Fish Families

Families we need to know for Fish Unit and their defining characteristics

Family Petromyzontidae

Superclass Agnatha— Jawless fishes (cyclostomes)

Includes hagfish and lamprey

• They are anadromous, parasitic

• They have no jaws and instead have gill arches made of cartilage to support the gills (cartilaginous skeleton).

• Eel-like bodies

• no paired fins (pectoral or pelvic)

• muscular mouths

• multiple gill openings (7 in lamprey, 12 in hagfish)

Class Chondrichthyes

Cartilaginous fishes and elasmobranchs

• cartilaginous skeletons

• 5-6 gill openings

• sharks, skates, rays, and chimeras

Family Squalidae

Dogfish Sharks (Spiny dogfish)

• small bodied, shark shaped

• no anal fin

• 1st dorsal fin in front of pelvic fins

• spine at front of both dorsal fins

• abdominal pelvic fins

Family Rajidae

Skates (Big skate, longnose skate)

• dorso-ventrally flattened

• rhomboid to circular disk shape

• spines on body and tail

Family Chimaeridae

Ratfishes (spotted ratfish)

• short blunt snout

• rabbit shaped head

• flat crushing teeth

• prominent lateral line

• slippery skin

• large triangular pectoral fin

• large green eyes

• long tapering tail

• white spots

Superclass Osteichthyes

The bony fishes

• skeleton made of bones not cartilage

Family Acipenseridae

Sturgeons (White sturgeon, green sturgeon)

• cartilaginous skeleton

• heterocercal caudal fin

• sub-terminal mouth

• 5 rows of dermal scutes

• 22-33 scutes on midside = green

• 38-48 scutes on midside = white

Division Teleostei

Teleosts

• perfect bone

• moveable jaw

• homocercal caudal fins

• spine ends at caudal peduncle

Family Clupeidae

Herrings and Shad (pacific herring, pacific sardine, american shad)

• laterally compressed (less bullet shaped from front)

• silver

• countershaded

• 1 short dorsal fin

• deeply forked caudal fin

• no adipose fin

• no spines

• scutes on belly

• schooling fish

Family Engraulidae

Anchovies (Northern anchovy)

• small, silvery

• long snout overhangs large mouth

• inferior jaw

• upper jaw extends well past eye

• filter feeders

Family Salmonidae

Salmon, trout, charr (Chinook salmon, chum salmon, coho salmon)

• adipose fin behind 1st dorsal

• low pectoral fins

• abdominal pelvic fins

• no spines in fins

• anadromous

Family Osmeridae

Smelt (Whitebait smelt, surf smelt, eulachon)

• small, frail

• adipose fin

• short dorsal fin at mid-body

• pelvic fins abdominal

• countershaded

• anadromous

Family Gadidae

Cod (Pacific cod)

• elongate

• 3 dorsal fins, 2 anal fins

• thoracic pelvic fins

• barbels on chin (chemosensory)

• sub terminal mouth

Family Syngnathidae

Pipefish and Seahorses (bay pipefish)

• encased in bony rings

• body rigid, very long and slender

• no pelvic fin

• small, toothless mouth

• tube snout

• superior jaw

• rounded caudal fin

• highly modified fins

Family Gasterosteidae

Sticklebacks (threespine stickleback)

• small mouth

• armored with bony plates

• no scales

• 3 isolated spines before soft dorsal (threespine stickleback)

Family Scorpaenidae

Rockfish (Black rockfish, copper rockfish, china rockfish, etc.)

• very spiny

• stout body

• ovoviviparous

• found in many habitats

• very diverse in color, shape, size and pattern, often featuring venomous spines for defense.

Family Hexagrammidae

Greenlings (Kelp greenling, painted greenling, lingcod)

• no spiny head

• elongate body with long single dorsal fin

• pelvic fins thoracic

Family Cottidae

Sculpins

• stout, round body

• large (frog shaped) head with spines, knobs, or cirri

• large fan like pectoral fins

• dorsal, anal fins usually long

• benthos fish

Family Embiotocidae

Surfperches

• laterally compressed, elliptical

• un-notches dorsal fin

• viviparous

Family Pholidae

Gunnels (saddleback gunnel, rockweed gunnel, penpoint gunnel)

• eel-like, long compressed bodies

• dorsal fin long and flexible (soft spines)

• dorsal and anal fins joined to caudal fin

• anal fin less than 50% body length

Family Gobiidae

Gobies

• small fish

• pelvic fins fused to form cone

• 1st dorsal fin w/ 7 spines

• rounded caudal fin

• smallish gill openings

Family Scombridae

Mackerels and Tuna

• 2 dorsal fins w/ 5-12 finlets behind 2nd dorsal fin and anal fin

• pectoral fins high on body

• slender caudal peduncle w/ 2 keels

• specialized subcutaneous vascular system in some spp.

• swim continuously

• reduces drag

• specialized heat keeping

Family Paralichthyidae

Sand Flounders (pacific sanddab)

• flat

• both eyes on left side

• lateral line arches over pectoral fin

• eye rotates in metamorphosis

Family Pleuronectidae

Right eye flounders (starry flounder, english sole, pacific halibut)

• flat

• eyes on right side

• triangle shaped dorsal and anal fins