Name:
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- Hiodon, from the Greek, "toothed hyoid"
- tergisus, from the Greek, "polished"
- Common name from the large, round eye
- Other common names include: Herring
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Taxonomy:
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- Kingdom Animalia
- Phylum Chordata, animals with a spinal chord
- Subphylum Vertebrata, animals with a backbone
- Superclass Osteichthyes, bony fishes
- Class Actinopterygii, ray-finned and spiny rayed fishes
- Subclass Neopterygii
- Infraclass Teleostei
- Superorder Osteoglossomorpha
- Order Osteoglossiformes, bonytongues
- Suborder Notopteroidei
- Family Hiodontidae, mooneyes
- Genus Hiodon, the mooneyes
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Description:
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- A little noticed fish of larger lakes and rivers.
- Length to 12"
- Weight
- Coloration
- bluish above
- fading to silvery on sides
- Body
- Head
- snout overhangs lower jaw
- eyes large, round, silvery
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Identification:
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- Distinguished from the closely related Goldeneye (Hiodon
alosoides), by
- silvery colour of the eyes
- anal fin, which is more pointed than the Goldeye's and begins farther behind
than the dorsal fin
- dorsal fin of 11-12, rather than 9-10 rays
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Distribution:
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- Hudson Bay south, through Ohio and Mississippi drainages.
- Found in all Minnesota drainage basins except the Superior drainage.
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Habitat:
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- Warm, silty, slow-moving waters of large rivers and in quiet shallow lakes,
backwaters, ponds, and marshes connected to them. Also muddy shallows
of larger lakes.
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Food:
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- Aquatic insects, crustaceans, and invertebrates
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History:
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- Minnesota Record: 1 lb 15oz, from the Minnesota River (Redwood County)
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Uses:
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- Flesh dry and tasteless.
- Unlike the Goldeneye (Hiodon alosoides),
not exploited commercially.
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Reproduction:
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- Random spring spawning without benefit of nest or ongoing parental care.
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Comments:
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Links:
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Last updated on 22 October 1999
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