Animal Diversity Web

Ge­o­graphic Range

The three­spine stick­le­back fish (Gas­teros­teus ac­ulea­tus) are in ma­rine, brack­ish and coastal fresh­wa­ter habi­tats of the north­ern hemi­sphere. They are found in bo­real and tem­per­ate re­gions of the north­ern hemi­sphere and in ma­rine wa­ters and low­land fresh­wa­ter habi­tats in the At­lantic and Pa­cific basins.

In the At­lantic Ocean, three­spine stick­le­backs are dis­trib­uted from the Iber­ian Penin­sula through the British Isles to Ice­land and south­ern Green­land, and south along the east coast of North Amer­ica to Chesa­peake Bay. Fresh­wa­ter pop­u­la­tions are found through­out most of this range, but do not go far­ther south than Maine, USA. Fresh­wa­ter pop­u­la­tions are also dis­trib­uted along the coast of the Mediter­ranean and in in­land wa­ters across East­ern Eu­rope to the Baltic Sea.

In the Pa­cific Ocean, three­spine stick­le­backs are found from Baja Cal­i­for­nia, Mex­ico north­ward along the coast of North Amer­ica, across the Bering Strait, and then along the coast of main­land Asia and Japan to the south­west coast of Korea. Ma­rine and fresh­wa­ter pop­u­la­tions are found in Japan, but the limit of ma­rine pop­u­la­tions in Asia is un­clear. Fresh­wa­ter pop­u­la­tions are re­stricted to coastal areas in both Asia and North Amer­ica. (Baker, et al., 1995; Bell, et al., 1994; Cresko, et al., 2007; Walker, 1997)

• Biogeographic Regions
• nearctic
  • native
• palearctic
  • native
• atlantic ocean
  • native
• pacific ocean
  • native

Habi­tat

Gas­teros­teus ac­ulea­tus oc­cupy a wide range of habi­tats. They have been found in small, ephemeral streams in south­ern Cal­i­for­nia and in more per­ma­nent flow­ing wa­ters of vari­able sizes. These fish do not tol­er­ate high-gra­di­ent streams, and they are rarely found in habi­tats more than a few hun­dred me­ters above sea level. In fresh­wa­ter lakes, they are di­vided into ben­thic and lim­netic eco­types. Ben­thic en­vi­ron­ments in­clude shal­low, rel­a­tively eu­trophic lakes or the lit­toral zone of deeper lakes. Lim­netic eco­types are typ­i­cally found in the water col­umn of deep olig­otrophic lakes. Ma­rine fish in­habit the open ocean. (Bell, et al., 1994; Mat­tern, et al., 2007; Shaw, et al., 2007)

• Habitat Regions
• temperate
• saltwater or marine
• freshwater

• Aquatic Biomes
• pelagic
• benthic
• lakes and ponds
• rivers and streams
• coastal
• brackish water

• Other Habitat Features
• estuarine
• intertidal or littoral

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

Phys­i­cal de­scrip­tion varies widely with age and habi­tat. In gen­eral, three­spine stick­le­backs tend to be stream­lined and less than 10 cm long (usu­ally from 3 to 8 cm). Fresh­wa­ter pop­u­la­tions vary in body shape, de­pend­ing on the habi­tat they oc­cupy. Lim­netic eco­types tend to have slen­der bod­ies with nar­row mouths, long snouts, and large eyes. Ben­thic eco­types tend to be deep-bod­ied, with a wide, ter­mi­nal gape.

The fish can have a ro­bust set of spines, a pelvic gir­dle, and nu­mer­ous lat­eral bony plates (up to thirty or more on each side), but the ex­tent of these fea­tures varies by pop­u­la­tion. Dor­sal and pelvic spines vary in num­ber, place­ment, and length, and the spines tend to be longer in pop­u­la­tions that co-oc­cur with preda­tory fishes. The pelvic gir­dle con­sists of a bi­lat­eral struc­ture with an an­te­rior process that has an as­cend­ing branch on each side, a pos­te­rior process and a spine and fin ray. The ab­domen is ringed in bony armor. Ma­rine fish al­most al­ways pos­sess a fully de­vel­oped pelvic gir­dle and a full com­ple­ment of bony lat­eral plates. How­ever, many fresh­wa­ter pop­u­la­tions have re­duced armor plates and pelvic gir­dles, and some pop­u­la­tions have lost these fea­tures en­tirely.

