Northern Studfish

01/29/08:
Matt D, Brian Z, Marc K, and I collected a sample of the invasive Northern Studfish population in the Little Miami watershed near Xenia, OH. Here is a picture of one of the samples....

 Nstudfish0129_08_2.jpg   37.25KB   6 downloads

Death to them! death to them all!

Is it invasive or just non-native? I would consider them much more aggressive than any Ohio native funulid and they are much larger.

Anyone know how they got there? Do people use them as bait?

I've seen them used as bait for smallmouth in Tennessee. They stay on a hook and alive all day.

That's kind of a neat looking fish. Is that a drop of water in it's mouth or is that a giant tooth?

Dean

That's kind of a neat looking fish. Is that a drop of water in it's mouth or is that a giant tooth?

Dean

Dean,
It is not a tooth; must be an optical illusion. I do like these fish even though they aren't supposed to be here. Matt(skipjack) and Brian(smbass) caught a bigger male with even more color than this one, but I didn't photograph it.
-Thom
Here's a nearly identical shot of the same fish....

 Nstudfish0129_08_1.jpg   36.77KB   4 downloads

Wow... thats cool. N Studs are one of my favorite fishes. Breeding males are SPECTACULAR. According to Petersons they are not even close to the edge of Ohio. Hum? That could be an easy fish to be transported via baitbuckets but thats a long way to go. Where is this site in Ohio? N orth, Central?. And maybe with the milder winters of late the cold does not kill them... er... if it would. Around here, Chattanooga, in the summer these guys are showing off in tepid, even warm water, like the sun exposed shallow quiet areas along a stream or river. Easy to spot, hard to catch. Pretty much you get one good shot at them and then they are tough to catch. You first attempt you gotta setup and out smart em. Lay a seine down and weight it rocks on the leading edge. Once i spotted 2 S Studs in a puddle about 6' across. Worked myself nuts with a dipnet and finally i had to remove every single rock before i could catch them. They were under that last rock.
In aquariums they dont like flow so dont use powerheads, you will wear them out... just like Black S Topminnows in my experience. And they do jump so you gotta have a cover on your aquaria.
I had them reproduce in the cement pond tho i have no sand in it. In the mobile drainage i watched a pair of S Studs spawn in the sand. Hum.
Such pretty fish!
Casper

Invasive. Yes. Our only Fundulus (notatus) in the little Miami drainage is being assaulted by Gambusia from the south (pushed by local hatcheries, and water garden stores) and Catenatus from the North. We are not sure how they arrived, bait bucket, or native enthusiast? I am fairly certain that they did not travel a couple hundred miles on the down of geese.

I am sure that My numbers here are a bit off, but in less than ten years, they have spread from just North of Xenia, Ohio, to around 40 river miles. Basically Yellow Springs Ohio, south to Morrow Ohio. I am calling it invasive.

It is a shame they are invasive, such interesting and attractive natives IMO.