The shorthead redhorse (''Moxostoma macrolepidotum'') is a wide-ranging species in

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 th ...

. The shorthead redhorse is native to central and eastern North America. However, its range has expanded to include areas like the Hudson estuary and Grayson County, Texas. It inhabits small to large rivers and lakes, and lives in the

benthic zone The benthic zone is the ecological region at the lowest level of a body of water such as an ocean, lake, or stream, including the sediment surface and some sub-surface layers. The name comes from ancient Greek, βένθος (bénthos), meaning " ...

. Shorthead redhorse feed on benthic

invertebrates 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 chordat ...

and can consume plant material from the benthic environment that it inhabits. When it

spawns Spawn is the eggs and sperm released or deposited into water by aquatic animals. As a verb, ''to spawn'' refers to the process of releasing the eggs and sperm, and the act of both sexes is called spawning. Most aquatic animals, except for aquati ...

, shorthead redhorse move into more shallow streams and spawn over gravel or rocky shoals. They will also spawn in springs with swift moving water. The shorthead redhorse is important to humans because it is a

game fish Game fish, sport fish or quarry refer to popular fish pursued by recreational anglers, and can be freshwater or saltwater fish. Game fish can be eaten after being caught, or released after capture. Some game fish are also targeted commercial ...

. It is also important to anglers because of its role in the ecosystem; it is prey for larger game fish such as

northern pike The northern pike (''Esox lucius'') is a species of carnivorous fish of the genus ''Esox'' (the pikes). They are typical of brackish water, brackish and fresh waters of the Northern Hemisphere (''i.e.'' holarctic in distribution). They are kno ...

and

muskellunge The muskellunge ''(Esox masquinongy)'', often shortened to muskie, musky or lunge is a species of large freshwater predatory fish native to North America. It is the largest member of the pike family, Esocidae. Origin of name The name "muskell ...

. One source gives one of its English names as "common mullet". Others are redfin, redfin sucker, red sucker, redhorse mullet, shorthead mullet, mullet, bigscale sucker, common redhorse, northern redhorse, Des Moines Plunger.

Geographic distribution

Historically, the shorthead redhorse is native to North America. Its native range includes the

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lakes ...

Hudson Bay Hudson Bay ( crj, text=ᐐᓂᐯᒄ, translit=Wînipekw; crl, text=ᐐᓂᐹᒄ, translit=Wînipâkw; iu, text=ᑲᖏᖅᓱᐊᓗᒃ ᐃᓗᐊ, translit=Kangiqsualuk ilua or iu, text=ᑕᓯᐅᔭᕐᔪᐊᖅ, translit=Tasiujarjuaq; french: b ...

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the List of longest rivers of the United States (by main stem), second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest Drainage system (geomorphology), drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson B ...

, and

Saint Lawrence River The St. Lawrence River (french: Fleuve Saint-Laurent, ) is a large river in the middle latitudes of North America. Its headwaters begin flowing from Lake Ontario in a (roughly) northeasterly direction, into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, connecting ...

basins.Hammerson, G. 2006. Moxostoma macrolepidotum. NatureServe Explorer 06:01 http://www.natureserve.org/explorer/servlet/NatureServe?searchName=Moxostoma%20macrolepidotum They ranged across from

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirte ...

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest T ...

and as far south as northern

Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = " Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County , LargestMetro = Greater Birmingham , area_total_km2 = 135,7 ...

and

Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a state in the South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the north, Missouri on the northeast, Arkansas on the east, New ...

.Fuller, P. 2011. Moxostoma macrolepidotum. USGS Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database https://nas.er.usgs.gov/queries/factsheet.aspx?SpeciesID=366 Shorthead redhorse also originally occupied the Atlantic Slope drainages, ranging from the

Hudson River The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between Ne ...

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

Santee River } The Santee River is a river in South Carolina in the United States, and is long. The Santee and its tributaries provide the principal drainage for the coastal areas of southeastern South Carolina and navigation for the central coastal plain ...

South Carolina )''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = ...

