Olympic Mudminnow
Olympic Mudminnow is a small dark olive fish with rounded fins, a blunt head, and pale mottling or bars and is most meaningfully sought in slow vegetated wetlands, sloughs, and floodplain channels of western Washington.
Artwork inspired by Paul Horiuchi
Olympic Mudminnow is a small dark-olive fish with rounded fins, a blunt head, and pale mottling or bars. Its Washington range includes the southern and western Olympic Peninsula lowlands, the Chehalis and lower Deschutes drainages, and parts of south Puget Sound.
The fish favors freshwater wetlands with little current, soft mud, and abundant aquatic vegetation. Watch from legal durable ground without netting fish; a useful record shows the complete profile, fin shape, water depth, flow, vegetation, and date without broadcasting a sensitive location.
- Primary range
- Washington
- Habitat
- slow vegetated wetlands, sloughs, and floodplain channels of western Washington
- Status
- Washington endemic and state sensitive
Quick guide
- Opening clue
- A small dark olive fish with rounded fins, a blunt head, and pale mottling or bars
- Observe safely
- Watch from the wetland edge; do not net, bait, or move fish
Field identification for Olympic Mudminnow
- Read the silhouette
- In western Washington wetlands, confirm a roughly two- to three-inch fish with a blunt head, rounded fins, and a deeper profile than a streamlined minnow.
- Keep habitat separate
- Dense aquatic vegetation, a soft mud bottom, and little or no current narrow the possibilities, but habitat cannot replace anatomy.
- Describe the wetland
- For an Olympic Mudminnow record, note whether the habitat connects to the Olympic Peninsula, Chehalis River, lower Deschutes River, or south Puget Sound range.
- Observe without netting
- Remain on the wetland bank or another legal durable surface in western Washington.
Good to know
Olympic Mudminnow occurs only in Washington and is the sole species in the genus Novumbra. Avoid netting fish or disturbing wetland vegetation; send photographs and habitat notes privately to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Notice these
- A small dark olive fish with rounded fins, a blunt head, and pale mottling or bars
- slow vegetated wetlands, sloughs, and floodplain channels of western Washington
- Year-round in quiet lowland wetlands