan the length of their body. These fins help the cuttlefish swim and change direction. For quick movements and bursts of speed, cuttlefish use the 8 forward-reaching tentacles. They also use 2 elongated arms to catch and hold prey.

Mouth Position: Mouth is at located behind the cuttlefish’s tenactles at the front of its head

Citation: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/animal-guides/animal-guide-cuttlefish/1161/

Title: Freshwater Invertebrate Species #: 66

Common Name: North American Leech

Scientific Name: Macrobdella decora

Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: AnnelidaClass: Hirudinida Order: ArhynchobdelliaFamily: Hirudinidae

Geography/Habitat: The freshwater leech, Macrobdella decora, lives in slow moving freshwater and feeds on the blood of its prey () with its front and rear suckers. The leech’s mouth sucker is able to break through the skin of the host and then releases an enzyme that numbs the affected area and then causes the blood to flow freely. They are able to grow up to 5 times their original size until they release from their host or prey. - See more at: http://lloydcenter.org/2011/09/freshwater-leech-macrobdella-decora/#sthash.G6tzmc4v.dpuf

Food/ Feed Style: fish, frogs, turtles, and some mammals Leeches have an oral sucker instead of lips this sucker is very strong. When they move their jaws back and forth across your skin it cuts your skin then they use their sucker to make a seal around the incision so it can suck the blood and get it straight to the stomach. Leeches feed for about half an hour before they stop. But since they are so small they only need to feed about once a mon

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/animal-guides/animal-guide-cuttlefish/1161/

Life Strategy: Sperm is deposited directly into the female reproductive organs. Up to ten or more eggs are laid in the cocoon. The cocoons are deposited on land near the edge of the water. In most species, each leech has both male and female sex organs, and can both lay eggs and give sperm to another worm. After mating, each worm produces several cocoons containing eggs. The cocoons are protected with a tough layer of protein, and contain one or a few eggs (depending on the species). Most species attach their cocoon to vegetation or debris underwater, but a few put them in damp soil.

Body Type: A leech has three muscular jaws. One is the clorsal and the other two are ventrolateral. Each jaw has a row of sharp teeth. Leeches are segmented worms with suction cups at each end. Their bodies are flattened, much wider than they are thick. They are usually dark colored, often brown or sometimes black or dark green. Some species have no markings, others have spots and stripes. The smallest leeches grow no more than 5 mm, but some big species may get to be more than 25 cm long. Many leech species have one or more pairs of eyes visible on the top of their front end

Locomotion/Swim Style: Leeches get around by swimming in an undulating fashion, like a snake on its side, or by attaching and re-attaching their suckers in an inch-worm fashion.

Mouth Position: Subterminal – mouth is below the tip of the head

Citation: http://www.naturenorth.com/fall/leeches/Leeches_2.html

http://www.biokids.umich.edu/critters/Hirudinea/

http://www.biokids.umich.edu/critters/Hirudinea/

http://www.naturenorth.com/fall/leeches/Leeches_2.html


Common Name: Sludge Worm

Scientific Name: Tubifex tubifex

Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: AnnelidaClass: Clitellata Order: OligochaetaFamily: Tubificidae

Geography/Habitat: Sludge worms are widely distributed in Britain and Ireland’s Thames, Tamar, Severn, and Forth estuaries. They can also be found on the brackish coast of Norfolk and muddy waters of the Menai Strait. Sludge worms live in clusters on the bottoms of muddy and murky ponds and streams, burrowed into the mud, faced upside down.

Food/ Feed Style: Sludge worms eat organic matter in the water around them.

Life Strategy: Sludge worms can reproduce asexually. If the worm is severed, the two pieces will separate, growing into two worms.

Body Type: Sludge worms, being annelids, are segmented. They are slender and can grow up to 20 centimeters long. They can have between 34 and 120 segments which have bundles of

chitinous bristles used for burrowing. The worms are usually red. These worms possess bilateral symmetry, are cylindrical, and taper at the ends.

