Freshwater Fishes of Connecticut
Page 4 of 8
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Smelt are important forage fish for large pelagic predators such as striped bass in estuaries and brown trout in lakes.
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Also known as “tidewater” silverside. They are less common than and very difficult to distinguish from the Atlantic silverside without magnification.
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Sculpins are sensitive to environmental degradation, requiring good-quality, coldwater streams to survive.
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Introductions of green sunfish have been implicated with adverse impacts on other fish species.
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Mullets are torpedo-shaped fishes with horizontal mouths.
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Yellow perch are one of the state’s most popular panfishes. They actively feed during the winter, making them a staple for ice anglers.
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Commonly sold as bait, the golden shiner is our most common lake and pond minnow species.
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Atlantic salmon were extirpated from the Connecticut River and, despite extensive restoration efforts, self-sustaining runs do not occur.
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Blueback herring and alewives are so similar that the color of the gut lining (peritoneum) is the only sure way to tell them apart.
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The banded sunfish is listed as a Connecticut State Threatened Species. Their small size makes them vulnerable to predation by bass and other large gamefish, so they thrive only in protected, backwater areas.
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Looking a lot like other shiners gave the mimic shiner its name.
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Two native and one introduced pike species exist in Connecticut. All members of the family are predacious, primarily feeding on fish.
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The white sucker is arguably our most important fish species.
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Anadromous alewives are important forage fish for large gamefish such as striped bass and bluefish as well as many other animals, including osprey and marine mammals.
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They were first observed in Connecticut in the early 1980s at a few disjunct sites in the lower Housatonic and upper Quinebaug River drainages. Populations are expanding in both of these drainages, and individuals have recently been discovered in the Connecticut River drainage as well.