Al­though body color also varies among pop­u­la­tions, three­spine stick­le­backs are gen­er­ally cryp­tic, with brown-to-green bar­ring above and paler col­or­ing below. As males ap­proach re­pro­duc­tive con­di­tion, they be­come less cryp­tic, and their eyes be­come an iri­des­cent blue. In some pop­u­la­tions, red col­oration may ex­pand onto the flanks be­hind the pec­toral fin. (Baker, et al., 1995; Bell, et al., 1994; Cresko, et al., 2007; Day, et al., 1994)

• Other Physical Features
• ectothermic
• heterothermic
• bilateral symmetry

• Sexual Dimorphism
• sexes alike
• sexes colored or patterned differently
• male more colorful

• Range length

  3 to 8 cm

  1.18 to 3.15 in

• Average length

  5 cm

  1.97 in

De­vel­op­ment

Once eggs are fer­til­ized, they take be­tween 5 and 10 days to hatch, de­pend­ing on the tem­per­a­ture of the water. Upon hatch­ing, three­spine stick­le­back lar­vae are about 4 mm in length. The lar­vae will con­tinue to grow by ab­sorp­tion of the yolk, which they will com­pletely con­sume about four days after hatch­ing. Ap­prox­i­mately nine days after hatch­ing, the lar­vae reach a length of about 8 mm and as­sume the shape of the adult fish. This is the ju­ve­nile stage, in which the im­ma­ture young be­come in­de­pen­dent of their fa­ther. Ju­ve­niles be­come adults when they reach sex­ual ma­tu­rity, which is usu­ally within 1 to 2 years of hatch­ing. (Bell, et al., 1994; Swarup, 1958)

Re­pro­duc­tion

Prior to the onset of breed­ing, males will de­velop a re­pro­duc­tive phe­no­type, in­clud­ing blue eyes, red throats, and red fore-bel­lies. Dur­ing the breed­ing sea­son, a male will leave the shoal and set­tle on the bot­tom in shal­low water, where he will con­struct a nest and es­tab­lish a ter­ri­tory. The males are are gen­er­ally not monog­a­mous, and a male often tries to lead nu­mer­ous fe­males into his nest to lay eggs. Af­ter­ward, he will fer­til­ize all the eggs at once.

Males at­tract fe­males with zig-zag-like courtship dances, and fe­males re­spond with a form of danc­ing, as well as a "head-up" pos­ture. The male will then lead the fe­male to his nest, lying on the sub­strate next to the en­trance to sig­nify that she may enter and lay her eggs. Fe­males lay their eggs in the male’s nest and then leave the male alone to at­tend to the eggs until they hatch. Once eggs are fer­til­ized, they may take five to ten days to hatch, de­pend­ing on the tem­per­a­ture of the water. The male nest­ing cycle con­sists of a sex­ual phase for 1 to 4 days, and then a parental phase after the eggs are fer­til­ized. (Bell, et al., 1994; Mat­tern, et al., 2007)

• Mating System
• polygynous

Three­spine stick­le­backs breed in sloughs, ponds, rivers, lakes, drainage canals, marshes, tidal creeks and sub­lit­toral zones of the sea. In­di­vid­u­als reach sex­ual ma­tu­rity at be­tween 1 and 2 years of age, and breed­ing oc­curs an­nu­ally from late April to July. (Bell, et al., 1994; Mat­tern, et al., 2007)

• Key Reproductive Features
• iteroparous
• seasonal breeding
• gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
• sexual
• fertilization
  • external
• oviparous

• Breeding interval

  Threespine stickleback generally breed once yearly

• Breeding season

  late April to July

• Range time to hatching

  5 to 10 days

• Average time to independence

  2 weeks

• Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)

  1 to 2 years

• Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)

  1 to 2 years

Once males shift to their parental phase, they pro­vide all the care for their young. This in­cludes fan­ning eggs with their pec­toral fins to pro­vide oxy­gen for the de­vel­op­ing em­bryos and pro­tect­ing them from preda­tors. They also con­vert the nest into a nest pit, which con­sists of tan­gled veg­e­ta­tion where newly hatched fry can hide and rest. The males typ­i­cally de­fend the fry up to two weeks after hatch­ing. Pa­ter­nal care has been iden­ti­fied as an im­por­tant so­cial fac­tor in three­spine stick­le­back de­vel­op­ment and learn­ing. Stick­le­backs with no pa­ter­nal con­tact tend to fail avoid­ing preda­tors later in life. These anti-preda­tor be­hav­iors may be stim­u­lated at an early age as stick­le­back fa­thers chase and catch their fry when they first emerge from the nest. (Bell, et al., 1994; Hunt­ing­ford and Wright, 1993)

