Bigeye Chub: Facts & Habitat

About Bigeye Chub

Bigeye chub (Hybopsis amblops) is a species of freshwater ray-finned fish belonging to the family Leuciscidae, the shiners, daces and minnows. This species is found in the United States.

Native and introducedFresh25 states

Geographic distribution

The native range of the Bigeye chub includes the Lake Ontario and Lake Erie drainages in New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Michigan as well as the Ohio River basin from New York to eastern Illinois and south to the Tennessee River drainage, Georgia and Alabama, and the Ozarks of southern Missouri, northern Arkansas, and northeastern Oklahoma. There is one record of this species in the Cottonwood River in Kansas. It is absent from the Missouri River drainage. This species is listed threatened in Illinois.

Ecology

The bigeye chub is a freshwater fish of the United States. It prefers a habitat near riffles in quiet water with aquatic vegetation, in small to moderate size, clear-water tributaries with a sand, gravel, or rocky substrate. It is highly intolerant of siltation.

Characteristics

This species has a long, blunt snout with a down turned, overhanging mouth. It is a light greenish yellow color, besides the black lateral stripe stretching from its mouth to the tail. Like other Hybopisis, this species has a single mouth barbel that contains taste buds. The bigeye chub has an elliptical eye shape that is directed upward. They reach about 2 to 3 inches (51 to 76 mm) in length. Their diet consists of aquatic insects such as different kinds of larvae and large mayfly.

History

The bigeye chub experienced drastic population declines in the mid 20th century. In the 1970's and 1980's, they were so rapidly disappearing they were thought to be extirpated. With recovery methods and research, a steady increase has been seen since 2000 in central Illinois. They are now considered threatened there.

Article text: Wikipedia contributors, Bigeye chub (source revision). Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Retrieved 2026-10-11.

Diet and feeding

The FishTraits compilation records these diet categories for this species: invertebrates or larval fish. These are broad categories, not a claim that every individual consumes every example in a category.

Reported feeding positions include bottom feeding. The compilation combines published observations; diets can vary with age, locality, and available food.

Habitat preferences

Reported habitat associations include streams and small rivers, creeks.

The source records associations with sand, gravel, cobble, boulders, bedrock. An association indicates reported use, rather than an exclusive requirement.

Reproduction and parental care

The compilation reports a representative maturity age of 1 years. Its maturity field summarizes mean, median, or modal estimates, usually for females; male estimates can be used when female data are unavailable. It is not a fixed age at which every fish first breeds.

Recorded spawning months are May, Jun for the source’s reporting region (TN). This is a regional calendar, not a range-wide schedule.

The reproductive-guild classification includes spawning on open substrates without guarding the brood.

Size and recorded longevity

FishTraits reports a maximum total length of 10 centimetres. Some entries use an estimated asymptotic length; this value should not be treated as a certified record catch.

Recorded longevity in the compilation is 3 years. Wild observations were preferred, but captive records were accepted where wild records were unavailable, and unspecified records were assumed wild. The value is not a guaranteed wild lifespan or an aquarium life expectancy.

Identification and appearance

Robison and Buchanan (1988); Page and Burr (1991); Jenkins and Burkhead (1994). Mayden (1989) and Mayden et al. (1992) use Hybopsis, other authorities (e.g., Coburn and Cavender 1992; Gilbert 1998) have argued that this and related species should be in the genus Notropis (i.e., Notropis amblops). It is presently uncertain which of the two generic names will ultimately be accepted as valid.

Native range

Lake Erie drainage, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Michigan; Ohio River basin from New York to eastern Illinois, and south to Tennessee River drainage, Georgia and Alabama; Ozarks of southern Missouri, northern Arkansas, and northeastern Oklahoma (absent in Missouri River drainage) (Page and Burr 1991).

Introduction history

Fish was probably introduced as a result of a bait bucket release.

Range

Where it lives

22.1%of mapped records

Share of 4,337 GBIF observation records with a state location, across 25 states. The orange dots are USGS stream-survey sites where this species was caught.

A blank area on the dot layer usually means nobody sampled there, not that the fish is absent. Turn on “every survey site” to see where the survey looked.

The USGS stream survey caught it at 572 of its sites, in 13 states. That survey and the GBIF records are two different counts of two different things, so the site keeps them apart.

Habitat

Water and movement

Water: WoRMS records this species in fresh water.
USGS NAS habitat: Freshwater
US status: Native transplant — native to part of the United States, moved to other waters inside it.
Migration: Undetermined

Classification

Taxonomy

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Superclass: Actinopterygii
Class: Teleostei
Order: Cypriniformes
Family: Leuciscidae
Genus: Hybopsis
Species: Hybopsis amblops
ITIS TSN: 163476
WoRMS AphiaID: 1022832
GBIF key: 2366620

Common questions about Bigeye Chub

What is the scientific name of Bigeye Chub?

The scientific name is Hybopsis amblops, in the family Leuciscidae. Classification follows ITIS.

Does Bigeye Chub live in fresh water or salt water?

WoRMS records this species in fresh water.

Where has Bigeye Chub been recorded in the United States?

GBIF has observations in 25 states, with the most records in Tennessee, Ohio, Kentucky. The map shows observation records, which do not establish the complete natural range.

Closest relatives