Bullhead Minnow

Diet and feeding

The FishTraits compilation records these diet categories for this species: algae or phytoplankton; aquatic or other vascular plants; detritus or unidentified plant material; 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 medium to large rivers, streams and small rivers, creeks.

The source records associations with gravel, cobble, boulders, bedrock, vegetation, organic debris, large woody material. 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.

Batch or serial spawning has been reported somewhere in the species’ range. This does not establish the same spawning pattern for every population.

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

The reproductive-guild classification includes guarding eggs or young at a spawning substrate or nest.

Size and recorded longevity

FishTraits reports a maximum total length of 7 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 5 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

Complete lateral line, silver peritoneum.Check for rosy red color in mutants sold as bait ()Hubbs et al 2004).

Native range

Native to Lake Michigan and Lake Huron tributaries (Hocutt and Wiley 1986)

Habitat and ecology

In silty streams, feeds on invertebrates (Hubbs et al 2004)

Introduction history

Hubbs and Black (1947) noted that the one known locality record for this species in the Osage River system of Kansas, was based on material taken from Jones Pond, Coffee County, and "no doubt represents an introduction from the Neosho River system."This species apparently was introduced into the Kansas River system of eastern Kansas before 1976 (Cross and Haslouer 1984). It was first recorded in the Missouri River in Missouri in 1994, apparently the result of dispersal of populations introduced into the Kansas River system of Kansas (Pflieger 1997). It is uncertain if the records from the Missouri River drainage in Nebraska and South Dakota (and also Iowa) are valid, and, if valid, if they represent introductions (see discussion in Remarks section). Hubbs and Black (1947) stated that the single record (under the name Ceratichthys perspicuus) from Lake St. Marys (Great Lakes drainage) in Ohio should be considered valid. These researchers also mentioned that M. B. Trautman suspected it of being a bait introduction. Maintaining that same position years later, Trautman (1981) stated that the Lake St. Marys record"probably was an escape from the minnow bucket of a fisherman." He also remarked that by 1945 it was of common occurrence in the tanks of commercial bait dealers in Ohio. In their summary table on fishes of the Great Lakes basin, Bailey and Smith (1981) indicated that Pimephales vigilax perspicuus had colonized tributaries of Lake Erie recently via canal or by natural dispersal following introduction. Sublette et al. (1990) stated that it was introduced to the Rio Grande drainage of New Mexico during and since the 1970s. The possible method of introduction was not discussed. Similarly, Hubbs et al. (1991) did not provide explanation for its apparent introduction into the Rio Grande and the Red and Canadian river drainages in Texas. Presumably these were by bait-bucket release or stock contaminants. According to Sigler and Miller (1963), Pimephales vigilax vigilax was accidentally introduced into the Sevier River drainage in Utah in 1953 along with several thousand channel catfish received from San Angelo, Texas. Sigler and Sigler (1987) indicated that it was introduced to Utah Lake, Utah, in 1969, but these authors did not provide additional details. The first record of this species in the Fox River, Wisconsin, is based on nine specimens taken in July 1960. Johnson and Becker (1980) and Becker (1983) suspected that the fish entered that drainage from the Mississippi River basin via the old Fox-Wisconsin Canal at Portage, also known as the Portage Canal. The Menomonee River record is based on a report from the early 1900s. Greene (1935, cited by Becker 1983) suggested that the record may have been based on a bait bucket release, or a recent immigrant via highwater connections between the Rock and Milwaukee river systems.