Tiddler

Picture of stickleback fish.

Wandering though a public park in Pudsey the other day I discovered a new to me at least visitor centre.

Inside the West Leeds Country Park Visitor Centre are amongst other exhibits some tanks containing some native fish species. The one that interested me the most contained the smallest fish and one that I had not seen since I was a boy.

The above photo shows a couple of small fish, these being the three-spined stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus. These small (4-6 cm) fish are to be found in streams, rivers, ponds and also canals here in the UK and are also native to Northern Europe and N America.

There were quite a few sticklebacks in the tank but because there were quite a few reflections on the glass I tried to catch a few away from the daylight behind me.

Here in the UK the stickleback is also known to mostly young boys as the tiddler.