Issue #35 June 2007This has been unusual spring in east Tennessee and the Southeast in general, as I’m sure many of you are aware! An early warm spell was followed by a late cold spell, and now it's hot and dry. Many fishes are spawning earlier than usual this year. Some that were spawning when the big freeze hit the Southeast were interrupted; others were merely delayed. We don’t yet know how all of this will ultimately affect reproductive success. The late freeze has been followed by one of the driest springs on record. Lack of rain has resulted in more siltation in many of our streams. There have been no spring floods to flush out accumulated silt. It will be interesting to see how the weather pattern affects stream habitats over the remainder of the season. One thing for certain, the drought has allowed us to complete a lot of field work. Low water has made streams more accessible and shallower. Every year in April, the buffalo-fish make their spawning runs into Citico Creek (as well as other streams). At least two species of buffalo are present, the black buffalo, Ictiobus niger, and the smallmouth buffalo, Ictiobus bubalus. At least one carpsucker and several (mostly silver) redhorses join these spawning runs. Commonly inhabiting big rivers and reservoirs, buffalo grow quite large. Most of the ones we saw making the run into Citico Creek appeared to be in the five to 15 pound range. Some of the females looked even larger. Still larger specimens can be found living in big rivers. Buffalo begin to gather in the lower section of the creek starting in early April. Hundreds, and soon thousands, of big bluish-black fish fill the lowermost pools. And then, for just a couple days, it’s a frenzy! The males crowd around the gravid females, often three or more males jostling each female. They then run into the shallow shoals spilling eggs as they go! Before long, the substrate is completely covered in sucker eggs. Everything is covered! It’s an incredible sight. The run lasts for several days, then they all disappear back into the depths of Tellico Reservoir. After several false starts, we finally caught the action with underwater video. It was amazing being in the water with tens of thousands of large fish, all intent on reproducing. You can snorkel right up to them, as they are totally focused on matters at hand. This has resulted in some pretty cool video, which you can check out here. We
have had a really busy time in the hatchery recently. We're in the
middle of tending madtom and duskytail darter nests. The logperch have
been spawning all spring. Spotfin chubs are getting cranked up. Boulder
darters are in full swing. Some spawning from the blueface dartersis
occurring. Barrens topminnows are just getting going. We'll have more
news from the hatchery in a future newsletter. Thanks for your continued interest in CFI!
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