• Parental Investment
• male parental care
• pre-hatching/birth
  • provisioning
    • male
  • protecting
    • male
• pre-weaning/fledging
  • provisioning
    • male
  • protecting
    • male
• pre-independence
  • provisioning
    • male
  • protecting
    • male

Lifes­pan/Longevity

Lifes­pans of three­spine stick­le­backs have been recorded in a large num­ber of stud­ies, but the re­sults vary. A de­fin­i­tive pat­tern for the lifes­pan has not been de­ter­mined. Three­spine stick­le­backs can live to ap­prox­i­mately five years in the lab­o­ra­tory. One in­di­vid­ual reached eight years of age in cap­tiv­ity. (Bell, et al., 1994)

• Range lifespan
  Status: captivity

  8 (high) years

• Average lifespan
  Status: captivity

  5 years

• Average lifespan
  Status: captivity

  5 years

Be­hav­ior

Three­spine stick­le­backs tend to ex­hibit shoal­ing so­cial be­hav­iors in the lab and in the field. Stick­le­back fry usu­ally join groups con­tain­ing fa­mil­iar, or ge­net­i­cally sim­i­lar in­di­vid­u­als and show a pref­er­ence for sib­lings as op­posed to non-sib­lings. Three­spine stick­le­backs use the shoals as pro­tec­tion when they for­age and in their vig­i­lance for preda­tors.

Three­spine stick­le­backs ex­hibit vari­able be­hav­ior de­pend­ing on their habi­tat and mor­phol­ogy. Much re­search has been con­ducted on the amount of armor in stick­le­backs and its cor­re­la­tion with their re­sponses to preda­tors. (Mat­tern, et al., 2007; Peuhkuri, 1998)

• Key Behaviors
• natatorial
• motile
• migratory
• sedentary
• social

Home Range

Many ma­rine three­spine stick­le­backs are anadro­mous and mi­grate from off­shore habi­tats to breed in tidal pools, low­land lakes, and fresh­wa­ter wet­lands. Cur­rent fresh­wa­ter pop­u­la­tions were likely founded when some fish re­mained in fresh­wa­ter lakes dur­ing the last glacial melt. (Bell, et al., 1994)

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

Three­spine stick­le­backs rely on vi­sual cues for mat­ing be­hav­ior. Fe­males tend to be at­tracted to more red­dish col­or­ing of males dur­ing mat­ing sea­sons. They also use ol­fac­tory sig­nals to de­tect the pres­ence of con­specifics, prey, and preda­tors. Like many other fish, three­spine stick­le­backs use alarm cues to avoid pre­da­tion and sex pheromones dur­ing breed­ing. Lab-raised stick­le­backs have been found to rely heav­ily on ol­fac­tory cues of kin­ship, habi­tat and diet, and shoal size. How­ever, the sen­sory or­gans and path­ways uti­lized in this com­mu­ni­ca­tion are not well un­der­stood. (Mat­tern, et al., 2007)

• Communication Channels
• visual
• chemical

• Other Communication Modes
• pheromones

• Perception Channels
• visual
• tactile
• chemical

Food Habits

Three­spine stick­le­backs are gen­er­al­ist car­ni­vores and prey on lim­netic and lit­toral in­ver­te­brates. Lim­netic eco­types in lentic en­vi­ron­ments feed on zoo­plank­ton, while ben­thic eco­types feed on bot­tom-dwelling in­ver­te­brates in the lit­toral zone. Com­mon ben­thic prey items in­clude crus­taceans (Am­phipoda) and lar­val in­sects (Chi­rono­mi­dae). Three­spine stick­le­back ex­hibit a pre­da­tion cycle that con­sists of search, pur­suit, at­tack, and cap­ture com­po­nents. (Cresko, et al., 2007; Walker, 1997)

• Primary Diet
• carnivore
  • insectivore
  • eats non-insect arthropods
  • vermivore
• planktivore

