The Forgotten Stickleback

The natural history photographer has filmed all 53 UK freshwater fish species, and this week he reveals how he captured a mini predator.

- Jack Perks

MANY of us will be familiar with the three-spined stickleback, often captured in jam jars and small nets. There’s also a nine-spined stickleback, Britain’s smallest freshwater fish, growing to little over 3 cm, and mostly confined to the East of England. Then there’s a third cousin in the stickleback family, the imaginatively named 15-spined stickleback.

Technically speaking, they have anything between 14 and 17 spines, so their name must refer to the average number of spines, though I can’t imagine people going around counting them.

Unlike their little relatives, they are a marine fish, often found in harbours and jetties among weed. These sticklebacks are brown with an olive tinge on their backs, and have large eyes to spot their prey. They can reach a whopping 25 cm in length, and the male will guard the offspring in a small nest in seaweed. Being distant relatives of seahorses, it’s no surprise that they exhibit strong parental care.

My first encounter with these weird-looking fish was at Weymouth, when I was trying to film sand smelt for the first time with all-round fish enthusiast Dominic Garnett and light rock fishing (LRF) extraordinaire Andy Mytton.