Fishes
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Species Types
Scientific Name
Etheostoma, Percina, Ammocrypta, and Crystallaria spp.
Description
Darters have been described as the hummingbirds of the fish world: colorful, small, and quick. Missouri has about 44 different types of darters. They are most diverse in the fast, clear, rocky streams of the Ozarks.
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Species Types
Scientific Name
Scaphirhynchus albus
Description
The pallid sturgeon is federally and state endangered. This rarely found but widely distributed bottom dweller lives mostly in the Missouri and lower Mississippi rivers.
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Scientific Name
Aplodinotus grunniens
Description
The freshwater drum is a silvery, deep-bodied fish with a distinct humpbacked appearance. It occurs in large rivers, lakes, and impoundments over most of Missouri.
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Scientific Name
Ictalurus furcatus
Description
The blue catfish is a big-river fish, preferring swift chutes, pools with noticeable current, and silt-free substrates. In Missouri, it's most common in the Mississippi, Missouri, and Osage rivers.
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Scientific Name
Ameiurus catus
Description
The white catfish is often stocked in fee-fishing lakes and other private waters. It sometimes escapes into natural stream systems. Unlike our other bullheads, it has a moderately (though not deeply) forked tail fin.
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Scientific Name
Carassius auratus
Description
Goldfish are not native to North America. They often escape into the wild from bait buckets and other causes, but there are few self-sustaining populations in Missouri.
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Scientific Name
Hypophthalmichthys nobilis
Description
The bighead carp is an invasive Asian carp. It does not jump as frequently as its cousin the silver carp, but it also leaps from the water when disturbed, threatening boaters' safety.
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Scientific Name
Carpiodes carpio
Description
The river carpsucker has a silvery, deep, rather thick body, a long, sickle-shaped dorsal fin, and whitish lower fins. It is the most abundant and widely distributed carpsucker in Missouri.
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Scientific Name
Morone saxatilis
Description
Primarily a marine species native to the Atlantic Coast of North America, the striped bass has been successfully stocked into several reservoirs in the United States. A silvery, elongated fish with prominent dark, horizontal stripes along the sides.
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Scientific Name
Macrhybopsis gelida
Description
The sturgeon chub is a small minnow adapted for life in the murky, swift-flowing water of big rivers — the Missouri and lower Mississippi. A Species of Conservation Concern, it prefers sand or gravel substrates.
See Also
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Species Types
Scientific Name
Amphiuma tridactylum
Description
The three-toed amphiuma is an eel-like, completely aquatic salamander. It has very small forelimbs and hind limbs, each with three tiny toes. In Missouri it’s found only in the Bootheel region.
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Species Types
Scientific Name
Siren intermedia nettingi
Description
The western lesser siren is an eel-like, aquatic salamander with external gills, small eyes, small forelimbs with four toes, and no hind limbs. In Missouri, it’s found mostly in the Bootheel and northward in counties near the Mississippi River.
About Fishes in Missouri
Missouri has more than 200 kinds of fish, more than are found in most neighboring states. Fishes live in water, breathe with gills, and have fins instead of legs. Most are covered with scales. Most fish in Missouri “look” like fish and could never be confused with anything else. True, lampreys and eels have snakelike bodies — but they also have fins and smooth, slimy skin, which snakes do not.