• Animal Foods
• eggs
• insects
• aquatic or marine worms
• aquatic crustaceans
• zooplankton

• Foraging Behavior
• stores or caches food

Pre­da­tion

Three­spine stick­le­backs are small, abun­dant, and slow swim­mers, all of which com­bine to make them suit­able prey for many dif­fer­ent preda­tors. How­ever, they have evolved sev­eral preda­tor de­fenses in their mor­phol­ogy and be­hav­ior. Anti-preda­tor mor­phol­ogy in­cludes dor­sal spines, bony lat­eral plates, and a pelvic gir­dle that con­sists of a pair of an­te­rior processes with as­cend­ing branches, pos­te­rior processes and pelvic spines. Be­hav­ioral re­sponses to pre­da­tion risk in­clude school­ing, re­main­ing close to pro­tec­tive cover, and preda­tor in­spec­tion. Anti-preda­tor mor­phol­ogy and be­hav­iors tend to be more well-de­vel­oped in fish from en­vi­ron­ments that con­tain preda­tors. (Grand, 2000; Marchinko, 2008; Reim­chen, 2000)

Known preda­tors of three­spine stick­le­backs in­clude fish in the fam­i­lies Per­ci­dae, Es­o­ci­dae, and Salmonidae. Some lakes in Alaska and British Co­lum­bia have been stocked with rain­bow trout (On­corhynchus mykiss) and sil­ver salmon (On­corhynchus kisutch) for game, and these fish prey on stick­le­backs in those lakes. Avian pis­ci­vores that prey on stick­le­back fish in­clude loons (Gavi­iformes), grebes (Pod­ici­ped­i­formes), the com­mon mer­ganser (Mer­gus mer­ganser), herons (Ardei­dae), and king­fish­ers (Al­ce­dinidae). Pis­civ­o­rous macroin­ver­te­brates, such as drag­on­fly na­iads (Odonata) and bee­tles (Coleoptera) feed on eggs, fry and ju­ve­nile stick­le­backs. Leeches (Hirudinea) prey on stick­le­back eggs and have also been found to con­sume adult stick­le­backs stuck in traps. (Bell, et al., 1994; Messler, et al., 2007)

• Anti-predator Adaptations
• cryptic

• Known Predators

  • perch, (Percidae)
  • trout and salmon, (Salmonidae)
  • pike, (Esocidae)
  • loons, (Gaviiformes)
  • grebes, (Podicipediformes)
  • common merganser, (Mergus merganser)
  • herons, (Ardeidae)
  • kingfishers, (Alcedinidae)
  • dragonflies, (Odonata)
  • beetles, (Coleoptera)
  • leeches, (Hirudinea)

Ecosys­tem Roles

Three­spine stick­le­backs have many preda­tors and are thus an im­por­tant source of food for many dif­fer­ent an­i­mals. They also act as preda­tors for ben­thic in­ver­te­brates, such as am­phipods and in­sect lar­vae. (Cresko, et al., 2007; Messler, et al., 2007; Walker, 1997; Ward, et al., 2005)

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

Three­spine stick­le­backs have been widely stud­ied in terms of spe­ci­a­tion and evo­lu­tion­ary his­tory be­cause of their phy­logeny and adap­tive ra­di­a­tions. Their abun­dance and the rel­a­tive ease to cross, raise, and main­tain in the lab make them an ex­cel­lent an­i­mal model for a va­ri­ety of stud­ies. Three­spine stick­le­backs have also served as sub­jects in re­search on en­vi­ron­men­tal ef­fects since they are con­sid­ered bioindi­ca­tors. (Mat­tern, et al., 2007)

• Positive Impacts
• research and education

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

The un­ar­mored three­spine stick­le­back, Gas­teros­teus ac­ulea­tus williamsoni, a sub­species found in Cal­i­for­nia, are listed as en­dan­gered in the United States.

• IUCN Red List

  Least Concern
  More information

• IUCN Red List

  Least Concern
  More information

• US Federal List

  Endangered No special status

• CITES

  No special status

• State of Michigan List

  No special status

Con­trib­u­tors

Susan Wood (au­thor), The Col­lege of New Jer­sey, Keith Pecor (ed­i­tor), The Col­lege of New Jer­sey, Renee Mul­crone (ed­i­tor), Spe­cial Pro­jects.

