By Mary Reid Barrow

Photo by Robert Brown

A minnow is a minnow is a minnow.

Not!

It’s way more complicated. Many little minnows along the Lynnhaven River and Chesapeake Bay shores look somewhat similar and to be more precise are called killifish.

The killifish species you are most apt to find around here is a mummichog. Mummichogs were in full view in an aquarium at First Landing State Park’s Fall Festival last weekend. Robert Brown took this photo of mummichogs on the park’s display table.

Display is a grandiose word for showing off this nondescript little brownish green fish with a equally nondescript horizontal stripes. The park wants you to know, on the other hand, that this plain little fish can play an outsized role in the environment.

For one, they can eat copious quantities of mosquito larvae in a day. The little fish are often used in ponds and ditches as mosquito control.

But most important of all, Mummichogs are highly adaptable and can handle changes in salinity, pollution and other water quality conditions. If the mummichog population goes down, you know the waters are in real trouble.

The little guys, less than 5 inches long, got their name from Native Americans. Mummichog means “going in crowds,” according to “Life in the Chesapeake Bay” by Alice Jane Lippson and Robert L. Lippson.

Mummichogs stick together, young and old, and when you see crowds of mummichogs swimming round in the shallows, you can rest assured one of our environmental thermometers is on the job!