Lee = MS squared 🐟🌊🏳️‍⚧️

All of the fish species featured during the 2025 #25DaysofFishmas

That's a wrap on 2025's #25DaysofFishmas - the 10th year of #Fishmas silliness! Thanks to everyone who has followed along as we explored some of the amazing fish that call the US home.

From Atlantic to Pacific, there's a lot worth protecting - wishing everyone peace and renewal of hope for 2026.

Yea, definitely check labels but you should be able to find some that have no crab in them. Good luck! I play this game with dairy so I know how difficult it can be

A map of the United States with the different fish species that have been featured during this year's #25DaysofFishmas event

From a serious-looking sculpin to the Arctic's only air-breathing fish, the Northwest leg of the #25DaysofFishmas road trip was full of surprises!

Our trip's almost done, but not without a final stop in the Northeast + #GreatLakes region - because there's no place like H.O.M.E.S. for the holidays!

I think a firm whitefish is probably your best bet. Imitation crab is made from pollock, so maybe that?

To this day, I've never found anything more spiritual than a river

The #25DaysofFishmas calendar with Dolly Varden trout on December 21

If a “little toy doll(y) that toddles and coos” is on your list, Salmonid Claus is definitely going to deliver on Day 21 of #25DaysofFishmas!

We end the northwest leg of our road trip with the Dolly Varden (Salvelinus malma), a brightly colored fish + this week’s #SundayFishSketch mystery species!

The best thing about the dog park being here is you get to ask your dog if they want to go frolic at the fort

MOSS! It's growing on one of the old stone walls and there are leaves and elm seeds scattered across it

Oh, hello tower! The photo is looking down a trail between two walls and you can see Bismark Tower on a rise in the distance

I found where the troll lives! Ok, it's really just a door with a gate at the base of the fort but I'm allowed to imagine whatever I want

I also went frolicking at the fort! Because why wouldn't I frolic at an old fort?

Look at that bright blue sky here in Shiller Park! Do we take left path or the right?

This holly tree is really showing off for winter. Dark green leaves and bright red berries, a perfect combo

A stone, a pair of trees, and the sun. What more could you possibly need?

Cheetah spotting in Landau. He walking along the fence on the right side of the picture. His back is to me and he's looking off to the right where a worker is doing some maintenance

Today is Sunday AND the winter solstice AND we were gifted with a beautiful day and bright blue sky. Can't waste the gift!

It really encourages you to think about things in a new way, which I always appreciate

The orange bag pictured is chocolate-covered peanuts and corn flakes (Treets brand) and there is a green and white bag of lays chips that are subway teriyaki chicken flavored

Sometimes when I'm shopping here in Germany I see things that I just can't pass up

Braiding Sweetgrass is an amazing book! I actually brought it to Germany with me because I was reading it and couldn't leave it behind

The #25DaysofFishmas calendar with Alaska Blackfish on December 19

Day 19’s #25DaysofFishmas feature wouldn’t feel out of place at Santa’s Workshop! ❄️

We trade a our road-trip car for a seaplane and head north - very north - to Alaska and the Alaska Blackfish (Dallia pectoralis), a tough-as-ice fish that breathes air and has been described as “a bulldog with fins”

And orchid with beautiful, delicate yellow and maroon flowers and wrapped in Christmas themed paper. Who could possibly resist?

I have so much willpower and self control in all areas of my life. Until the very moment I lay eyes on a pretty plant or a bookstore

Oh well! Worst comes to worst, someone gets some free plants in 3 years. The books I'll ship

A large male chubsucker that was caught in a lake with tannin-stained dark water, making the fish darker overall to blend in better

These fish are also sensitive to declining habitat quality. Loss of permanent wetlands, sedimentation, and coal ash pollution has caused extirpation, reduced growth and swimming speed, and severe fin erosion. Now isn't that more interesting than an unfortunate name?
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A male chubsucker with breeding tubercles I caught in one of my beaver ponds. The fish is held facing the camera and the tubercles can be seen as sharp points sticking out each side of its face

And then there's the breeding tubercles. Why do males get these sharp, horny projections in spring? They're not the only fish to get them, but they are some of the most impressive I've seen. Current theory is they're used in combat or to maneuver females over spawning beds
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A lake chubsucker adult (top) and juvenile (bottom), showing again how different adults and juveniles in this genus look

