Fishes
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Species Types
Scientific Name
Catostomus commersonii
Description
The white sucker has fine scales and a short dorsal fin. The lips are covered with small bumps. A small-creek fish that occurs nearly statewide, but absent from the Bootheel lowlands and the southeastern Ozarks.
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Scientific Name
Moxostoma macrolepidotum
Description
The shorthead redhorse is the most widely distributed redhorse sucker in Missouri, occurring nearly statewide. No other Missouri redhorse is as adaptable in its habitat requirements. Many specimens have a pea-shaped swelling on the upper lip.
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Scientific Name
Lepisosteus platostomus
Description
The shortnose gar is named for its relatively short, broad snout. Like other gars, it's a long, cylindrical fish with a long snout and numerous prominent teeth. The body is covered with hard, diamond-shaped scales.
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Scientific Name
Anguilla rostrata
Description
The American eel is considered an uncommon catch by Missouri sport anglers. This species is known to take natural baits and rarely takes artificial baits.
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Scientific Name
Hiodon alosoides
Description
Goldeyes are silvery, flat-sided fishes with large eyes and prominent teeth on the jaws, roof of the mouth, and tongue. A fleshy keel runs along the midline of the belly. The iris of the goldeye is golden.
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Scientific Name
Ameiurus melas
Description
The black bullhead is widespread in Missouri. It is the most common bullhead catfish in north and west portions of the state. It has dusky or black chin barbels, and the edge of its tail fin is notched, not straight.
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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
Ctenopharyngodon idella
Description
Grass carp are large-bodied with a broad head and a terminal transverse mouth. The scales appear crosshatched. A native of east Asia, it is now widely distributed in the Missouri, Mississippi, and St. Francis rivers and in impoundments.
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Scientific Name
Lepisosteus oculatus
Description
The spotted gar has many well-defined roundish black spots on top of the head and on the paired fins. Like other gars, it's a long, cylindrical fish with a long snout and numerous prominent teeth. The body is covered with hard, diamond-shaped scales.
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Scientific Name
Pomoxis annularis
Description
The white crappie, a popular panfish, has silver sides with 5 to 10 often faint vertical bars. The upper jaw reaches past the middle of the eye. It is more abundant and widespread than the black crappie.
See Also
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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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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.