#Fissue 7. FOTW- the Bullhead, Miller's Thumb (Cottus gobio)
Joe Huddart, PhD ??
?? Aquatic ecologist and eDNA Town Crier at NatureMetrics - if not now, when?
We took last Friday off- sorry about that. We all know the best part of the week after a bank holiday Monday is the Friday that follows. This week we have a delightful Fish Of The Week FOTW nominated by Oxygen Conservation 's Head of Environment and fish-fanatic Dan Johnson . Introducing the Miller's Thumb or Bullhead (Cottus gobio). Dan gave us a tidy introduction:
One of my earliest memories fishing with my Dad, was on the River Avon at Fladbury - Bullhead (Cottus gobio) were not our intended quarry, but it made a five-year old smile to know that it was one of the first species they had ever caught. I remember being amazed at how different it looked to all of the Gudgeon and small Roach I had been busy catching! Millers thumb, as they are affectionately known, can’t be confused with many other species and likely get their nickname from the shape of their large, broad head – which isn’t too dissimilar from the Millers of old as they extended out their thumb to test the direction of the wind. Regardless of the origin story, Bullhead are one of our most iconic species and more than deserve their place in any respectable ID guide of freshwater fishes of the United kingdom!
We reely 100% agree with him. I thought they were called Miller's Thumb because millers had squashed their thumbs making grain rather than using it as a wind gauge. Every day a school day. In fact, folklore has it that the fish also lie underwater in the direction of the wind.
When you encounter a bullhead in a river, it is a surprise- this fish shouldn't be here. It belongs to an intertidal rock pool with the gobies and blennies, not freshwater. This is a top-heavy, squat little number.
While many other members of its family are marine species, this genus of fish has navigated its way out of the oceans into the cooler rivers and cleaner lakes of the northern hemisphere.
Class: Actinopterygii- the vast majority of fish excluding sharks and rays and lungfishes
Order: Scorpaeniformes- includes the sculpins and also beautiful lion fishes
Family: Cottidae - a large group with about 275 species with a worldwide distribution in both marine and also freshwater, they are typically small <10cm and benthic, living on the bottom. We love a bottom feeder.
Genus: Cottus - almost 70 species in this genus known as the 'freshwater sculpins'
Species: C.?gobio
Range of C. Gobio
Subsequent analysis has broken this species into no less than 14 subspecies!
With fish, the definition of a species can become quite blurred, no wonder fish diversity is off the scale.
ecology: as a freshwater ecologist who has come across a lot of these, I'd summarise their habitat as well-oxygenated, cooler rivers and streams with cobble, pebble or gravel bottoms. They can also live in clean, clear lakes with the same substrate. Not a fan of silt and mud.
These guys are voracious benthic predators, moving about in short bursts and using stones for cover to find their invertebrate prey, shrimps, mayfly larvae and caddis larvae, anything they can gob they will go for. They'll often live in the same rivers as trout, which will predate on them.
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In spring, the male digs a little hollow in which multiple females deposit batches of eggs. This creates a kind of gelatinous lump that he then guards until the eggs hatch.
Record attempt at Chew Valley ends in jack pike and sunburn
You remember us talking about pike in Issue #3? Noticeably the record pike pulled from Chew Valley Water this spring by Lloyd Watson this february?
This beast was colossal
We went with Simon Holme - fisherman extraordinaire- to try and catch this beast, not using dead bait (a dead fish on a hook left in the water for the fish to sniff out and eat), but on fly fishing gear and a boat (imitation fish that have to be constantly moved to look like a fish).
Simon went out last year on the lake and caught a stonker
This year, we flogged the water with our fly roads from 8 am until 5 pm, getting two fish in the process, neither a scratch on the big boys but dashing jack pike all the same.
Fish on
Principal Consultant at Meliora ESG, leading in environmental risk.
6 个月Still bossing the river Dove is this little fish. (Don’t meant to all yoda go). This is the fish that would say “did you spill My pint” or “your names not down - your not coming in”. The Phil Mitchell of the water column.