Flathead Chub

Diet and feeding

The FishTraits compilation records these diet categories for this species: aquatic or other vascular plants; invertebrates or larval fish; larger animal prey (a source category covering fish, crayfish, crabs, or frogs). These are broad categories, not a claim that every individual consumes every example in a category.

Reported feeding positions include bottom feeding and surface or water-column 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.

The source records associations with clay or silt, sand. An association indicates reported use, rather than an exclusive requirement.

Reproduction and parental care

The compilation reports a representative maturity age of 1.5 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 Jul, Aug, Sep for the source’s reporting region (MS). 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 32 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 6 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

Woodling (1985); Hubbs et al. (1991); Page and Burr (1991); Etnier and Starnes (1993); commonly used name is Hybopsis gracilis.

Native range

Mackenzie, Saskatchewan, and Lake Winnipeg drainages in Yukon, Northwest Territories, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia; Missouri-Mississippi River basin from southern Alberta and Montana to Louisiana; upper Rio Grande (including Pecos) drainage, New Mexico. Restricted to Mississippi River proper in Missouri, Illinois, and south; localized in Arkansas River drainage in Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico (Page and Burr 1991).

Introduction history

Introduced in the Gila River drainage of New Mexico via bait-bucket release (Koster 1957; Sublette et al. 1990). This species was privately stocked as prey for a trout hatchery in the Russell Lakes area of Colorado; the fish came from the Arkansas River drainage (Zuckerman and Behnke 1986). Probably bait-bucket release in Minnesota.