Thompson's Guide to Freshwater Fishes: How to Identify the Common Freshwater Fishes of North America, how to Keep Them in a Home AquariumThis is a field guide with a plus: It not only tells how to identify the common freshwater fishes of North America, it also tells how to collect them and keep them in a home aquarium. It includes the fishes you are most likely to see or catch in any lake or stream in North America, from the Longnose Gar and Northern Pike to the Rosyside Dace and Ninespine Stickleback. Important features are: 113 species in 22 families -- trouts, minnows, sunfishes, perches, catfishes, killifishes, and many othrs, with an emphasis on fishes that are suitable for aquarium life. 119 beautiful four-color illustratoins by Peter Thompson -- at least one illustration for each species. Clear, lively descriptions of each species and family, telling how to recognize them, where and when to find them, how to collect and keep them in an aquarium or fish pool, what to feed them, how to breed them, and interesting facts about habitat, life cycle, natural history, and local names. Range maps showing the North American distribution of each species. |
Common terms and phrases
Adipose fin Anal fin aquarium average Color back is dark Bass Body is elongated Brown Trout Caudal fin caudal peduncle cheeks and gill Chub cream crustaceans Dace dark brown Darter dense vegetation dorsal and caudal dorsal fin dusky eyes feed mainly feed on plankton female Field Marks fin is broad fin is long fins are pale fish's foods gill covers gravel bottom gray Habitats hatch head immature aquatic insects lakes lateral band Lateral line light brown line is complete mate midpoint minnow trap moderately forked Natural History nest orange pectoral fins Perch Pickerel Pirate Perch plankton ponds Pumpkinseed rear edge Redfin Pickerel rivers rounded lobes Scales are medium-sized shallow water Shiner sides and belly slightly small fishes snout soft-rayed spawning season species spines Stickleback Stonecat Sucker Sunfish Tadpole Madtom tank trailing edge Trout unmarked upper back upper jaw usually found ventral fins water temperature