Laserfiche WebLink
"In Lake Mojave, males stage over coarse, wave washed cobble in <br />water 0.5-5 m deep. Groups of up to several hundred fish ... move slowly a <br />meter or less from the bottom or lie immobile near or on the substrate for <br />hours. Based on trammel netting, females remain in deeper water until ripe, <br />then appear singly on the spawning grounds ... When she is ready to <br />spawn, a female, flanked by two or more males, separates from a group and <br />moves to the bottom The males press closely against the female's posterior <br />abdomen and caudal peduncle, and all contact and agitate the substrate for <br />three to five seconds in apparent spawning convulsions after which they <br />typically return to a larger group... The entire sequence lasts from a few <br />seconds to three minutes, usually the former. Females recognizable <br />because of an injury or some other distinctive feature have been observed <br />to spawn repeatedly in a given hour and day, and on successive days within <br />a week." <br />Riverine habitats. The reproductive ecology of riverine razorback suckers has <br />been most intensively studied in the Green and Yampa rivers (McAda and Wydoski <br />1980, Tyus 1987, Tyus and Karp 1990, Modde and Irving 1998). Staging occurs in <br />flooded lowlands and eddies formed in the mouths of tributary streams, and then the <br />fish move to main-channel sand, gravel and cobble bars for egg deposition (Tyus 1987, <br />Tyus and Karp 1990). Radiotracking and recaptures of tagged fish indicated that fish <br />were homing to two spawning sites in Dinosaur National Monument: one in the Green <br />River near Jensen, Utah, and one at the mouth of the Yampa River (Tyus and Karp <br />1990). Larval razorback suckers recently have been captured below these two areas, <br />and in others (Muth et al 1998). Although some radiotagged fish have been monitored <br />on more than one known or suspected spawning areas (Tyus and Karp 1990, Modde <br />and Irving 1998), it is not known if individual fish actually spawn at more than one site, <br />or whether fish residing in locations distant from their preferred spawning area are only <br />moving through one spawning area in route to another (noted by Tyus and Karp 1990). <br />Ripe razorback suckers were captured in suspected spawning areas in the Green River <br />from mid to late April through May (Tyus 1987, Tyus and Karp 1990). In the Grand <br />Valley, near Grand Junction, Colorado, 40 of 42 running ripe adults were captured <br />between May 24 and June 17 (Osmundson and Kaeding 1990). Spawning movements <br />and the appearance of ripe fish were associated with increasing spring flows and <br />average water temperatures of 14°C. (range 9-17°C or 48-63°F; Tyus and Karp 1990). <br />Thus, the time of spawning is later than that observed for the lower basin populations, <br />but the temperature range is very similar. Tyus (1987) and Tyus and Karp (1990) <br />collected ripe adults over coarse sand substrates and in the vicinity of gravel or cobble <br />bars submersed by an average depth of water of 0.63 m. Average velocity of water <br />over the bars was 0.74 m/s. Direct observation of spawning behavior and gametic <br />release was precluded by high turbidity prevalent during spring flows. <br />9 <br />