Bonytail chub
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Order: Cypriniformes
Family: Cyprinidae

[Photo] Bonytail Chub (Gila elegans). Photo from USFWS.

The bonytail chub or bonytail, Gila elegans, is an endangered cyprinid freshwater fish native to parts of Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada and Utah in the United States. It was, at one time, considered extirpated from the wild. The bonytail has never been valued as a sport or food fish.

Gila elegans was added to the US list of endangered species on April 23, 1980. The species has been re-introduced to parts of its native range from captive stocks.

Not everyone is happy about the reintroduction of the bonytail. Some are concerned about the amount of water used to increase stream flows that are required for adequate bonytail habitat. Bass fishermen are concerned about facilitating the recovery of the bonytail by the removal of smallmouth bass, a popular gamefish. Fears of spreading the quagga mussel, an invasive species that clogs water pipelines and fouls marine equipment, has halted the reintroduction of the bonytail in Arizona, pending establishment of a stocking protocol that is satisfactory to Arizona wildlife officials.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonytail_chub

The text in this page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article shown in above URL. It is used under the GNU Free Documentation License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL.