Snorkeling Rivers and Streams by Keith Williams

Author:Keith Williams
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Stackpole Books
Published: 2019-12-20T00:00:00+00:00

This was a creek chub. Chubs are another member of the minnow family. They are the architects of the stream. They create mounds of clean gravel for spawning, and other species, such these common shiners, take advantage of it. The males grow horn like tubercles on their heads in the spring. We really aren’t sure of the purpose the tubercles serve. It may be to attract a mate. Maybe the male with the most horns wins the female. Or it might be to spar with other males. I have seen two chubs headbutt each other for the prime spot to construct a nest. Or maybe our poor attempts at defining their role and trying to understand the chubs’ world and life through the lens of our reality falls way short of their true purpose. Regardless, watching male chubs build mounds is one of the most amazing feats to witness in our natural world. I once watched a chub construct his mound over 2 days. It started with bare bottom. He picked stones nearby and started to pile them between two large moss-and snail-covered boulders. He swam from his nest, mouthed a few rocks on the bottom until he found the right sized one he was looking for, carted it back to his mound, and spit it out. As his mound grew, he had to travel farther from it to find building materials. I watched this male carry a rock that was half his body length and likely weighed more than he did as his tail vigorously beat the bottom, body tilted at a 45-degree angle toward the surface, to make it back upstream to the mound. After he had a good mound started, a female showed up, and he spawned with her. Their fertilized eggs settled into the crevices formed by the rocky substrate he created. Then he rapidly gathered and placed another layer of gravel on top to prevent these eggs from being eaten by marauding suckers.

Chub building his mound.

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