The silver chub (''Macrhybopsis storeriana'') is a species of freshwater fish of the family

Cyprinidae Cyprinidae is a family of freshwater fish commonly called the carp or minnow family. It includes the carps, the true minnows, and relatives like the barbs and barbels. Cyprinidae is the largest and most diverse fish family and the largest verte ...

found in North America.

Description

The maximum size of a silver chub is 231mm (9.09 in) in total length.Gilbert, C. R. 1980. Silver chub Hybopsis storeriana (Kirtland). Page 194 in D. S. Lee, C. R. Gilbert, C. H. Hocutt, R. E. Jenkins, D. E. McAllister, and J. R. Stauffer, Jr., editors. Atlas of North American Freshwater Fishes. North Carolina State Museum of Natural History, Raleigh It is pale grey-green dorsally, becoming silvery on its sides and silvery white on its belly. The iris of its eye is white-yellow. A faint dusky lateral stripe is usually present. The caudal fin is lightly pigmented, except the lower 3-4 rays, which are completely unpigmented.Becker, G.C. 1983. Fishes of Wisconsin. The University of Wisconsin Press, Madison. 1052 pp. Silver chubs have a body shape that is slender, moderately compressed, and flattened ventrally. Their mouths are inferior and horizontal.Ross, S.T. 2001. Inland fishes of Mississippi. University Press of Mississippi, Jackson. 1-624 pp. They have a maxillary barbel, the premaxilla is protractile, and the upper lip is separated from the skin of the snout by a deep groove that is continuous along the midline. The

lateral line The lateral line, also called the lateral line organ (LLO), is a system of sensory organs found in fish, used to detect movement, vibration, and pressure gradients in the surrounding water. The sensory ability is achieved via modified epithelial ...

is either straight or has a broad arch. Adult males have large, uniserial tubercles on the dorsal surface of pectoral fins rays 2-10. The head of a silver chub bears minute sensory buds, but not breeding tubercles.

Diet

Silver chubs are planktivores/invertivores.Simon, T. P. 1999. Assessing the sustainability and biological integrity of water resources using fish communities. CRC Press. Boca Raton; London; New York; Washington. 671 pp. During the first year, they consume small crustaceans and

midge A midge is any small fly, including species in several families of non-mosquito Nematoceran Diptera. Midges are found (seasonally or otherwise) on practically every land area outside permanently arid deserts and the frigid zones. Some mid ...

larvae and pupae. The adults eat

mayfly Mayflies (also known as shadflies or fishflies in Canada and the upper Midwestern United States, as Canadian soldiers in the American Great Lakes region, and as up-winged flies in the United Kingdom) are aquatic insects belonging to the ord ...

larvae, small

mollusks Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is esti ...

, and crustaceans.Kinney, E. C. 1954. A life history of the silver chub, Hybopsis storeriana (Kirtland), in western Lake Erie with notes on associated species. Diss. Abstr. 20(6): 19878-1980. vol 35. Part II. 30759.

Habitat

Silver chubs are mainly restricted to large, often silty rivers; they are sometimes found near the mouths of small streams.

Reproduction and Life Cycle

The spawning season for silver chubs has been recorded to be in late spring or early summer in Iowa, and June and July in Wisconsin In western Lake Erie, spawning began the second week of June in water temperature of 19 °C (66 °F), reached its peak during the last week of June and first week of July with water temperature at 23 °C (73 °F), and was completed by the middle of August. Kinney (1954) concluded that the species spawns at relatively high temperatures. Silver chubs are rock and gravel spawners with pelagic free embryos. Life longevity for male silver chubs is three years and for females is four years. Kinney (1954) found most 1-year old fish to be sexually mature. During development, the average silver chub is 124 mm (4.88 in)in

standard length Fish measurement is the measuring of individual fish and various parts of their anatomies. These data are used in many areas of ichthyology, including taxonomy and fisheries biology. Overall length * Standard length (SL) is the length of a fish m ...

after the first year, 147 mm (5.88 in) in standard length after the second year, and 164 mm (6.46 in) in standard length after the third year.

Distribution

United States distribution: Widespread from southern

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

to the Red River drainages. Texas distribution: The silver chub is in the Red River and the lower

Brazos River The Brazos River ( , ), called the ''Río de los Brazos de Dios'' (translated as "The River of the Arms of God") by early Spanish explorers, is the 11th-longest river in the United States at from its headwater source at the head of Blackwater Dr ...

; the Brazos River population is apparently disjunct from other populations of this species, which range through the Mississippi River basin to Mobil Bay.

Importance to Humans

The silver chub is regarded as excellent forage and bait fish for largemouth and smallmouth black bass.

Etymology

''Macrhybopsis''is Greek "long rounded face" and ''storeriana'' named for David H. Storer, an early student of North American fishes.Pflieger, W. L. 1997. The Fishes of Missouri. Missouri Department of Conservation, Jefferson City. 372 pp.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q6414187 Macrhybopsis Fish of North America Fish described in 1845