The tui chub (''Siphateles bicolor'') is a

cyprinid 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 ver ...

fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of li ...

native to western

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the C ...

. Widespread in many areas, it is an important food source for other fish, including the

cutthroat trout The cutthroat trout is a fish species of the family Salmonidae native to cold-water tributaries of the Pacific Ocean, Rocky Mountains, and Great Basin in North America. As a member of the genus ''Oncorhynchus'', it is one of the Pacific trout ...

Range

The tui chub's range includes the Lahontan and Central system of the

Great Basin The Great Basin is the largest area of contiguous endorheic basin, endorheic watersheds, those with no outlets, in North America. It spans nearly all of Nevada, much of Utah, and portions of California, Idaho, Oregon, Wyoming, and Baja California ...

, as well as the Owens and

Mojave River The Mojave River is an intermittent river in the eastern San Bernardino Mountains and the Mojave Desert in San Bernardino County, California, United States. Most of its flow is underground, while its surface channels remain dry most of the time ...

s. It is found in the

Pit River The Pit River is a major river draining from northeastern California into the state's Central Valley. The Pit, the Klamath and the Columbia are the only three rivers in the U.S. that cross the Cascade Range. The longest tributary of the Sacr ...

and Goose Lake of the upper Central Valley, in the

Klamath River The Klamath River (Karuk: ''Ishkêesh'', Klamath: ''Koke'', Yurok: ''Hehlkeek 'We-Roy'') flows through Oregon and northern California in the United States, emptying into the Pacific Ocean. By average discharge, the Klamath is the second large ...

system, and in the

Columbia River The Columbia River ( Upper Chinook: ' or '; Sahaptin: ''Nch’i-Wàna'' or ''Nchi wana''; Sinixt dialect'' '') is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, ...

drainage.

Description

The form and appearance of the tui chub is variable; many were originally described as different species by J. O. Snyder, but have since been reduced to subspecies. In general, the color is deep olive above and white below, with a smooth variation in shading along the sides, and a brassy reflection. Fins are olive and sometimes tinted with red. The

pectoral fin Fins are distinctive anatomical features composed of bony spines or rays protruding from the body of a fish. They are covered with skin and joined together either in a webbed fashion, as seen in most bony fish, or similar to a flipper, as se ...

s are far forward and low on the body. Length has been recorded at up to , but is more typical.

Habitat and behavior

Tui chubs are found in a variety of habitats, including anything from small streams to large lakes and reservoirs, and both high cold lakes, such as

Lake Tahoe Lake Tahoe (; was, Dáʔaw, meaning "the lake") is a freshwater lake in the Sierra Nevada of the United States. Lying at , it straddles the state line between California and Nevada, west of Carson City. Lake Tahoe is the largest alpine lake i ...

, and warmer desert streams. They spawn between late April and early August, depending on temperatures. In Pyramid Lake the peak season is June; males move inshore first, then congregate around arriving females in shallow water, preferring areas of heavy vegetation. The female scatters her eggs randomly over a wide area, where they are then fertilized by several males. The

hatchling In oviparous biology, a hatchling is a newly hatched fish, amphibian, reptile, or bird. A group of mammals called monotremes lay eggs, and their young are hatchlings as well. Fish Fish hatchlings generally do not receive parental care, similar to ...

s remain in the heavy vegetation for the remainder of the summer. In Lake Tahoe some chubs spawn around stream mouths in July. Tui chub diet is varied; young fish eat mostly

invertebrate Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate ...

s, adding plant material and especially

algae Algae (; singular alga ) is an informal term for a large and diverse group of photosynthesis, photosynthetic eukaryotic organisms. It is a polyphyletic grouping that includes species from multiple distinct clades. Included organisms range from u ...

as they mature. Habits also vary by location and the fineness of the

gill raker Gill rakers in fish are bony or cartilaginous processes that project from the branchial arch (gill arch) and are involved with suspension feeding tiny prey. They are not to be confused with the gill filaments that compose the fleshy part of the ...

s, so for instance fine-rakered forms in Pyramid Lake feed more on

plankton Plankton are the diverse collection of organisms found in water (or air) that are unable to propel themselves against a current (or wind). The individual organisms constituting plankton are called plankters. In the ocean, they provide a crucia ...

in open water than the coarse-rakered forms, which live near the bottom and eats more plants and algae. The largest individuals will eat other fish also. In Pyramid Lake the

endangered An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and invas ...

Lahontan cutthroat trout Lahontan cutthroat trout (''Oncorhynchus clarkii henshawi'') is the largest subspecies of cutthroat trout, and the state fish of Nevada. It is one of three subspecies of cutthroat trout that are listed as federally threatened. Natural history ...

feeds on the tui chub; the Lahontan cutthroat trout has been studied extensively due to water management decisions affecting the water quality of the

Truckee River The Truckee River is a river in the U.S. states of California and Nevada. The river flows northeasterly and is long.U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed October 20, 2012 Th ...

and Pyramid Lake.C.M. Hogan, 1987

Subspecies

The exact number of subspecies is not known; Sigler & Sigler estimate as high as 16. Agreed subspecies include: * ''Siphateles bicolor bicolor'' * '' Siphateles bicolor isolata'' * '' Siphateles bicolor mohavensis'' * ''Siphateles bicolor obesa'' * ''Siphateles bicolor pectinifer'' * ''Siphateles bicolor snyderi''

References

* C.M.Hogan, Marc Papineau ''et al.'', ''Development of a dynamic water quality simulation model for the Truckee River'', Earth Metrics Inc., Environmental Protection Agency Technology Series Washington D.C. (1987) * William F. Sigler and John W. Sigler, ''Fishes of the Great Basin'' (Reno: University of Nevada Press, 1987), pp. 166–170 * {{Taxonbar, from=Q2151831 Chubs (fish) Siphateles Fish described in 1856 Taxa named by Charles Frédéric Girard Fish of the Western United States Fish of the Pacific Ocean Fish of North America Fauna of the Mojave Desert Fauna of the Great Basin Fauna of the Sierra Nevada (United States)

Range

Description

Habitat and behavior

Subspecies

See also

References