Gasterosteidae

fourspine stickleback

Apeltes quadracus

Red pelvic spines signal courtship in motion

• Temperate
• Coastal
• Regional distribution
• Atlantic Ocean
• North America
• Small
• Temperate fish

Apeltes is a monospecific genus old ray-finned fish belonging to the family Gasterosteidae, the sticklebacks. The only species in the genus is A. quadracus, the fourspine stickleback or bloody stickleback, which lives in freshwater, brackish and benthopelagic environments of the northwestern Atlantic Ocean between Newfoundland and South Carolina.