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A Virtual Museum on the State's Fish Biodiversity

Fundulus dispar

Starhead Topminnow
NS G4
Collection Details

Specimens

Photos

Records

Taxonomic Hierarchy

Actinopterygii (Ray-finned Fishes) Cyprinodontiformes Fundulidae (Topminnows) Fundulus Fundulus dispar (Starhead Topminnow)

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: occurs only in the USA from the southern Great Lakes to eastern Texas and southern Alabama.

Habitat Associations

Freshwater. benthopelagic.

Biology

Occurs in vegetated standing water bodies and quiet pools and backwaters of streams (Ref. 5723, 10294). Maximum length 7.8 cm TL (Ref. 5723). Feeds on terrestrial insects, snails, small crustaceans, and some algae (Ref. 10294). Not a seasonal killifish. Is difficult to maintain in aquarium (Ref. 27139).
Max length: 6.0 cm TL; common length: 4.0 cm TL.
IUCN Red List Status: Least Concern (LC), assessed 2012-01-30. Resilience: High (Preliminary K or Fecundity.).

Commercial or Environmental Importance

Fisheries: commercial; aquarium: commercial.

References

Etnier, D.A. and W.C. Starnes (1993) The fishes of Tennessee. The University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA. (pls. check date).
Huber, J.H. (1996) Killi-Data 1996. Updated checklist of taxonomic names, collecting localities and bibliographic references of oviparous Cyprinodont fishes (Atherinomorpha, Pisces). Société Française d'Ichtyologie, Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France, 399 p.

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