Black buffalo fish
| Black buffalo fish | ||||||||||||
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Black buffalo fish ( ictiobus niger ) |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Ictiobus niger | ||||||||||||
| Rafinesque , 1820 |
The black buffalo fish ( Ictiobus niger ), like the big-mouthed buffalo fish and small-mouthed buffalo fish, belongs to the North American family of sucker carp .
distribution
The black buffalo fish is widespread in the Mississippi , Ohio River, and Missouri River . In Texas , the species of fish is found in the Rio Grande , Colorado River , Brazos River , Sabine River, and Red River . Furthermore, it occurs in the lower Great Lakes in Michigan via Ohio to South Dakota , also in New Mexico and northern Mexico . It has also been detected in Lake Texoma in Oklahoma. Ictiobus niger inhabits a number of water types: from retention basins, reservoirs and ponds to smaller and larger rivers. It prefers flowing waters with stronger currents, gravel and sandy bottoms and thus differs slightly from its relatives, the loud-mouthed buffalo fish and the small-mouthed buffalo fish. Nevertheless, it shows great adaptability: in Kansas it occurs frequently in rapids, in Ohio in murky, shallow waters with a muddy bottom and flooded banks, and in Sulfur Creek in Texas again in heavily weedy waters.
description
The black buffalo fish is much darker in color than its relatives, its back area is blue-gray to dark brown in color, the underside is yellowish white. In spring at spawning time, the males are often black in color. A lighter color is found in specimens that live in heavily clouded waters. In Citico Creek, Texas, it was observed that the males can develop a white spawning rash. In exceptional cases up to 24 years of age it can be up to 120 centimeters long and 28 kilograms. The largest black buffalo fish caught on a line came from Lake Maumelle in Pulaski County / Arkansas in 2001 and weighed 41.96 kilograms. In 1999, a specimen weighing 48.08 kilograms was caught in Texas.
Way of life
Black buffalo fish are oviparous and prefer to spawn on a gravel bottom in April / May.
They feed, for example, on Asian cupfish ( Corbicula fluminea and Corbicula fluminalis ), algae , diatoms and crustaceans . They also eat plankton, some aquatic plants and water snails.
use
Professional fishermen also refer to the species as "Rooter" due to its lifestyle close to the bottom. As food fish , they are of limited importance, locally popular as fishing fish because of their size and weight.
Web links
- Black Buffalo Fish on Fishbase.org (English)
- Ictiobus niger inthe IUCN 2013 Red List of Threatened Species . Listed by: NatureServe, 2012. Retrieved December 19, 2013.
Notes and individual references
- ↑ a b c d Black Buffalo Fish on Fishbase.org (English)
- ↑ a b c d e f g h Archived copy ( memento of the original dated June 30, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Fishing World Records
- ↑ Asiatic Clam widespread in the reservoirs of Arizona as an introduced species, here the Black Buffalos have specialized in this food.