Ref­er­ences

Baker, J., S. Fos­ter, M. Bell. 1995. Armor mor­phol­ogy and re­pro­duc­tive out­put in three­spine stick­le­back, Gas­teros­teus ac­ulea­tus. En­vi­ron­men­tal Bi­ol­ogy of Fishes, 44: 225-233.

Bell, M., S. Fos­ter, P. Bowne, D. Buth, T. Haglund, H. Gud­er­ley, R. Woot­ton, J. Baker, F. Who­riskey, G. FitzGer­ald, P. Hart, A. Gill, T. Reim­chen, F. Hunt­ing­ford, P. Wright, J. Tier­ney, W. Row­land, T. Bakker, J. McPhail. 1994. The Evo­lu­tion­ary Bi­ol­ogy of the Three­spine Stick­le­back. New York: Ox­ford Uni­ver­sity Press.

Cresko, W., K. McGuigan, P. Phillips, J. Postleth­wait. 2007. Stud­ies of three­spine stick­le­back de­vel­op­men­tal evo­lu­tion: progress and promise. Ge­net­ica, 129: 105-126.

Day, T., J. Pritchard, D. Schluter. 1994. A com­par­i­son of two stick­le­backs. Evo­lu­tion, 48/5: 1723-1734.

Grand, T. 2000. Risk-tak­ing by three­spine stick­le­back (Gas­teros­teus ac­ulea­tus) pelvic phe­no­types: does mor­phol­ogy pre­dict be­hav­ior?. Be­hav­iour, 137: 889-906.

Hunt­ing­ford, F., P. Wright. 1993. Be­hav­ioral Ecol­ogy of Fishes. Switzer­land: Har­wood Aca­d­e­mic Press.

Marchinko, K. 2008. Pre­da­tion's role in re­peated phe­no­typic and ge­netic di­ver­gence of armor in three­spine stick­le­back. Evo­lu­tion, 63/1: 127-138.

Mat­tern, M., D. Kings­ley, C. Pe­ichel, J. Bough­man, F. Hunt­ing­ford, S. Coyle, S. Ostlund-Nils­son, D. McLen­nan, B. Borg, I. Mayer, M. Pall, I. Bar­ber, I. Kat­si­adaki. 2007. Bi­ol­ogy of the three-spined stick­le­back. Boca Raton: CRC Press.

Messler, A., M. Wund, B. John, S. Fos­ter. 2007. The ef­fects of re­laxed and re­versed se­lec­tion by preda­tors on the an­tipreda­tor be­hav­ior of the three­spine stick­le­back, Gas­teros­teus ac­ulea­tus. Ethol­ogy, 113: 853-863.

Peuhkuri, N. 1998. Shoal com­po­si­tion, body size and for­ag­ing in stick­le­backs. Be­hav­ioral Ecol­ogy and So­cio­bi­ol­ogy, 43: 333-337.

Reim­chen, T. 2000. Preda­tor han­dling fail­ures of lat­eral plate morphs in Gas­teros­teus ac­ulea­tus: func­tional im­pli­ca­tions for the an­ces­tral plate con­di­tion. Be­hav­iour, 137: 1081-1096.

Schluter, D. 1993. Adap­tive ra­di­a­tion in stick­le­backs: size, shape and habi­tat use ef­fi­ciency. Ecol­ogy, 74: 699-799.

Shaw, K., M. Scotti, S. Fos­ter. 2007. An­ces­tral plas­tic­ity and the evo­lu­tion­ary di­ver­si­fi­ca­tion of courtship be­hav­ior in three­spine stick­le­backs. An­i­mal Be­hav­iour, 73: 415-422.

Swarup, H. 1958. Stages in the de­vel­op­ment of the stick­le­back Gas­teros­teus ac­ulea­tus. De­vel­op­ment, 6: 373-383.

Walker, J. 1997. Eco­log­i­cal mor­phol­ogy of la­cus­trine three­spine stick­le­back Gas­teros­teus ac­ulea­tus L. Bi­o­log­i­cal Jour­nal of the Lim­nean So­ci­ety, 61: 3-50.

Ward, A., A. Duff, J. Krause, I. Bar­ber. 2005. Shoal­ing be­hav­iour of stick­le­backs in­fected with the mi­crosporid­ian par­a­site, Glugea anom­ala. En­vi­ron­men­tal Bi­ol­ogy of Fishes, 72/2: 155-160.