Humpback chub
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| Gila cypha Miller, 1945 |
The humpback chub Gila cypha is a rare cyprinid fish found only in fast waters of the Colorado River system in the United States.
Its most notable feature is the prominent hump between the head and dorsal fin, which directs the flow of water over its body in such a way as to help it maintain its position in the swift currents of the Colorado. Its body is almost entirely scaleless, retaining only about 80 or so along the lateral line, and very streamlined, with a thin caudal peduncle carrying a deeply forked tail. Its back is a light olive gray, the sides are silver, and the belly white. The dorsal fin usually has nine rays, and the anal fin 10 or more. Maximum recorded length is 38 cm.
Humpback chub mostly consume invertebrates, and occasionally other fish, feeding at all levels from bottom to surface. They spawn from April through June, triggered by water temperatures reaching 66-70 degrees F. They develop tubercles on the head and the paired fins, and seek out slower-moving backwaters, typically over a substrate of cobbles or boulders. Young fish stay along the shorelines or in quiet areas, preferably in turbid water.
Populations are known only from the Colorado and several of its tributaries; Green River, White River, Yampa River, and the Little Colorado River. It is possible that populations once existed in the Lower Colorado, but since the species was only described in the 1940s, after the Colorado had been extensively modified, the full original range is unknown.
Efforts to recover the fish have thus far failed and the fish is extirpated from many areas it once inhabited.
[edit] References
- William F. Sigler and John W. Sigler, Fishes of Utah (University of Utah Press, 1996), pp. 79-83
- "Gila cypha". FishBase. Ed. Ranier Froese and Daniel Pauly. Ocober 2006 version. N.p.: FishBase, 2006.
- FWS page
