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A Virtual Museum on the State's Fish Biodiversity

Cottus perplexus

Reticulate Sculpin
Collection Details

Event Specimens

Photos

There are no photos available for this taxon yet.

Records

Taxonomic Hierarchy

Actinopterygii (Ray-finned Fishes) Scorpaeniformes (Lionfish, Stonefish and others) Cottidae (Sculpins) Cottus Cottus perplexus (Reticulate Sculpin)

Description

This species account was compiled from FishBase (Froese, R. and D. Pauly. Editors. 2025. FishBase. World Wide Web electronic publication. www.fishbase.org, version 04/2025.) and processed using AI-assisted text extraction. It may contain errors in spelling, punctuation, or formatting. When citing, please reference the original source rather than this page. Learn more about our species accounts.

Characters

Body shape: elongated.

Distribution

North America: Pacific Slope drainages from Snohomish River and Puget Sound in Washington to Rogue River system in Oregon and California, USA.

Habitat Associations

Freshwater. demersal.

Biology

Usually inhabits rubble and gravel-bottomed pools and riffles of headwaters, creeks and small rivers, but can shift to other habitats depending on the environmental conditions and composition of fish communities. Where Cottus rhotheus and Cottus aleuticus do not occur, this species occupies riffles; at localities where all occur together, it shifts to pools (ref. 86798). Has been observed in slow moving and still waters with muddy substrates, but identification is uncertain (K. McAllister & M. Young, pers. comm. 07/04/20).
Max length: 10.0 cm TL; common length: 8.0 cm TL.
Reproductive mode: dioecism; fertilization: external.
IUCN Red List Status: Least Concern (LC), assessed 2011-11-10. Resilience: Medium (Fec=432).

Commercial or Environmental Importance

Fisheries: of no interest.

References

Page, L.M. and B.M. Burr (1991) A field guide to freshwater fishes of North America north of Mexico. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston. 432 p.

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