They're also an important pioneer species, moving upstream in spring. There's also a lot of unanswered questions around these guys. Like, why did they lose their lateral line? The sensory organ that let's them know when predators are swimming up to them? We have no answers to that one yet
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The sharpfin chubsucker got its name due to the slight extension on its dorsal fin, making it look sharp. The fish on top is an adult, the bottom is a juvenile. All chubsucker juveniles have a noticeably different color and pattern to the adults

And even though they're not super pretty or fun to fish for, they're really important for the ecosystems they're found in. The eggs and juveniles are very important to predators. In fact, one study found largemouth bass feeding exclusively on juvenile chubsuckers instead of sunfish
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A lake chubsucker. This is an older juvenile, still faintly showing the lateral stripe that is prominent in juveniles

Chubsuckers are members of the sucker family, but they're chubbier and more stout than other suckers. Hence the 'chub' moniker. And this family is called suckers because they go along the bottom sucking up any insects and tasty bits of food they come across. Modern slang really did them dirty
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A creek chubsucker. They're slightly more slender than lake chubsuckers and have some dark mottling on their sides, as well as shorter fins

Erimyzon comes from the Greek words eri, meaning "a lot" and myzo, meaning "to suck". So did scientists just hate these poor fish? Did they just have the bad luck of being named by a particularly horny biologist? Fortunately, the answer is no
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A pair of lake chubsuckers. They're an overall golden color with slightly elongated fins. Their bodies are short and stout, especially compared to other sucker species

When it comes to fish with unfortunate names, the chubsucker really got screwed. So for this #FishOfTheWeek let's learn enough for them to redeem themselves. There are 4 species of chubsucker, all belonging to the Erimyzon genus. And if you think their genus name saves them, you're wrong
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This week's #SundayFishSketch - #25DaysofFishmas mystery fish is a bit of a tough one, so one more clue: males and females of this species form monogamous pairs before spawning, and both provide parental care for their eggs/young

taxonomy 101: whales are not fish
taxonomy 201: whales are hoofed animals
taxonomy 301: whales are fish

The #25DaysofFishmas calendar with Colorado Pikeminnow on December 8

If you can think of a better fish for Day 8 of #25DaysofFishmas, let minnow!

Westward ho, we go on our #Fishmas road trip to the canyon rivers of the Intermountain West, home of the Colorado Pikeminnow (Ptychocheilus lucius), a minnow who's no small fry - meet the largest minnow in North America!

Ever heard of adaptive radiation? If not, cichlids are a great introduction! Happy Fishmas day 37!

A grouper in a shipwreck. It has surprisingly similar coloring to the algae covering the ship, but is large enough to not have much to worry about

However, a complete moratorium on harvest in US waters in 1990 has helped the goliath grouper go from critically endangered in 2011 to now listed as vulnerable. This is a great recovery, but highlights the need to keep these fish protected as their recovery continues
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A grouper inside a shipwreck. There is a reflection above the fish, showing it and the ship above it

Larval settlement is also highly vulnerable to environmental conditions, like storm patterns. An increasing concern with climate change. As with other large top predators, adults accumulate high levels of mercury. This can lead to liver damage, reduced egg viability, and death in large fish
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A spawning aggregate of goliath groupers in front of a shipwreck. Most grouper species get together in groups like this, where they'll all spawn simultaneously

Unfortunately, they nearly went extinct. Goliath groupers are especially vulnerable to overharvest, not only because they are large fish that mature slowly, but they aggregate in groups to spawn. Which makes it easy to catch nearly all members in a population
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A young grouper hiding under part of a shipwreck. The ship is covered in fuzzy looking red algae and the grouper has a very pretty marbled pattern

They were once called jewfish, likely because they share characteristics with antisemitic caricatures. The American Fisheries Society rightfully changed their name in 2001 to the goliath grouper. A mich more fitting name for such a cool fish
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A head-on shot of a goliath grouper hiding under a rock overhang. Younger fish, like this one, have a more prominent pattern of tan, gold, brown, and black which helps them blend into their environment

Goliath groupers are the largest grouper species, growing up to 8 feet long and weighing 800 pounds! They prefer to hang around rocky reefs, wrecks, and oil platforms, waiting for slow or injured prey to come within range. And they have been known to attack fish caught by anglers, even sharks
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A goliath grouper with a diver swimming behind it, highlighting the massive size these fish can reach

When we think about fish large enough to attack people, sharks are usually what comes to mind. However, there is one fish in the ocean that even most sharks would choose to leave alone. And that is the goliath grouper, a fitting choice for #FishOfTheWeek
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