Margined Madtom

Diet and feeding

The FishTraits compilation records these diet categories for this species: 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. 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 muck, clay or silt, 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 2 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 (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 15 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 4 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

The Margined Madtom has a light cream-colored belly, a light brown to grey back and chin barbells. There are no blotches or saddle marks on this fish's back and sides as found on other madtoms. Its dorsal and caudal fins are light brown with black edges, its adipose fin is attached along the length of the body and is continuous with the square caudal fin. Smith (1985); Page and Burr (1991); Jenkins and Burkhead (1994).

Native range

Atlantic Slope from the Delaware drainage, New York, to upper Altamaha River drainage, Georgia; upper Kanawha (New) River system, Virginia; upper Monongahela River system, Pennsylvania and Maryland (Page and Burr 1991); Lake America (Roth et al., 2011).

Habitat and ecology

Gutowski and Stauffer (1993) found that the Margined Madtom preferentially feeds on baetid, chironomid, and simuliid larvae. Locomotory activity levels increased after dusk as is common for most species of madtom. According to catch per effort data, this fish was most active near midnight (Gutowski and Stauffer 1993).

Introduction history

Many of these occurrences may have been the result of bait bucket introductions (Taylor 1969; Jenkins and Burkhead 1994).