Fish of the Sanctuary's Ponds- Three-spined Stickleback

            Sticklebacks are common in our ponds and also out on the intertidal habitats of the George C. Reifel Migratory Bird Sanctuary in Delta BC Canada. They are often in large schools outside of  the breeding season, and sometimes even in the summer months. They can get up to 8 cm long, but most of this small selection was caught in a minnow trap yesterday and were nearly all about 5 cm long.  They feed on bottom materials and plankton, and when we gave the ones in the trap a bucket of water from the shallows, they went nuts chasing all the fairy shrimp around and gobbling them up. 

The males get a lot of colour during the breeding season. In this sample, they are the ones with bright red under the chin and an almost bluish green back. Wikipedia gave me way too much information about the romantic life of this species. The male digs a pit, lining it with underwater vegetation, debris and sand, glues this all together with some sort of proteinaceous secretion into a sort of tube shape, finishing this craft project by swimming through it several times to fine-tune its shape!! Say what!!  Apparently the female is encouraged into this "tunnel of love" to lay eggs, and the male follows to fertilize said eggs, then chases the female away and guards this nest until the eggs hatch, often plunking himself in the front of the tunnel and finning to increase circulation and oxygen in the tunnel. I have paraphrased several pages to come up with this version of the Stickleback Nursery Story, and may have some parts wrong, but ....FASCINATING! 

Oh yeah, they have spines, and erect them as a defense when some bird is trying to swallow them. 
Gasterosteus aculeatus

Taken on: May 25, 2019

Tags:

Gasterosteus aculeatus

stickleback

fish

minnows

brackish

coastal

Fraser River Estuary

Fraser River Delta

Ladner

Delta

Ramsar 243 Canada

George C. Reifel Migratory Bird Sanctuary

wetland

Reifel Bird Sanctuary

romance

estuary « less

Sets appears in: • Other Sanctuary Things

Groups appears in: • Pacific Northwest • Canadian Nature more » • Wetlands • Water, Water Everywhere • close_ups • Delta, British Columbia • Nikon Nature • Ramsar Wetlands of International Importance « less

Camera: Nikon COOLPIX W300, f/8.2, 1/100 sec, 4.3mm, ISO 125 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Nikon COOLPIX W300
Aperture:	f/8.2
Exposure Time:	0.01 sec (1/100)
Focal Length:	4.3mm
ISO:	125
Exposure Bias:	-0.7 EV
Flash:	On, Fired
Exposure Program:	Program AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	COOLPIX W300 V1.3
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