. When the

Tennessee Valley Authority The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is a federally owned electric utility corporation in the United States. TVA's service area covers all of Tennessee, portions of Alabama, Mississippi, and Kentucky, and small areas of Georgia, North Carolin ...

started building dams in the 1930s in an attempt to create power, the dams blocked different fish such as

striped bass The striped bass (''Morone saxatilis''), also called the Atlantic striped bass, striper, linesider, rock, or rockfish, is an anadromous perciform fish of the family Moronidae found primarily along the Atlantic coast of North America. It has ...

, from moving upstream to their spawning ranges. While some fish ranges have decreased since the construction of the dams, the shorthead redhorse's range has expanded. The shorthead redhorse is a “habitat generalist near the core of its range,” so it can tolerate disturbance better than other related redhorse species such as the

river redhorse The river redhorse (''Moxostoma carinatum'') is a species of freshwater fish endemic to the eastern half of the United States and southeastern Canada. They can range from 10 to 30 inches in length and can potentially reach a weight of more tha ...

, M. carinatum.Reid, S.M., Wilson, C. C., Carl, L.M., and Zorn, T.G. 2008. Species traits influence the genetic consequences of river fragmentation on two co-occurring redhorse (Moxostoma) species. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Science 9:1892-1904. Shorthead redhorse can now be found in the tidal zones of the Hudson River. They are believed to have invaded the Hudson by way of the

Mohawk River The Mohawk River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed October 3, 2011 river in the U.S. state of New York. It is the largest tributary of the Hudson River. The Mohawk ...

and have established themselves in the Hudson estuary. Other areas they have been found in include the Embarras River system in

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rock ...

and the Red River below Lake Texoma dam in Grayson County, Texas.

Ecology

Shorthead redhorse have a wide habitat range. They live in

fresh water Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. Although the term specifically excludes seawater and brackish water, it does incl ...

and are found in

stream A stream is a continuous body of surface water flowing within the bed and banks of a channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a stream may be referred to by a variety of local or regional names. Long large streams ...

lake A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...

s and

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of ...

s.Froese, R. 2010. Moxostoma macrolepidotum. FishBase http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/SpeciesSummary.php?genusname=Moxostoma&speciesname=macrolepidotum Shorthead redhorse can tolerate clear to cloudy water and likes loose substrate like gravel and sand.Hatch, J. T. 2002. Shorthead Redhorse. MinnAqua Program http://hatch.cehd.umn.edu/research/fish/fishes/shorthead_redhorse.html#predator These fish are benthic feeders that like to feed in riffles and rifle margins. During a study done in Illinois by Sule et al., they found that “shorthead redhorse consumed items from approximately 60 food categories, primarily invertebrate taxa”. Twenty-four to sixty-eight percent of their diet was unidentified when stomach contents were analyzed. Also found, 21-50% of the unidentified matter, or 13% of their total diet, was organic matter. Shorthead redhorse eat the most insects out of all the fish in the sucker family. They can also eat microcrustacea and plant matter. Predators of shorthead redhorse vary depending on size. Juveniles can be eaten by northern pike,

walleyes The walleye (''Sander vitreus'', synonym ''Stizostedion vitreum''), also called the yellow pike or yellow pickerel, is a freshwater perciform fish native to most of Canada and to the Northern United States. It is a North American close relat ...

, and smallmouth bass. Adult or larger shorthead redhorse are eaten by northern pike and muskellunge. The shorthead redhorse does not actively compete for food. Because of their wide range of prey and eating the most vertebrates of all the suckers, they do not have a competitor. Humans impact shorthead redhorse habitat. The construction of dams blocked free flowing rivers like the Mississippi in which they live, disrupting their spawning migration routes. Shorthead redhorse are killed easily by pollutants in the water. “The upstream migratory range of shorthead redhorse in a Maryland river decreased due to an increase in chlorinated sewage outfalls”. Factory pollutants are dumped into streams or rivers and will settle onto the bottom. Because such a large portion of the shorthead redhorse's diet is sediment,Doyle, J.R., Al-Ansari, A.M., Gendron, R.L., White, P.A., Blais, J.M. 2011. A method to estimate sediment ingestion by fish. Aquatic Toxicology 1-2:121-127. it ingests high concentrations of the chemicals and can die.

