- Spawns on a new and full moon during the summer season.
- The eggs are laid at the surface.
- They spawn up to 8 times in a season.
- Eggs hatch on the successive moon tide.
- Eggs can be found on the shells on ribbed muscle shells, leaves of marsh grasses, in pits dug out and covered by the female, or spread directly on the bottom.
-Externally fertilized
-They can release up to 460 eggs.
- They are found swimming in schools after birth.
DESCRIPTION -Belongs to a group of fishes called the Killifish.
-Killifish are a member of the Cyprinodontidae (large family of small soft-finned fishes; killifishes; swordtails; guppies)
-The head is flattened and the mouth is tilted upwards for catching food near the surface.
-The female mummichog is brownish with 12 to 15 dark vertical stripes with tinted green fins.
- Male Mummichog’s are dark green or olive with a yellowish underside.
- Maximum adult size is 130 mm with the females growing lager than males.
HABITAT
- Located on the Atlantic coast of the US.
- They are abundant in salt marshes, estuaries and tidal creeks.
- Also, they are a hybrid fish that can live in both fresh and salt waters. .
INTERRESTING FACTS
- Swam the earth over 500 million years ago.
- They develop benign tumors when introduced to certain pollutants in water. They are comparable to canaries in coal mines, but unlike canaries, they are not harmed.
- Mummichogs are used commercially used for bait and used for biological experiments.
- The Mummichog was the first fish in space. It accomplished this in the 1973 Skylab 3 mission.
DIET
- They feed on an abundance of edible objects.
- They are Omnivorous and feed mostly vegetable substances such as grasses.
- They are also known to eat shrimps, small mollusks, other crustations and sometimes small fish.
THE IMPORTANCE OF THE MUMMICHOG Though they seem like small and insignificant fish, they play an important role in the ecosystem.
- They are