Name:
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- Couesius, for American ornithologist Eliot
Coues, of the US Army Medical Corps
- plumbeus, from the Latin, "lead colored"
- Common Name
- Other common names include: Bottlefish, Chub Minnow, Creek Chub, Northern
Chub
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Taxonomy:
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- Kingdom Animalia
- Phylum Chordata, animals with a spinal chord
- Subphylum Vertebrata, animals with a backbone
- Superclass Osteichthyes, bony fishes
- Class Actinopterygii, ray-finned and spiny rayed fishes
- Subclass Neopterygii
- Infraclass Teleostei
- Superorder Ostariophysi
- Order Cypriniformes, minnows and suckers
- Family Cyprinidae, carps and minnows
- Genus Couesius, the lake chubs
- Previous nomenclature of this species listed them in the genus Hybopsis.
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Description:
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- A large minnow of the North Country.
- Length to 8" at maturity
- Color
- light-gray on the back and upper sides
- shading to silvery below
- Spawning males show pink around their mouth and at the base of their paired
fins while females also have pink shading at the base of the pectoral fins
- Body
- long and stout
- dorsal, anal, and pelvic fins of 8 rays
- pectoral fin of 13-18 rays
- complete lateral line of 60-67 scales
- Both sexes develop tubercles while breeding
- Head
- large sub-terminal mouth
- prominent barbel in the corner of mouth
- hooked pharyngeal teeth, usually in a 2, 4-4, 2 pattern
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Identification:
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Distribution:
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- Northern sections of the Great Lakes states, Wyoming, Montana, and most
of Canada.
- Lake Superior drainage west through the BWCA to the Lake of the Woods.
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Habitat:
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- Streams and lakes and ponds, apparently moving into deeper water during
the summer
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Food:
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- Adults forage on aquatic and terrestrial insects by sight. Also eat
algae, zooplankton, and small fishes.
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History:
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Uses:
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Reproduction:
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- Early spawner, moving into streams in April in the southern part of its
range.
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Comments:
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Links:
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Last updated on 14 November 1999
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