''Cottus asper'' is a species of fish in the sculpin family known by the common name prickly sculpin. It is native to the river drainages of the

Pacific Slope The Pacific Slope describes geographic regions in North American, Central American, and South American countries that are west of the continental divide and slope down to the Pacific Ocean. In North America, the Rocky Mountains mark the eastern bo ...

of North America from

Seward, Alaska Seward (Alutiiq: ; Dena'ina: ''Tl'ubugh'') is an incorporated home rule city in Alaska, United States. Located on Resurrection Bay, a fjord of the Gulf of Alaska on the Kenai Peninsula, Seward is situated on Alaska's southern coast, approximat ...

south to the Ventura River of Southern California. It extends east of the

Continental Divide A continental divide is a drainage divide on a continent such that the drainage basin on one side of the divide feeds into one ocean or sea, and the basin on the other side either feeds into a different ocean or sea, or else is endorheic, not ...

in the Peace River of British Columbia. It has also been introduced to several reservoirs in Southern California.Fuller, P. and M. Neilson. 2013
''Cottus asper''.
USGS Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database, Gainesville, FL.

Description

This fish can reach about 30 centimeters in length, but it is usually smaller, often around 7 centimeters.Froese, R
''Cottus asper''.
In: Froese, R. and D. Pauly. Editors. 2011. FishBase. World Wide Web electronic publication. It is mature at 2 to 4 years of age,NatureServe. 2013
''Cottus asper''.
NatureServe Explorer: An Online Encyclopedia of Life eb application and its maximum lifespan is around 7 years. It is brown, gray, or olive green on its upper parts and white or yellowish ventrally. There are dark spots or bars on the back and dark bars on most of the fins. The breeding male is darker in color than the female and nonbreeding male.Rickard, N. A. (1980)
Life history and population characteristics of the prickly sculpin (''Cottus asper'' Richardson) in Lake Washington. (Thesis).
University of Washington. Both sexes develop an orange coloration along the edge of the first dorsal fin during breeding. The pectoral fins are large and fan-shaped. The body of the fish is prickly; inland-dwelling fish tend to be more prickly than those at the coast.

Biology

There are two main forms of the species. The inland form lives in lakes, while the coastal form lives in rivers and swims down into brackish estuaries to breed. A catadromous species, it is tolerant of high and low salinities. It is generally a

bottom-dwelling The benthic zone is the ecological region at the lowest level of a body of water such as an ocean, lake, or stream, including the sediment surface and some sub-surface layers. The name comes from ancient Greek, βένθος (bénthos), meaning ...

species. It is nocturnal, feeding at night. The diet of the fish includes water invertebrates, insects and their larvae, salmon eggs, fish larvae, especially those of the Sacramento sucker (''Catostomus occidentalis occidentalis''), and zooplankton, especially '' Daphnia'' spp.Merz, J. E. (2002)
Comparison of diets of prickly sculpin and juvenile fall-run Chinook salmon in the lower Mokelumne River, California.
''The Southwestern Naturalist'' 47(2) 195-204. Larger sculpins eat small fish, frogs, and molluscs.''Cottus asper''.
California Fish Website. University of California. The adults are known to

cannibalize Cannibalism is the act of consuming another individual of the same species as food. Cannibalism is a common ecological interaction in the animal kingdom and has been recorded in more than 1,500 species. Human cannibalism is well documented, b ...

the juveniles. In its habitat it lives alongside its relative, the coastrange sculpin (''Cottus aleuticus''), which is quite similar to it in terms of morphology and behavior.Brown, L. R., et al. (1995)
Comparative ecology of prickly sculpin, ''Cottus asper'', and coastrange sculpin, ''Cottus aleuticus'', in the Eel River, California.
''Environmental Biology of Fishes'' 42 329-43.White, J. L. and B. C. Harvey. (1999)
Habitat separation of prickly sculpin, ''Cottus asper'', and coastrange sculpin, ''Cottus aleuticus'', in the mainstem Smith River, northwestern California.
''Copeia'' 2 371-75. It can also be found with the three-spined stickleback (''Gasterosteus aculeatus''), steelhead trout (''Oncorhynchus mykiss''), Klamath small-scale sucker (''Catostomus rimiculus''),

coastal cutthroat trout The coastal cutthroat trout (''Oncorhynchus clarkii clarkii''), also known as the sea-run cutthroat trout, blue-back trout or harvest trout, is one of the several subspecies of cutthroat trout found in Western North America. The coastal cutthroa ...

(''Oncorhynchus clarki clarki''), Chinook salmon (''O. tshawytscha''), and coho salmon (''O. kisutch''). Spawning season can extend from February to June. The male creates a nest under debris such as logs or garbage, and the female lays many eggs, from a few hundred up to 11,000. The male guards the nest.Prickly Sculpin, ''Cottus asper''.
Marine Species with Aquaculture Potential Off the Coast of Oregon and Pacific Northwest. He may breed with more than one female per season.

Range

This fish is common in most of its range, becoming quite abundant in the summer when

recruitment Recruitment is the overall process of identifying, sourcing, screening, shortlisting, and interviewing candidates for jobs (either permanent or temporary) within an organization. Recruitment also is the processes involved in choosing individual ...

occurs and the previous season's juveniles join the population.Pfister, C. A. (2003)
Some consequences of size variability in juvenile prickly sculpin, ''Cottus asper''.
''Environmental Biology of Fishes'' 66 383-90. While it is native to many waterways in California, it represents an introduced species in some Southern California lakes, rivers, and tributaries, such as the Santa Clara River, the

Santa Ana River The Santa Ana River is the largest river entirely within Southern California in the United States. It rises in the San Bernardino Mountains and flows for most of its length through San Bernardino and Riverside Counties, before cutting through ...

, Irvine Lake, and

Big Bear Lake Big Bear Lake is a reservoir in the San Bernardino Mountains, in San Bernardino County, California, United States. It is a snow and rain fed lake, having no other means of tributaries or mechanical replenishment. At a surface elevation of , it ...

. It occurs in reservoirs such as Pyramid Lake. It was likely introduced to many of these places from farther north via the California Aqueduct.

Uses

The fish is said to be edible by humans, at least the larger individuals. It also makes a good bait fish.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1094288 Cottus (fish) Fish described in 1836