Hobbies And Interests
Canadian Minnows
The bluntnose minnow is found in clear, rocky, small and medium -ize streams and man made lakes from Quebec to Louisiana. The bluntnose is a little less than four and a half inches long and has a silver body with a long dark stripe down the side. During the breeding season, the males become darker and a silver bar appears behind the gill cover. The bluntnose gets its name because of its flat snout. The brassy minnow grows to about four inches long. It has a dark olive to blackish back and yellow sides with brassy reflections that give the fish its name. It likes cool, slow streams with silty, muddy beds or the stained water of bogs and ponds with vegetation. It's found in Quebec and across to British Columbia.
American Minnows
The Mississippi silvery minnow is a larger minnow and grows up to 7 inches long. It's a fat, robust fish with an olive to silver back, a dark mid-dorsal stripe and a silvery sheen below. The snout is blunt and overhangs the mouth. It likes clear pools and backwaters of large creeks and rivers. It's found in the Mississippi river basin from Wisconsin down to east Texas. It usually stays near the creek bottom and forms large schools.
Minnows for the Aquarium
The white cloud mountain minnow is from China, from the White Cloud Mountain in Canton, near Hong Kong. It makes a very good aquarium fish. It is long and slender but tiny, about one and a half inches long. It's been bred to have many different colors, but in the wild it has a dark top and white on the belly. The male is more slender and more brilliantly colored than the female. The white cloud mountain minnow also swims in schools and reproduces easily, but this minnow is best kept with members of its species.
Large, Invasive Minnows
The goldfish can grow from three feet three inches long and weight 100 pounds. A wild goldfish is like most minnows, olive brown on the back, with silver sides and whitish belly, The upper scales look crosshatched because of dark pigmentation. It lives in rivers and large creeks and can live in ponds and reservoirs. The goldfish is native to eastern Asia but was introduced into ponds in Alabama and Arkansas in 1963 for weed control and as a food fish. But the goldfish can eat more than its weight every day and is considered a pest in some states.