The Cottidae are a family of fish in the superfamily Cottoidea, the sculpins. It is the largest sculpin family, with about 275 species in 70 genera. They are referred to simply as cottids to avoid confusion with sculpins of other families.
The fish family Psychrolutidae contains about 40 recognized species in 9 genera. This family consists of bottom-dwelling marine sculpins shaped like tadpoles, with large heads and bodies that taper back into small, flat tails. The skin is loosely attached and movable, and the layer underneath it is gelatinous. The eyes are placed high on the head, focused forward closer to the tip of the snout. Members of the family generally have large, leaf-like pectoral fins and lack scales, although some species are covered with soft spines. This is important to the species as the depths in which they live are highly pressurized and they are ambush/opportunistic/foraging predators that do not expend energy unless they are forced to. The blobfish has a short, broad tongue and conical teeth that are slightly recurved and are arranged in bands in irregular rows along the premaxillaries; canines are completely absent. Teeth are nonexistent on the palatines and vomer; which make up the hard palate. The blobfish also has a set of specialized pharyngeal teeth that are well developed and paired evenly along the upper and lower portions of the pharyngeal arch. These specialized teeth may aid in the breakdown of food due to the very strategic dependency on whatever food falls from above.
The deepwater sculpin is a freshwater sculpin that inhabits the bottoms of cold, deep freshwater lakes of northern North America. Its distribution ranges from the Great Bear Lake of Canada to the Great Lakes. It is a designated at-risk fish species in Canada, protected as a species of Special Concern under Canada's Species at Risk Act.
Cottus is a genus of the sculpin family Cottidae. They are often referred to as the "freshwater sculpins", as they are the principal genus of sculpins to be found in fresh water. They are native to the Palearctic and Nearctic.
The fourhorn sculpin is a species of fish in the family Cottidae. It is a demersal fish distributed mainly in brackish arctic coastal waters in Canada, Greenland, Russia, and Alaska, and also as a relict in the boreal Baltic Sea. There are also freshwater populations in the lakes of Norway, Sweden, Finland and Karelia and in Arctic Canada.
Myoxocephalus is a genus of fish in the sculpin family Cottidae. Most species live in marine waters, but there are also three freshwater species, including two that occupy northern lakes. The name is derived from Greek myos (muscle) and kephale (head).
Myoxocephalus scorpius, typically known as the shorthorn sculpin or bull-rout, is a species of fish in the family Cottidae. It is a demersal species of the Northern Atlantic and adjacent subarctic and Arctic seas. The species has many English names that are used less frequently or in small parts of its range, including Arctic sculpin, daddy sculpin, European sculpin, father-lasher, goat sculpin, Greenland sculpin, guffy, horny whore, pig-fish, scully, scummy, short-spined sea scorpion and warty sculpin.
The longspined bullhead, also known as the longspined sea-scorpion, is a coastal fish of the sculpin family Cottidae, inhabiting marine waters of Europe.
The longhorn sculpin is a Northwest Atlantic species of sculpin in the fish family Cottidae. It is a predatory and scavenging fish that can feed on the remains of other organisms.
Myoxocephalus aenaeus. commonly known as the grubby, or little sculpin, is a species of sculpin in the fish family Cottidae.
Myoxocephalus brandtii is a species of sculpin fish in the family Cottidae. It is native to the northwest Pacific, with a range extending from the Sea of Okhotsk to Hokkaido and the Sea of Japan.
Myoxocephalus jaok, the plain sculpin, is a species of marine fish in the family Cottidae. It is native to the northern Pacific, with a range extending through the Bering and Chukchi seas and from the Gulf of Alaska to the northern Sea of Japan.
Myoxocephalus matsubarai, or togarikajika in Japanese, is a sculpin fish in the family Cottidae. It has been described from the northwest Pacific, specifically around Hokkaido, Japan. Some authorities think it is not a distinct species but rather the same as Myoxocephalus jaok.
Myoxocephalus ochotensis is a species of sculpin in the family Cottidae. It is native to the northwest Pacific in the Sea of Okhotsk.
Myoxocephalus polyacanthocephalus, the great sculpin, is a North Pacific species of sculpin in the family Cottidae. Its range encompasses the Bering Sea and the Aleutian Islands, and extends from Hokkaido and the Kamchatka Peninsula to the Puget Sound, Washington. It is the largest member of the genus Myoxocephalus and the second most common in the Bering Sea. It can grow to a size of 80 cm and 9 kg weight.
Myoxocephalus scorpioides, the Arctic sculpin or northern sculpin, is a predatory species of sculpin in the fish family Cottidae. The species is native to the Arctic Ocean around Canada and Greenland, specifically in James Bay and the Strait of Belle Isle, and towards the Bering Sea. It has the ability to synthesize antifreeze proteins, allowing it to withstand temperatures as low as -2 °C. It serves as the host for Haemobaphes cyclopterina, a parasitic species of copepod.
Myoxocephalus sinensis is a species of sculpin fish in the family Cottidae. The species is native to China and is indicated variously either as a freshwater or as a marine fish.
Steller's sculpin, also known as frog sculpin, is a species of sculpin in the fish family Cottidae. The species is native to the northern Pacific, from the Aleutian Islands to the Sea of Okhotsk and the Sea of Japan. Described by Wilhelm Gottlieb Tilesius von Tilenau in 1811, it is the type species of the genus Myoxocephalus.
Myoxocephalus tuberculatus is a North Pacific species of sculpin in the scorpeaniform fish family Cottidae. The species is native to the Sea of Okhotsk only. It is a demersal fish that lives near the bottom, and has been found on sand and mud substrates in harbours, bays and estuaries, at depths less than 100 m.
Myoxocephalus verrucosus, also known as the warty sculpin, is a Northern Pacific species of sculpin in the family Cottidae.
