Oriental Weatherfish (Misgurnus anguillicaudatus). The native range of this popular aquarium fish is eastern Asia, including the Tugur and Amur river basins; the Tym and Poronai rivers of Sakhalin; the Sedanka River near Vladivostok, U.S.S.R.; the Tumen'-Ula River in North Korea; Hokkaido and Kyushu in Japan; Taiwan (where it was probably introduced); the People's Republic of China from the Liao River south to Guangzhou, Kwangtung Province, and inland to Yunnan Province, Hainan; the headwaters of the Irrawaddy River in Burma; and the Tomkin and Annam provinces of North Viet Nam (Berg 1949a). In North America, this fish is established in several flood-control channels in Huntington Beach and Westminster, Orange County, California (St. Amant and Hoover 1969; (Courtenay et al. 1984), and in the headwaters of the Shiawassee River, Oakland County, Michigan, since the 1930's (Schultz 1960; Coortenay et al. 1984). Imported as an aquarium-fish since at least the late 1930's, the weatherfish is believed to have escaped from an aquarium-fish culture facility in Westminster, California (St. Amant and Hoover 1969).
This species was recently captured by personnel of the National Fisheries Research Center - Gainesville in several tributaries to Tampa Bay in Hillsborough County, Florida. The presence of several size classes in these streams indicates that the species is probably established. The weatherfish probably escaped from tropical-fish farms in the area. Although it may expand its distribution in these streams, the weatherfish's dispersal beyond these streams without additional introductions is doubtful.
