stickleback
/ˈstɪk(ə)lbak
/noun
A small fish with sharp spines along its back, able to live in both salt and fresh water and found in both Eurasia and North America.
- Family Gasterosteidae: several genera and species, including the common and widespread three-spined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus).
- Although Daphnia are not used by humans as a food source directly, they are involved in many of the foodchains necessary to sustain fish that we consume or use commercially such as sticklebacks, minnows and young Sockeye salmon.
- There are also rudd, bream, eels, gudgeon, crucian carp, tench, minnows, perch, sticklebacks, the odd trout, pike and barbel present.
Origin
Late Middle English: from Old English sticel 'thorn, sting' + bæc 'back'.