Freshwater

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  • Home Aquariums

    Make a home aquarium with the beautiful native and introduced freshwater fishes of Connecticut!

  • Blueback Herring

    Blueback herring and alewives are so similar that the color of the gut lining (peritoneum) is the only sure way to tell them apart.

  • Blacknose Dace

    Blacknose dace are a native minnow that prefer the pools and rocky riffles of small headwater streams.

  • Spotfin Killifish

    Due to their small size, spotfin killifish are difficult to identify and often mistaken for young mummichog.

  • Killifishes

    Both marine and freshwater killifishes are distributed throughout Central and Eastern North America from southern Canada to the Yucatan, including Cuba and Bermuda.

  • Sturgeons

    Learn about these huge, prehistoric fishes that are threatened and endangered in Connecticut.

  • Pumpkinseed

    One of our most colorful freshwater fishes.

  • White Crappie

    White crappie are so similar in appearance to black crappie that most Connecticut anglers probably do not recognize them as a separate species.

  • Inland Silverside

    Also known as “tidewater” silverside. They are less common than and very difficult to distinguish from the Atlantic silverside without magnification.

  • Sunfishes and Freshwater Basses

    There are eleven sunfish species in Connecticut, only three of which are native.

  • Temperate Basses

    All North American members of the family are important gamefish, and some support significant commercial fisheries.

  • Common Carp

    Learn all about common carp, one of Connecticut's biggest and hardest fighting fish!

  • Alewife

    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.

  • Redfin Pickerel

    Connecticut’s smallest pike species. They are typically mistaken for small chain pickerel by anglers.

  • Catfishes and Bullheads

    Catfish and bullheads have eight barbels around the mouth: two off the snout, two off the corners of the mouth, and four under the chin. These long barbels give the impression of whiskers, hence the name “catfishes.”