# Three-spined stickleback



## chka (15 Sep 2017)

I caught 3 sticklebacks today for my tank. Wanted them for a long time and finally found them 
Anybody has experience with them? How old are they? Size 3-3.5cm. Are all three females or it is too early for a male to get colours?


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## zozo (15 Sep 2017)

All 3 are females, males have a complete different color patern more greenish, the reds and sometimes ven blue they develop in mating season.




Age is difficult to say, because they have a relative short lifespan.. Tho in absolute prestine clear high oxygenated streams with abundand food supply they can reach an age of 4 to 5 years and 11cm in size. But in average lesser condition live no longer than 2 years in the wild and most of them die after their first spawn. So determining age on a life specimen is very difficult and depended on the conditions they lived in.. 3 to 4 cm, caught in the wild in a ditch or pool likely not older than a year maybe younger.

3 spiked stickleback is in contrary of their 10 spiked cousin a fish prefering deeper cooler streams and rivers, the 10 spiked is generaly found in ditches and pools. Tho both can be found in simular wtaers.. In captivity cool streams are difficult to replicate, without a chiller it is difficult to keep smaller fish tanks cool enough. This is why they live very short in captivity, so don't be sad or surprised if they don't make it through the year any longer is a bonus.  Not that it is a maltreatment, but the higher temps encreases their metabolism and aging process.. Which is more rule than exeption for all cold water species not only sticklebacks.

But they are very funny little fish.. Absolutely fearless and a treat to observe.. Good luck..


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## splatteredbrainz (3 Oct 2017)

I'm jealous. Always been fascinated by them. I don't think they're native to the states but I could see myself dedicating a hillstream tank to them. Maybe outdoors? How cold do they tolerate? 

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## zozo (3 Oct 2017)

splatteredbrainz said:


> I don't think they're native to the states



They are  also live in salt water and migrate between salt and fresh. They are close related to Seahorses..  In europe they are to be found as high up as Norway. So probably also migrate back and forth over the ocean from Europe to America. In some North American lakes stickleback subspecies developed which are very interesting study objects regarding speciation. Because they don't seem to crossbreed.


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## splatteredbrainz (3 Oct 2017)

Interesting. Sounds like I could keep them with my mummichogs. 

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## chka (3 Oct 2017)

From first three only one survived the first night. But a week ago I caught another 4 smaller size - 1-1.8 cm. And those are fine. So now I have 5 in the tank. But behaviour is very different. The first one is very shy and always hiding, while the new ones are not shy at all!


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## zozo (3 Oct 2017)

chka said:


> very shy and always hiding



Very wrong, likely will die soon.. Sticklebacks should be fairless and always active on the hunt curiously following all that moves...


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## chka (3 Oct 2017)

zozo said:


> Very wrong, likely will die soon.. Sticklebacks should be fairless and always active on the hunt curiously following all that moves...



Possibly. But it is eating. But like strike and hide... the new ones normally swim with other fish.

I thought it is older and so have already behaviour pattern developed - be careful and afraid of bigger things...


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## zozo (3 Oct 2017)

Also depending on tank size, you shouldn't put 2 males together, they are very territotial and keep fighting.. I've tried with 5 females, 2 males in a 80 x 40 tank obviously much to small for 2 males, they fight to the death. The cause is stress, because the most dominant male doesn't back off and keeps attacking the looser.


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## chka (3 Oct 2017)

New ones are too small to be territorial. And they all have same colour... i do no think that 7 out of 7 i caught are all frmales )


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## splatteredbrainz (5 Oct 2017)

What type of environment did you catch them in? 

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## chka (5 Oct 2017)

splatteredbrainz said:


> What type of environment did you catch them in?
> 
> Sent from my SM-G730V using Tapatalk



River Liffey.

This place:


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## splatteredbrainz (5 Oct 2017)

Wow gorgeous. In and around rocks or out in the open? I want a larger native river-tank for my backyard. I'm thinking some rapids that drain to a larger pool at the bottom

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## splatteredbrainz (5 Oct 2017)

I have access to this place in the Berkshire mtns but it's 100 miles inland. Do you think they'd travel that far upstream? 









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## chka (5 Oct 2017)

splatteredbrainz said:


> In and around rocks or out in the open?


around rocks. I caught them with normal fish tank net from river coast. It took quite a time though  the were very few of them and they are faster then my hand with net


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## chka (5 Oct 2017)

splatteredbrainz said:


> Do you think they'd travel that far upstream?


I do not see why not. In my understanding they are not migrating fish. so they could live in there for generations...


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## splatteredbrainz (5 Oct 2017)

Definitely one of my top 3 favorite fish. I've been fascinated since seeing them on nature programs with Richard Attenborough as a boy

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## chka (5 Oct 2017)

splatteredbrainz said:


> Richard Attenborough


maybe David?


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## splatteredbrainz (5 Oct 2017)

One's a naturalist and one's an actor. I always get them confused. You know the guy

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## zozo (5 Oct 2017)

They are not migratory for spawning, but are addapted to both marine and fresh invironment. Obviously also breed in both conditions. So it's possible to find them everywhere from pools all the way down the river delta at sea level.. All tho the 3 spined stickleback is more often found in clear and clean open streams they mainly hunt on sight. Also can be found in very clear and clean pools holding up in the deeper open spaces.

Long time ago i used to catch them in a swamp near my home, but this was also very clear and clean and full of all kinds of plants. The swamp was feeding a large ditch around an old castle few hundred meters away.. So it had some water movement with little creecks feeding several small pools before it ended up in that large ditch. Later on they dug out the entire swamp and created a park with 1 large pool. And it isn't clear anymore and sticklebacks are no longer to be found there.

The 10 spined stickleback is more commonly found in the shallows in the dense marginal vegitation.


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## splatteredbrainz (5 Oct 2017)

That's too bad about losing your swamp. I really don't understand why ppl who don't really like nature insist on augmenting it to suit themselves. A park? Like they could really stand being out in the sun that long anyway. Certainly not long enough to justify a park. It's good for business. Realtors get to say there's a park nearby now. Not like anyone's ever really gonna use it. People who enjoy the great outdoors would certainly prefer a swamp anyday. All this development is completely unnecessary. There's plenty of urban blight areas that could be redeveloped. I'm for a total moratorium on all development in wild habitats. Fix the ghettos and abandoned industrial wastelands first. People can live anywhere. They don't need to bulldoze swamps

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## zozo (5 Oct 2017)

It's something in people getting further away from nature when to many are put to close to it....

Few decades ago we had dozens wild life plots in our region. These where completely uncontroled by human activity, with very clear pools and teaming with all kinds of wild life.. that time our area still was a bit rural with farm lands and in between all these plots. It started to go down hill with economical expansion and building more urban neighbourhoods. More and more was builded and more people came living closer to these very clean natural places. And it seems if something is uncontroled, unguarded it's concidered an unmaintaned no mans land, free to do what you please and a permit to dump all kinds of crap without regards.

Than after a few years getting worse and worse it becommes a thorn in the local authorities eye. And when bureaucracy gets involved it's going to be destroyed and turned into a paved park, accesible for motorized lawn mowers and families with baby buggies etc.

And than all of a sudden, people think it is part of their neighbourhood again and respect it.. Nothing and realy absolutely nothing of the wildlife ponds i remember from my childhood is in it's original state, all is urbanized by now.

It happens all over the world.. Cramp to many people up near a natural invironment and it's going to be distroyed and urbanized.  It is what it is..


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## Edvet (6 Oct 2017)




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