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<br />Executive Summary <br /> <br />Collections offish larvae and early, young-of-the-year juveniles are necessary to help <br />determine fish spawning sites and seasons, and assess larval production, transport, distribution, <br />nursery habitat, and survival, as well as other aspects of early life history. But use of such <br />collections requires accurate identification of the target species. The morphological appearance <br />of all similar-appearing species in the waters sampled and diagnostic criteria for distinguishing <br />the target species from them must be known. <br />Morphological criteria for identification change dramatically as fish larvae grow and <br />develop, and when species are very similar in appearance, as in the case of many cypriniform <br />fishes (minnows and suckers) in the Upper Colorado River Basin (UCRB), diagnosis becomes <br />especially difficult and complicated. Still, the 1990 Colorado Division of Wildlife (CDOW) <br />guide to the larvae and early juveniles of six of seven suckers (Catostomidae) in the UCRB <br />(Snyder and Muth 1990) has served CDOW, the Upper Colorado River Endangered Fish <br />Recovery Program (Recovery Program), and other regional researchers well. But species <br />coverage is incomplete, some descriptive data need to be updated, and the very long and intricate <br />set of printed keys needs to be corrected for the occasional error, updated and expanded (for the <br />seventh species), and made more flexible and user friendly. <br />The goal of this project was to facilitate more accurate identification of the larvae and <br />early juveniles of western Colorado and UCRB suckers with a primary objective of updating <br />and completing the 1990 guide (Snyder and Muth 1990). Accordingly, this final report is a <br />supplement to the 1990 guide and serves as a manuscript for more formal subsequent publication <br />as such or a revised and updated edition of the guide. It includes updated descriptive <br />information for previous species accounts, a comparable new species account for longnose <br />sucker, an updated and expanded comparative summary, and a new computer-interactive key <br />(program and files on compact disk or downloadable via the Internet) to correct, update, expand, <br />and replace the existing printed keys. A secondary objective of the project was to provide proof- <br />of-concept for the effective application of computer-interactive keys to fish larvae. Both <br />objectives were successfully accomplished. <br />An interim descriptive species account with detailed drawings was prepared for longnose <br />sucker and an effort to rear a new developmental-study series of the species was begun as an <br />associated investigation sponsored by CDOW (Snyder 2001). With some adjustments for use of <br />computer imaging technology, methods for developmental study oflongnose sucker, including <br />analysis of morphometric, meristic, pigment, and developmental-state characters; clearing and <br />alizarin-red staining of whole specimens for skeletal study; illustration; and data analysis and <br />summarization generally followed Snyder and Muth (1990). The species account was based on a <br />previously reared, but abbreviated series of larvae from an east-slope population and positively <br />identified juveniles collected from the Gunnison River. The new culture effort, also based on <br />east-slope stock. and description of the species were completed with this project. In addition to <br />the completed species account, descriptive data for longnose sucker also were used in the <br />updated and expanded "Comparative Summary" and "Computer-Interactive Key." <br />Through the years since publication of the 1990 guide (Snyder and Muth 1990), mistakes <br />in that guide were noted by the authors, reviewers, and users; character-range extensions for <br />most described species were recorded by Larval Fish Laboratory (LFL) and other researchers; <br />and for white sucker C. commersoni, better drawings for two larval stages became available. <br />These, with appropriate amendments, were compiled in a list of errata and updated descriptive <br /> <br />8 <br />