Name:
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- Percina, "little perch"
- caprodes, from the Greek, "resembling a pig", a reference to its
snout
- Common Name,
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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 Acanthopterygii,
- Order Perciformes, the perch-like fishes
- Suborder Percoidei
- Family Percidae, the true perches
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Description:
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- A large darter and one of the most common
- Length to 5"
- Weight
- Coloration
- yellowish-green with about 15 dark crossbands
- belly
- Body
- dorsal fin of 15 rays
- anal fin of 9 rays
- lateral line of 80-90 scales with a black spot at the base of the anal
fin.
- Head
- broad with tapered snout overhanging mouth
- top of head depressed between the eyes
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Identification:
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Distribution:
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- By far the most widely distributed of all the darter species, ranging from
Saskatchewan to Quebec, south to Texas and Florida. It occupies many stream drainages throughout the eastern half of the US and appears to have
been introduced into many parts of continent where it did not originally
occur.
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Habitat:
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- Common in lakes and streams. The only member of Percina in
Minnesota to live in lakes.
- Adaptable to a wide variety of habitats. Nonethless, siltation and
other detrimental effects of human activities have caused numbers to decline
sharply in some locations.
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Food:
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- Microcrustaceans and aquatic insects.
- Sometimes observed turning small stones with the snout, searching for food.
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History:
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Uses:
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Reproduction:
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- Spawns in June
- Females repeatedly enter an aggregation of males and burrow into the sand
bottom with a mounted male.
- Ten to 20 eggs are deposited at each encounter.
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Comments:
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Links:
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Last updated on 17 October 1999
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