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Exploring the beautiful nature of California


California Nature: Chub


California is a large state, the 3rd largest in the U.S.A., and depending on where you go, can range broadly in habitat type and, also, climate. For this reason, California plays host to a huge variety of fish.

Fishes are aquatic vertebrates that have fins, gills and scales. Gills are the part of the respiratory system that provide surface area for exchanging oxygen and carbon dioxide under water. Fish are ectotherms, commonly referred to as 'cold-blooded', meaning their temperature is regulated by the temperature of their environment. They have a range of diets, being herbivores, carnivores, or omnivores. Some fish reproduce by laying eggs, while others reproduce by bearing live young.

California fish species reside in freshwater and coastal/marine waters. Freshwater fish are fishes that live at least part, if not all, of their lives in bodies of fresh water with a salinity of less than .05%. Forty-one percent of all known fish species are found in freshwater.
arroyo chub are small minnows are are a threatened species Usually less than 4 inches, the arroyo chub is a small, chunky minnow found in slow moving mud or sand bottomed sections of streams. They have gray-olive green backs and white bellies, fairly large eyes, and small mouths. Arroyo chubs eat algae and small insects and other invertebrates that they pick off of plants or off the bottom.

Arroyo chub breed from February through August, and during the breeding season, males develop bumps, called breeding tubercles, on their pectoral fins. The Arroyo chub is native to the Los Angeles, San Gabriel, San Luis Rey, Santa Ana, and Santa Margarita rivers and to Malibu and San Juan creeks. They have been introduced to the Santa Ynez, Santa Maria, Cuyama, and Mojave river systems, and to a number of smaller coastal streams.

Currently, arroyo chub are absent or rare in much of their native range, and are only abundant in portions of the Santa Margarita River and Trabuco, San Juan, and Malibu Creeks.

Arroyo chub is threatened by habitat modification due to urbanization, and by competition with introduced minnow species such as the red shiner. It was declared a Fish Species of Special Concern in California by the Department of Fish and Game in 1995, and the department recommends protection and management of any remaining natural stream habitat in their range, and establishment of a native fish refuge in the West Fork of the San Gabriel River for conservation of arroyo chub.

In the early 1970s the Mohave Tui Chub population in the Mojave River experienced a significant loss. In order to save the population, wildlife officials moved some of the populations to safer habitat and one of those places was China Lake. Mohave tui chubs are small fish rarely exceeding 6.7 inches, but occasionally reaching 8.7 inches. The body is stocky with a large, slightly concave head, and short rounded fins. Larger fish may develop a pronounced hump behind the head. The snout is short and the mouth is slanted downward posteriorly. In color, these endangered fish are bright brassy-brown to dusky-olive dorsally, with gold and fine speckling laterally, and a bluish-white to silver ventral surface.
The bonytail chub is an endangered species in California Nature The Bonytail Chub is on the U.S. Endangered Species List, classified as endangered throughout its range in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, and Utah. This fish lives in large, fast-flowing waterways of the Colorado River system, and the large-scale damming of the river has diminished available habitat. Other threats to the Bonytail Chub have been the introduction of non-native fish that compete for food and habitat, and may prey on it or hybridize with it.

A bonytail chub can grow to over 2 feet long. Like many other desert fishes, its coloring tends to be darker above and lighter below, serving as a camouflage. Breeding males have red fin bases. They have a streamlined body and a terminal mouth. Bonytail Chubs have bodies that sometimes arch into a smooth, predorsal hump. While their skull is quite concave, their tailside is thin, and almost looks like a pencil ( “bony tail”). The coloration of Bonytail Chubs is usually dark dorsally and lighter ventrally, however, in very clear waters, they looks almost black all over.
 
 
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