Locomotion/Swim Style: Generally, Sludge worms do not swim, but are burrowed in mud. When they do swim, they wiggle through the water using the muscles in their bodies.

Mouth Position: Mouth is at one end of the worm’s body

Citation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tubifex_tubifex


Common Name: Northern Crayfish

Scientific Name: Oroconnectes virilus

Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: ArthropodaClass: Malacostraca Order: DecapodaFamily: Cambaridae

Geography/Habitat: The Northern Crayfish prefers oxygenated ponds, lakes, rivers, and streams from Alberta and Quebec to New York, Ohio, Kentucky, Arkansas, Texas, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, and Montana. Canada with silt or cobble substrates. These Crayfish can be found in extremely shallow water of a few inches to waters as deep as 100 feet.

Food/ Feed Style: Northern Crayfish are opportunistic omnivores feeding on aquatic plants, snakes, insects, turtles, and larval fish.

Life Strategy: - Northern crayfish mate in late summer to early summer, with rare cases of winter mating. Females carry eggs beneath the abdomen until they hatch as soon a few days or as late as a few weeks after mating has occurred. Juveniles live independently shortly after hatching.

Body Type: Small and lobster-like with 3 to 4 pairs of legs and a segmented tail. Crayfish have two antennae and two large pincers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tubifex_tubifex

Locomotion/Swim Style: All crayfish use their walking legs to move on the muddy or sandy stream, lake, or pond bottom. They will also rapidly flip their tail into the water to jet backwards quickly and escape predators.

Mouth Position: terminal – mouth is located at the very front of the crayfish’s head

Citation: http://www.pima.gov/cmo/sdcp/species/fsheets/ex/cray.html


Common Name: Florida Apple Snail

Scientific Name: Pomacea paludosa

Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: MolluscaClass: Gastropoda Order: PomaceaFamily: Ampullariidae

Geography/Habitat: The Florida Apple snail is concentrated most heavily through peninsular Florida. It is also native to Colombia and Cuba. Florida Apples nails have expanded into Alabama, Georgia, Hawaii, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and South Carolina. They prefer warm waters that are relatively slow to moderate.

Food/ Feed Style: Florida apple snails feed on periphyton which is a mixture of algae, heterotrophic microbes, cyanobacteria, and detritus.

Life Strategy: Apple snails are not hermaphroditic. Males have a penal complex inside the shell, close to the gills while females do not. Once the snails reach sexual maturity, they will attach themselves to each other, the female on bottom. Once the male has transferred sperm to the eggs females emerge from the water and deposit the eggs just above the water line. Eggs hatch a few weeks after deposition.

http://www.pima.gov/cmo/sdcp/species/fsheets/ex/cray.html

Body Type: Apple snails have rounded shells measuring 40 to 70 milimeters.

Locomotion/Swim Style: Snails do not swim but use cilia on the bottom of their bodies to grip the ground and propel themselves forward.

Mouth Position: mouth is on the underside of the soft body, usually in the shell

Citation: http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/misc/gastro/apple_snails.htm


Common Name: Rusty Crayfish

Scientific Name: Oroconnectes rusticus

Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: ArthropodaClass: Malacostraca Order: DecapodaFamily: Cambaridae

Geography/Habitat: Rusty Crayfish live in lakes, ponds, and streams in Ohio, Kentucky, Illinois, Tennessee, and the Ohio River Basin. Most recently they can be found in Wisconsin, the Northeast, New Mexico, and areas in Ontario, Canada. The prefer areas with rocks, logs, and other debris to use as cover.

Food/ Feed Style: Rust crayfish eat significantly more than most other species. They eat small fish, aquatic invertebrates, like leeches, clams, mayflies, clams and worms, crustaceans like water fleas, aquatic plants, and fish eggs.

Life Strategy: Males and females look alike. These Crayfish mate in the water and eggs are not released until waters are warm. After the eggs have been fertilized by the male and released, they are attached to a mucous-like substance called glair. Anywhere from 80 to 575 eggs are laid, though 30-40% of eggs are lost by currents.

http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/misc/gastro/apple_snails.htm

Body Type: Rusty crayfish measure around two and a half inches in length. They have 2 large claw and 3 or 4 pairs of walking legs with a segmented tail extending from the posterior end.

Locomotion/Swim Style: All crayfish use their walking legs to move on the muddy or sandy stream, lake, or pond bottom. They will also rapidly flip their tail into the water to jet backwards quickly and escape predators.

Mouth Position: terminal – mouth is located at the very front of the crayfish’s head

Citation: http://dnr.wi.gov/org/caer/ce/eek/critter/invert/Rustycrayfish.htm


Common Name: Olive Nerite

Scientific Name: Neritina reclivata

Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: MolluscaClass: Gastropoda Order: NeritomorphaFamily: Neritidae

Geography/Habitat: Nerites are found on rocks and mudflats of brackish and freshwater streams and ponds throughout the continental United States.

Food/ Feed Style: Nerites mainly feed on diatoms that coat rock surfaces, film-forming cyanobacteria, and green algae.

Life Strategy: Nerites do not spawn by releasing gametes into the water, but do reproduce sexually. Males transfer sperm into the female to fertilize the eggs inside of her. Eggs are laid in small white capsule.

http://dnr.wi.gov/org/caer/ce/eek/critter/invert/Rustycrayfish.htm

Body Type: Small, rounded shell with a soft fleshy body curled inside

Locomotion/Swim Style: Snails do not swim but use cilia on the bottom of their bodies to grip the ground and propel themselves forward.

Mouth Position: mouth is on the underside of the soft body, usually in the shell

Citation: http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2003/9/inverts


Common Name: Pink Mucket

Scientific Name: Lampsilis orbiculata

Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: MolluscaClass: Bivalva Order: UnionoidaFamily: Unionidae

Geography/Habitat: Pink Mucket are spread throughout the United State in Virginia, the Tennessee River, Ohio, and Mobile Rivers. They can also be found in Africa, China, and Europe. They prefer lakes and rivers.

Food/ Feed Style: Using their siphons, Muckets, like all mussels, filter bacteria, algae, and other small particles for energy and sustenance.

Life Strategy: Mussels rely on currents to reproduce. Males release sperm into the water which is carried downstream to females that draw it in through their siphons. Anywhere from 100 to 100,000 fertilized eggs develop in the females gills. Once matured, they are released into the water column and attach to a certain species of fish, living as a parasite. As the parasitic juvenile develops gills, internal structures, and its muscular foot, it drops off of the fish, beginning its adult life dwelling on the bottom of streams and rivers.

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2003/9/inverts

Body Type: They have two hard shells, called valves, attached by a hinge-like ligament. Between the valves is a soft but muscular foot, which the mussel uses for movement, and its many internal organs.

Locomotion/Swim Style: Mussels use the muscular foot located between their valves to move around the bottom of streams and rivers.

Mouth Position: Mouth is located between the two valves that are attached by the hinge ligament

Citation: http://www.dgif.virginia.gov/wildlife/freshwater-mussels.asp


http://www.dgif.virginia.gov/wildlife/freshwater-mussels.asp

Common Name: Swan Mussel

Scientific Name: Anodonta cygnea

Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: MolluscaClass: Bivalvia Order: UnionoidaFamily: Unionidae

Geography/Habitat: Swan mussels can be found in ponds, peatlands, canals, reservoirs, and lakes throughout Europe and as far as Siberia. They have also been recorded in northern Asia, Russia, and Iran, Estonia, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, Yemen, Kazakhstan, the Czech Republic, and Italy.

Life Strategy: Mussels rely on currents to reproduce. Males release sperm into the water which is carried downstream to females that draw it in through their siphons. Anywhere from 100 to 100,000 fertilized eggs develop in the females gills. Once matured, they are released into the water column and attach to a certain species of fish, living as a parasite. As the parasitic juvenile develops gills, internal structures, and its muscular foot, it drops off of the fish, beginning its adult life dwelling on the bottom of streams and rivers.

Over several weeks, it begins to develop gills, a foot, and other internal structures to become a juvenile mussel. The now fully transformed, but still microscopic, juvenile will drop off the fish and begin its life on the stream bottom.

Body Type: They have two hard shells, called valves, attached by a hinge-like ligament. Between the valves is a soft but muscular foot, which the mussel uses for movement, and its many internal organs.

Locomotion/Swim Style: Mussels use the muscular foot located between their valves to move around the bottom of streams and rivers.

Mouth Position: Mouth is located between the two valves that are attached by the hinge ligament

Citation: http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/full/156066/0

http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/full/156066/0


Common Name: Flatworm

Scientific Name: Procotyla fluviatilis

Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: PlatyhelminthesClass: Turbellaria Order: TricladidaFamily: Dendrocoelidae

Geography/Habitat: Flatworms are common in Eastern North American ponds, lakes, streams, and springs through Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ontario, and even down to Louisiana.

Food/ Feed Style: Flatworms are carnivorous, feddingo n smaller invertebrates and the flesh of dead animals that sink to the bottom of the ponds, lakes, and streams that they live in. If they are unable to find food for an extended period of time, flatworms can absorb their own bodies and live for up to a month on no outside food.

Life Strategy: Flatworms reproduce asexually when cut into two pieces, both halves can grow into new worms. They will not bleed or starve to death as they have no blood and both pieces can digest food. Sometimes they even split lengthwise or crosswise. They can also reproduce sexually, laying eggs in a shell or cocoon.

Body Type: Flatworms have soft, flat bodies. They possess a reproductive system, a nervous system, and bilateral symmetry.

Locomotion/Swim Style: The different species of Turbellarians move in lots of different ways. Some have cilia along their bodies that enable them to move through the sand or water. Others use muscle contractions to move, and some swim.

Mouth Position: mouth is on the underside of the worm

Citation: http://www.reefed.edu.au/home/explorer/animals/marine_invertebrates/flatworms

http://animal.discovery.com/worms/flatworm-info.htm


Common Name: Riffle Beetle

Scientific Name: Heterelmis comalensis

Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: MandibulataClass: Insecta Order: ColeopteraFamily: Elmidae

Geography/Habitat: Most riffle beetles can be found crawling on stones and wood debris in the riffle zones of freshwater streams. Some are found in depositional zones and in sediments. Some live in the vegetation of still waters though most prefer flowing water.

Food/ Feed Style: Riffle beetles feed on small particles of dead plants, organic debris like driftwood and logs, microscopic algae on rocks called periphyton, and sometimes on living plants.

Life Strategy: Little is known of the reproduction habits of this beetle but sexual reproduction is the most likely method, occurring during the winter during periods of low flow. Eggs are laid on cobbles or vegetation.

http://animal.discovery.com/worms/flatworm-info.htm

http://www.reefed.edu.au/home/explorer/animals/marine_invertebrates/flatworms

Body Type: Riffles are small with hard bodies, long legs, and tarsal claws. They have two antennae which are clubbed and slender. They are covered in dense though microscopic hydrophobic hairs that trap layers of hair used for gas exchange. Riffles can reach up to 16 mm long, though most are 8 with 3 pars of legs. They are segmented with gills at the tip of their abdomen when in the larval stage.

Locomotion/Swim Style: Riffles move slowly, holding onto substrate as water passes over them. Larvae crawl out of the water as they mature, then move back in when ready to reproduce. Sometimes, new adults may fly. Once they return to water, they do not fly.

Mouth Position: Mouth is at the very front of the beetle’s head

Citation: http://www.biokids.umich.edu/critters/Elmidae/

http://fieldguide.mt.gov/detail_IICOL5D010.aspx

http://fieldguide.mt.gov/detail_IICOL5D010.aspx

http://www.biokids.umich.edu/critters/Elmidae/

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