Leatherside chub
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| Snyderichthys copei (Jordan & Gilbert, 1881) |
The leatherside chub Snyderichthys copei is a cyprinid fish of western North America.
This is a small fish, reported at up to 15 cm (6 in) in length, but more typically half that. The tapered body is covered with very small scales over a skin with a leathery texture, inspiring the common name. Overall color is bluish dorsally and silver ventrally; males are distinguished by patches of orange-red color on the axils of the paired fins, at the base of the anal fin, and along the lower lobe of the tail, as well as golden-red specks at the upper end of the gill opening, and between eye and upper jaw. Unlike most other minnows, both dorsal and anal fins have 8 rays.
Its habitat is cooler creeks and rivers with moderate currents, where the adults congregate in pools or riffles, while the young favor quiet areas with brush near the shore.
Leatherside chubs range from the upper Snake River system in Idaho and Wyoming south to the Sevier River in Utah, being commonly found in the rivers draining into the Great Salt Lake and Utah Lake. They have been introduced into the Colorado River system, such as Strawberry Reservoir and Price River in Utah.
This chub has been extensively used as fishing bait.
Originally named Squalius copei by Jordan and Gilbert, and then placed in Gila as Gila copei, this chub was separated into into its own monotypic genus by R. R. Miller in 1945.
[edit] References
- William F. Sigler and John W. Sigler, Fishes of the Great Basin (Reno: University of Nevada Press, 1987), pp. 173-175
- "Snyderichthys copei". FishBase. Ed. Ranier Froese and Daniel Pauly. November 2006 version. N.p.: FishBase, 2006.
