Chologaster cornuta communly named Swampfish or ricefish or riceditch killifish, is a freshwater fish of the family of Amblyopsidae. It is the only living species of the genus Chologaster. It only lives in US rivers in the Atlantic Coastal Plain drainages, from southeast Virginia

Virginia

The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...

 to central Georgia

Georgia (U.S. state)

Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...

. It lives up to two years. The latin name refers to a very tiny horned bulge at front of the eye. Males are commonly 4 cm long, but may be as large as 7 cm.

Characteristics

This species related with cavefish and blindfish Amblyopsidae is being dorsally brown and ventrally creamy white, with three dark stripes on each side. Inhabits above-ground swamps, rather than caves. It is found in swamps, ponds, ditches, and slow streams . Although many Amblyopsidae species have vestigial eyes, the Swampfish have functional eyes.

Behaviour

Chologaster cornuta feeds mostly at night, on small crustaceans and aquatic insects. It spawns in March and April. Although locally common, individuals are hard to spot because they are largely nocturnal and found in heavily vegetated waters. They are highly sensitive to touch

Taxis

A taxis is an innate behavioral response by an organism to a directional stimulus or gradient of stimulus intensity. A taxis differs from a tropism in that the organism has motility and demonstrates guided movement towards or away from the stimulus source ...

 and light and will quickly move away from a source of either, preferring rests on the bottom hided over rocks and leaf litter until dark. Moving quickly if disturbed, they prefer highly oxygenated water and have a high temperature tolerance.

Occurs on vegetation and debris in swamps, sloughs and quiet pools and backwaters of streams. Found year-round in open streams which are small and well-shaded with temperatures never exceeding 23°C. In such streams, its thigmotaxic tendency is shown by the difficulty in seining it from the roots and debris of its preferred habitat along edges of submerged weed banks which border sand-bottomed channels. This habitat is rich in potential food for Chologaster cornuta like amphipods, ostracod

Ostracod

Ostracoda is a class of the Crustacea, sometimes known as the seed shrimp because of their appearance. Some 65,000 species have been identified, grouped into several orders....

s and copepod

Copepod

Copepods are a group of small crustaceans found in the sea and nearly every freshwater habitat. Some species are planktonic , some are benthic , and some continental species may live in limno-terrestrial habitats and other wet terrestrial places, such as swamps, under leaf fall in wet forests,...

s.

External links

• Information page
• http://www.discoverlife.org/mp/20q?search=Chologaster+cornuta