Laserfiche WebLink
<br />, ' <br /> <br />.. <br /> <br />June 1991 <br /> <br />back chub (219 mm and 310 mm TL) collected <br />on 8 June had breeding tubercles. The Colorado <br />squawfish, one of the radiotagged fish (824 mm <br />TL), was neither tuberculate nor ripe: it was <br />collected from an eddy 1 m deep with sand sub- <br />strate. Numerically dominant species collected <br />were Colorado roundtail chub (53%), flannel- <br />mouth sucker (Catostomus latiPinnis; 20%), com- <br />mon carp (Cyprinus carpio; 11%), and channel <br />catfish (Ictalurus punctatus; 9%). Species collected <br />in small numbers ( < 3%) included bluehead suck- <br />er (Catostomus discobolus), black bullhead (Icta- <br />lurus melas), and white sucker (Catostomus com- <br />mersoni). <br />Fine-mesh seine (3 by 1 m, 1.5-mm mesh) and <br />dipnet (1.5-mm mesh) collections were conducted <br />on 28 June 1988 after radiotagged squawfish had <br />left the Little Snake River. We collected 1,260 <br />fishes ranging from 10 to 30 mm TL. Flannel- <br />mouth sucker made up 82% of all young collected, <br />and bluehead sucker made up 17%. Other species <br />collected in small numbers included sand shiner <br />(NotroPis stramineus), speckled dace (Rhinichthys <br />osculus), and Colorado roundtail chub. <br />The Little Snake River provided habitat for <br />Colorado squawfish and humpback chub during <br />the spring, when high discharge provided suitable <br />habitat. Adult Colorado squawfish may move from <br />the Yampa River to the Little Snake River to <br />take advantage of warmer water temperatures <br />and feeding opportunities. Juvenile Colorado <br />roundtail chub and suckers observed in the Little <br />Snake River may provide prey for adult Colorado <br />squawfish. Warmer water temperatures and <br />readily available feeding opportunities are con-' <br />sidered important in conditioning fish for migra- <br />tion and spawning (McKeown, 1984). Adult Col- <br />orado squawfish also used backwaters and flooded <br />mouths of smaller tributaries on the Yampa and <br />Colorado rivers during spring runoff, and such <br />use may be important in physiological prepara- <br />tion for spawning. These habitats provide more <br />abundant forage and warmer water temperatures <br />than the main channel (Holden and Wick, 1982). <br />Potential spawning habitat for Colorado <br />squawfish near the location of radiotagged fish <br />led us to suspect that spawning might be occur- <br />ring in the canyon area of the Little Snake River. <br />However, further investigations suggested that <br />Colorado squawfish left the Little Snake River <br />prior to spawning. Observations supporting this <br />conclusion included lack of tuberculation or ex- <br />pressible gametes from the one large adult Col- <br /> <br />Notes <br /> <br />253 <br /> <br /> <br />FIG. 2-Photo of 310 mrn total length suspected <br />humpback chub captured in the Little Snake River, <br />Colorado, on 25 May 1988. <br /> <br />orado squaw fish collected, absence of other Col- <br />orado squawfish collected near locations of <br />radiotagged Colorado squawfish, subsequent <br />contact of one radiotagged fish in Yampa Canyon <br />at a known spawning area, and lack of collection <br />of larval Colorado squawfish. However, these re- <br />sults do not completely discount spawning of Col- <br />orado squawfish in the Little Snake River. <br />Occurrence of suspected humpback chub in the <br />canyon section of the Little Snake River also ap- <br />pears restricted to the spring runoff period. These <br />chub may be seeking new habitats in which to <br />live or spawn (since tuberculate fish were pres- <br />ent). Suspected humpback chub observed in the <br />Little Snake River during high water are prob- <br />ably attracted to the relatively deep, turbulent <br />eddies in the canyon and to warmer water. <br />Humpback chub are typically associated with this <br />type of habitat (Valdez and Clemmer, 1982). <br />When discharge decreased, the suspected hump- <br />back chub probably left the tributary because <br />eddy habitat disappeared and was replaced by <br />pool habitat. Photographs show that the sus- <br />pected humpback chub collected in the Little <br />Snake River canyon area were similar in ap- <br />pearance to humpback chub collected in Cross <br />Mountain Canyon on the Yampa River by Haynes <br />(1980) and to humpback-like chub collected in <br />Debeque Canyon on the Colorado River (Valdez <br />and Clemmer, 1982). These three canyon areas <br />represent the known upstream distributionallim- <br />its for humpback-like chub in these rivers. Sus- <br />pected humpback chub from these areas do not <br />have the abrupt nuchal hump and fleshy snout <br />found on larger specimens of typical humpback <br />chub from Blackrocks or Westwater Canyon on <br />the Colorado River (Fig. 2). These differences <br />