David H. Lipman wrote:


They are fascinating in a fish tank however. The are nest builders and are *extremely*
territorial. If you have two male sticklebacks in a tank you can draw a line down the
center of the tank. If one crosses that center line, the other may go on attack.

I belieeve thay can survive in; Salt, Brackish and Fresh water but prefer brackish water.

Charles Dickens referred to sticklebacks obliquely in "The Pickwick
Papers". One of his characters had published a paper on the natural
history of "tittlebats", which was what sticklebacks were called in the
mid-19th century in England.

They are tiny fish and I can't see anyone trying to catch them w/o a net and
becuase of the spiny dorsal fin ( 3 to 12 dorsal spines ), they are lousy bait.

I wanted to catch minnows to feed my Oscars in a stream near Piru Lake
so I told my girl friend to quickly take off her panty hose so I could
make a net. She resisted at first, but I told her I'd buy her a new
pair as soon as we got to a drugstore, so she gave up her pantyhose to
my project.

Besides the minnows, I caught a few sticklebacks. None of the captured
minnows or sticklebacks lasted very long when the Oscars saw them being
introduced to the aquarium...