Article text: Wikipedia contributors, Redspot chub (source revision). Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Retrieved 2026-10-11.
Redspot Chub
Nocomis asper
Leuciscidae · freshwater water fish
2 minute read · Species guide

About Redspot Chub
The redspot chub (Nocomis asper) is a species of freshwater fish belonging to the family Leuciscidae, the shiners, daces and minnows. This species is found primarily in the Ozark uplands of the Arkansas River drainage in northwestern Arkansas, southwestern Missouri, southeastern Kansas, and northeastern Oklahoma. It can grow to 22 cm (8.7 in) total length.
Diet and feeding
The FishTraits compilation records these diet categories for this species: algae or phytoplankton; aquatic or other vascular plants; 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 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 streams and small rivers, creeks.
The source records associations with gravel, cobble. 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 Jun for the source’s reporting region (OK). 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 22 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.
Range
Where it lives
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.
Share of records by state
The USGS stream survey caught it at 109 of its sites, in 3 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.
- Migration
- Undetermined
Classification
Taxonomy
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Superclass
- Actinopterygii
- Class
- Teleostei
- Order
- Cypriniformes
- Family
- Leuciscidae
- Genus
- Nocomis
- Species
- Nocomis asper
- ITIS TSN
- 163394
- WoRMS AphiaID
- 1013149
- GBIF key
- 2365438
Common questions about Redspot Chub
What is the scientific name of Redspot Chub?
Does Redspot Chub live in fresh water or salt water?
Where has Redspot Chub been recorded in the United States?
Closest relatives
Other Nocomis species
Same family