🎶I’m dreaming of a white #Fishmas…🎶 If you're dreaming of snow and cold this winter, you're in good company - the Pygmy Whitefish (Prosopium coulterii), is a small, little-known fish adapted for life in cold and dark environments like the deepest parts of Lake Superior #25DaysofFishmas ❄️ - ThreadSky

drkatfish.bsky.social • 83 days ago

🎶I’m dreaming of a white #Fishmas…🎶

If you're dreaming of snow and cold this winter, you're in good company - the Pygmy Whitefish (Prosopium coulterii), is a small, little-known fish adapted for life in cold and dark environments like the deepest parts of Lake Superior #25DaysofFishmas ❄️

Comments

drkatfish.bsky.social•83 days ago

Tiny Tim: The pygmy whitefish is (perhaps not surprisingly) the smallest species of the freshwater whitefishes known as Coregoninae. Their small adult size (~4 in/10 cm) + spots along their sides sometimes lead them to be misidentified as juveniles of other whitefish species #25DaysofFishmas

drkatfish.bsky.social•83 days ago

Pygmy whitefish have a geographically discontinuous range across North America with scattered populations from Alaska to the #GreatLakes - the Lake Superior population is >1000 miles from the nearest population in western Montana. ~90% of their global range lies within Canada! #25DaysofFishmas

drkatfish.bsky.social•83 days ago

Pygmy whitefish is one of 3 species sharing the common name “whitefish” in the #GreatLakes: the two others (round + lake) look similar but grow larger. Round + pygmy whitefish are the most closely related, having rounded cigar-shaped bodies with pointed snouts and single nasal flaps #25DaysofFishmas

fin-gen.bsky.social•83 days ago

Inquiring minds want to know! In addition to looking similar, do pygmies smell similar to the other whitefish? 🤔🥒

drkatfish.bsky.social•83 days ago

That's a really good question! I haven't had the chance to smell a pygmy whitefish myself, but I've heard round whitefish can give off the cucumber smell when handled. With them being in the same genus (Prosopium), my thought is maybe? Sounds like a study idea to me :)

drkatfish.bsky.social•83 days ago

In the #GreatLakes, pygmy whitefish are only found in the deep, cold waters of Lake Superior - they weren’t discovered there until 1952, in part because their small size and the depths at which they’re found often make it difficult to capture them using conventional fishing methods #25DaysofFishmas

drkatfish.bsky.social•83 days ago

Pygmy whitefish aren’t targeted by anglers or commercial fishing, but are prey for predatory #GreatLakes fishes like lake trout. In a twist, the recovery of lake trout in Lake Superior in recent years may contribute (in part) to lower numbers of pygmy whitefish seen since the 1990s #25DaysofFishmas

drkatfish.bsky.social•83 days ago

The pygmy whitefish inhabits cold, deep lakes and rivers with low productivity. No matter if it's a river or lake, it needs to have cold water (<50°F/ 10°C) + high dissolved oxygen. They typically spawn between September - December when water temps are a balmy 35-40°F (2-5°C) #25DaysofFishmas

matthewlmiller.bsky.social•83 days ago

This angler would go to great lengths to catch a pygmy whitefish!

snoutcedar.bsky.social•80 days ago

But have you ever seen a rare Crested Golden SUCKEM'?

You GOTTA watch this! 🤣🤣

https://youtu.be/FpOd9ZTPfA4?si=r42EHmx0rAuz1bF3

not-klaatu.bsky.social•82 days ago

minor note of interest- likely that these little guys have intermediate distributions also. See Blanchfield et al. 2011, noting that we have them in an ELA lake: http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/cjz-2013-0252 Closely related to Superior but ~300 km west...

drkatfish.bsky.social•82 days ago

Awesome, thanks so much for sharing!

Comments

Posting Rules

Reply