Laserfiche WebLink
Eddies, like shorelines, were an important habitat type and also <br />contained more adults than young or juveniles. This habitat was preferred <br />by adult roundtail chub and adult channel catfish. Occasional shallow <br />eddies (less than 1.5 ft deep) contained large numbers of young and <br />juvenile roundtail chub and adult red shiner. <br />Backwaters usually contained more young than either juveniles or <br />adults. Small cyprinids (speckled dace, red shiner, fathead minnow, <br />redside shiner, etc.) of all size classes, and young and juveniles of <br />larger species such as flannelmouth sucker, bluehead sucker, and round- <br />tail chub were commonly collected. Adults of species other than small <br />cyprinids were uncommon. <br />Pools and side channels were not important habitats for most <br />species, based on total number of fishes collected, but appeared very; <br />important to adult Colorado squawfish (analysis of all CRFP fish collec- <br />tions for the Yampa River in 1981 there were 16 adult Colorado squawfish <br />captured in pools). Also, 15 of 23 species in the Yampa River were <br />collected in pools, though total numbers were low (Figure 9). Side <br />channels were not present in the Little Snake River during sampling. In <br />the Green River, side channels were primarily in the upper Island Park <br />(Stratum 2) area. Although side channels were found in the Yampa they <br />contained only a moderate number of fish species (Figure 9). <br />Riffles were most important for adults of the two native suckers <br />and for speckled dace and mottled sculpin. Nine of 11 species collected <br />in the Little Snake River were found in this habitat as were 12 of 19, <br />species in the Green and 11 of 23 in the Yampa (Figure 9). <br />Main channels and runs contained 16 and 19 species, respectively in <br />the Yampa River, but contained few species in the Green River. This <br />apparent difference was due to absence of sampling in such habitat in <br />Green River rather than any actual difference in habitat utilization by <br />fishes. <br />Rare Fishes <br />The major objective of the Yampa River fishes study-was to deter- <br />mine the biological significance of the Yampa, upper Green, and Little <br />Snake rivers to endangered Colorado River fishes including the Colorado <br />squawfish (Ptychocheilus lucius), humpback chub (Gila cypha)'and bony- <br />tail chub (G. elegans . Although the razorback sucker (Xyrauchen <br />texanus) is not a federally listed species, it has been proposed for <br />listing twice by the USFWS and is on the Colorado state endangered <br />species list. Individuals of all but bonytail chub were collected in the <br />present study. <br />General distribution information for rare fishes was presented in <br />the preceding section on the habitat and relationships of all fish <br />species. Specific information about movement and the life history of <br />rare fishes is presented in this section. <br />46