SILVER CHUB
SCIENTIFIC NAME: Macrhybopsis storeriana
CHARACTERISTICS: The silver chub is a slender species with large eyes; its eye diameter is about equal to its snout length. The rounded snout is blunt and projects well beyond the upper lip. The mouth is small, inferior, and horizontal, with a single barbel in each corner. Life color is light olive to silvery, with the scales on the back faintly edged with melanophores. The lower caudal lobe is somewhat darker, with a milky white edge that contrasts with the dusky upper lobe. Edges of the dorsal and anal fins are falcate. Species likely to be confused with the silver chub are the silverside shiner, Notropis candidus; fluvial shiner, N. edwardraneyi; and Mississippi silvery minnow, Hybognathus nuchalis.
ADULT SIZE: 3.5 to 6.1 in (90 to 155 mm)
DISTRIBUTION: Macrhybopsis storeriana is widely distributed throughout the Mississippi, Ohio, and Mobile basins east to the Brazos River drainage in Texas. In the Mobile basin and Tennessee River drainage, this species is confined to large river channels and tributary streams.
HABITAT AND BIOLOGY: The silver chub appears to prefer sluggish waters of main river channels and large tributary streams, often with increased turbidities. Spawning occurs from April through June, most likely in open water. Three years is the maximum life span. The field notes of R. D. Suttkus record large spawning aggregations in the lower Pearl river, Mississippi, in February and March. In the Cahaba, Coosa, and Tallapoosa main channels, adults are often collected in moderate to fast current or in slow eddies adjacent to fast currents over sand or gravel substrate. Stream drift composed of adult and immature insects, plant material, and zooplankton are the food staples of this species. Etnier and Starnes (1993) report that the introduced Asian clam Corbicula is a principal food source for Tennessee individuals.
ORIGINAL DESCRIPTION: Kirtland described the silver chub in 1845.
ETYMOLOGY:
Macrhybopsis means long- or large-bodied minnows.
Storeriana is in honor of David Humphreys Storer, author of the first synopsis of North American fishes (1846).
The copyrighted information above is from Fishes of Alabama and the Mobile Basin.
