SCIENTIFIC NAME: Lucania goodei
CHARACTERISTICS: The bluefin killifish is a handsome species. Adult males have a bright blue, black-edged dorsal fin, the base of which is green at the front and deep orange to red at the rear. Interestingly, although Stoye (1935) and Page and Burr (1991) indicate that the dorsal and anal fins are bright blue, neither mentions the brilliant orange band in the anal fin, which is distinct in the above photograph. On males, the caudal fin is orange near the base fading to yellow, while the pelvic fins are orange edged in black. A dark lateral band extends from the snout to the caudal fin base. This species has a slender, compressed body and a strongly upturned mouth adapted for life at the water surface.
ADULT SIZE: 0.6 to 1.7 in (16 to 42 mm)
DISTRIBUTION: Lucania goodei occurs from the Ogeechee River drainage in Georgia southward along the Atlantic Coast throughout peninsular Florida and westward in Gulf slope drainages to the lower Choctawhatchee River drainage. This species is known in Alabama only from Bazemores Mill Pond in Houston County, a tributary of the Chipola River which eventually enters the Apalachicola River in Florida. This location is the northernmost point for the species in Gulf slope drainages.
HABITAT AND BIOLOGY: The bluefin killifish is frequently associated with spring habitats. It occurs in shallow, vegetated margins in association with extensive organic debris and cypress knees. Specimens collected in Bazemores Mill Pond were common, and the population appeared stable. Breeding occurs from spring through late summer. Over a period of several weeks, spawning pairs deposit up to 20 individually released eggs per day on vegetation or algae. The bluefin killifish feeds on small insects, crustaceans, and plant material.
ORIGINAL DESCRIPTION: Jordan described the bluefin killifish in 1880.
ETYMOLOGY:
Lucania is a coined name that Jordan left undefined in the original description.
Goodei is in honor of Professor George Brown Goode, who discovered this species in the Arlington River, Florida.
The copyrighted information above is from Fishes of Alabama and the Mobile Basin.