Life history

The shorthead redhorse spawning season ranges from March to June, depending on location. In order to spawn, the water temperature has to be between . Shorthead redhorse spawn once a year and will travel either upstream or downstream to reach their spawning ground. Spawning areas are usually smaller rivers or steams. They are locally migrant so they do not travel long distances to get their spawning area. Shorthead redhorse spawn in shallows at the edges of

sand bar In oceanography, geomorphology, and geoscience, a shoal is a natural submerged ridge, bank, or bar that consists of, or is covered by, sand or other unconsolidated material and rises from the bed of a body of water to near the surface. It ...

s or in riffles over gravel substrate. During spawning, females can produce anywhere from 18,000 to 44,000 eggs. It can take anywhere from 2-5, even 6 years for a shorthead redhorse to become sexually mature. In northern areas of cooler water, growth rates tend to be lower than more southern, warmer areas.Reid, S.M. 2009. Age, growth and mortality of black redhorse (Moxostoma duquesnei) and shorthead redhorse (M-macrolepidotum) in the Grand River, Ontario. Journal of Applied Ichthyology 2:178-183. The average life span of the shorthead redhorse varies depending on location. More northern locations with cooler water tend to have shorthead redhorse that can live to be older than 17 years of age. Typical adult size is in length, and , although some individuals can reach up to in length and in weight. However, in more southern, warmer water areas, such as the

Kankakee River The Kankakee River is a tributary of the Illinois River, approximately long, in the Central Corn Belt Plains of northwestern Indiana and northeastern Illinois in the United States. At one time, the river drained one of the largest wetlands in ...

, the average max age is only six to seven. As mentioned previously, the construction of dams has not had a large effect on the population of shorthead redhorse, but it has had some effect. The dams affect the shorthead redhorse just as they do other fish by blocking migration pathways to spawning areas. Because of the wide range and great abundance of the shorthead redhorse, no negative effects of dams have been accounted for in their population.

Current management

The shorthead redhorse is abundant across its range and has one of the largest ranges of any sucker.Mongeau, J. R., Dumont, P., and Cloutier, L. 1992. Comparison of the life-cycles of the copper redhorse (Moxostoma- hubbis) and 4 other Moxostoma Species (M- anisurum, M-carinatum, M- macrolepidotum and M-valenciennes). Canadian Journal of Zoology 7:1354-1363. This species is not endangered or threatened and is not currently at risk. As of 2002 there was no management plan for the shorthead redhorse.

Relationship with humans

Its small size limits the appeal of shorthead redhorse as a game fish. The shorthead redhorse is said to be one of the better tasting fish, however there are many little bones throughout the meat making it unappealing to many American consumers. The meat also spoils rapidly in warm temperatures making it hard to transport. Shorthead redhorse play a key role in their ecosystems as prey for larger game fish. They are often used for

bait Bait may refer to: General * Bait (luring substance), bait as a luring substance ** Fishing bait, bait used for fishing Film * ''Bait'' (1950 film), a British crime film by Frank Richardson * ''Bait'' (1954 film), an American noir film by Hugo ...

if caught small enough. Humans impact the population the most through chemical contamination of their habitat.

Bioaccumulation Bioaccumulation is the gradual accumulation of substances, such as pesticides or other chemicals, in an organism. Bioaccumulation occurs when an organism absorbs a substance at a rate faster than that at which the substance is lost or eliminated ...

of chemicals is common in fish that feed near the benthic zone, like the shorthead redhorse.Al-Ansari, A.M., Saleem, A., Kimpe, L.E., Sherry, J.P., McMaster, M.E., Trudeau, V.L., and Blais, J. M. 2010. Bioaccumulation of the pharmaceutical 17 alpha-ethinylestradiol in shorthead redhorse suckers (Moxostoma macrolepidotum) from the St. Clair River, Canada. Environmental Pollution 8:2566-2571. The current

IGFA The International Game Fish Association (''IGFA'') is the leading authority on angling pursuits and the keeper of the most current World Record fishing catches by fish categories. Fishermen who are sport fishers are careful to follow their strin ...

all tackle world record for the species stands at , caught from the Prairie River in

Minnesota, USA Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over t ...

on May 4, 1988 by angler Greg Clusiau.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1609042 Moxostoma Fish described in 1817 Freshwater fish of North America