Northern Studfish

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 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 sand, gravel, cobble, boulders, bedrock, vegetation. 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, Aug for the source’s reporting region (VA). 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 20 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.

Native range

Upper East Fork White River system, Indiana; upper Salt and Kentucky River drainages, Kentucky; upper Green, middle, and lower Cumberland, and Tennessee River drainages, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi; west of Mississippi River (primarily Ozark and Ouachita uplands) in central and southern Missouri, southeastern Kansas, eastern Oklahoma, and southern Arkansas; southwestern Mississippi in Mississippi (Coles Creek, Homochitto River, and Buffalo Bayou) and Gulf Slope drainages (Amite River and Pearl River) (Page and Burr 1991). Recently reported from the Amity River in Louisiana (Warren and Denette 1992).

Introduction history

Bait bucket transfer may be responsible for most of the introductions in Kentucky, although some may be a result of stream capture (Burr and Warren 1986). The Oklahoma introductions are believed to be the result of a bait introduction prior to 1954 (Hall 1956; Pflieger 1997). This species was not taken from the Elk River drainage of Missouri until the 1960s, and Pflieger (1997) concluded that these populations represent range extensions and are descended from Northern Studfish originally introduced into northeastern Oklahoma streams. In West Virginia, the introductions may have been a result of bait bucket release, aquarium release, or pond escape (Cincotta et al. 1990).