The three-spined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) is one of the species native to Europe that everyone should know and every aquarist should have kept at least once. Entire books could be written about this incredibly adaptable fish – and many have been. Nevertheless, it is still poorly understood from a purely scientific point of view. The […]
The Three-spined Stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) is the most interesting and beautiful native aquarium fish. Its behavior has been intensively studied scientifically and the courtship, nesting and mating behavior of the species are still an integral part of school lessons today. The stickleback is a model organism for instinct research.
Systematically-scientifically, the three-spined stickleback remains poorly understood. Over the centuries, 47 species of threespine stickleback have been described, but only a few of them are valid, the vast majority are seen as synonyms. In terms of behavior, a distinction is made between a stationary freshwater form and a migratory form that spends large portions of the year in the sea and returns to freshwater only to breed; in addition, there are apparently purely marine populations. Anatomically, there have been repeated attempts to use the number of lateral body plates as an identifier for species. For example, Gasterosteus gymnurus was for a long time considered a valid species lacking these plates on the caudal peduncle. However, recent DNA-based studies could not find any differences between G. gymnurus and G. aculeatus.
Three-spined sticklebacks live in practically all of Europe, large parts of northern Asia and North America. Our animals come from German fish farms. Unfortunately, nowadays most students and adults know these animals only from movies and books. Now is a good time to buy these fish for your home aquarium and watch this fantastic animal live.
For our customers: Three-spined sticklebacks have code 884005 on our stock list. Please note that we only supply wholesale.
Text & photos: Frank Schäfer
The Burmese Dwarf Stickleback or Paradox Fish, Indostomus paradoxus is a tiny species, it becomes only 2-3 cm long and originates from the northern parts of Burma. The charming creature should be kept in single species tanks, so called nano-tanks fit perfectly. Indostomus are very peaceful against conspecifics, but they are too weak to compete […]
This Southeast Asian dwarf will never grow larger then 3 cm; we obatined the species recently again from Thailand. The gender difference is very easy to see, for the males have broad light seams along the dorsal, the ventral and the anal fins. Moreover, during breeding time the females are clearly more filled around the […]
This fish, which only grows up to approx. 30mm comes from Myanmar. Their habitat is the lake Indagwi. Due to their small size they can be easily kept in small tanks, but you should tend them in species tanks. These should sufficiently contain plants and tubes wich are 10-14mm in diameter. On the ceiling of […]
This Southeast Asian dwarf will not grow larger then 3 cm. The gender difference is not very difficult to determine. During breeding time the females are clearly more filled around the belly. The males have brighter colours and the dorsal fin is black at the seam. The male fish shows guarding behaviour for spawn and […]
