REDBELLY DACE 



southern Michigan, southern Wis- 

 consin, southern Minnesota, the 

 Dakotas, Montana, and Colorado; 

 and in portions of northeastern 

 United States to Potomac River 

 drainages of Maryland. In Min- 

 nesota, it seems to j)refer acid bog 

 lakes; in Michigan, in addition to 

 its occurrence in bog lakes, it has 

 been found in small ponds show- 

 ing a heavy growth of chara and 

 a rapid deposition of marl. 



Breeding habits. — In the spawn- 

 ing season, the males are brilliantly 

 colored. The abdomen is a beauti- 

 ful red, and the fins are highly col- 

 ored with red and yellow. 



The spawning habits, rate of 

 growth, and age at maturity have 

 been carefully studied in Michigan. 

 The eggs are deposited entirely 

 upon filamentous algae. One fe- 

 male lays from 5 to 30 nonadhesive 

 eggs scattered through and entan- 

 gled among the filaments. The fe- 

 male darts from one algal mass to 

 another, laying eggs in each new 

 mass. The eggs hatch in 8 to 10 

 days at water temperatures of 70° 

 to 80° F. Spawning takes place 

 from the latter part of May into 

 August in southern Michigan. 



Adult females, when dissected. 



revealed the simultaneous matura- 

 tion of several hundred eggs and 

 the presence of at least two size 

 groups of maturing eggs. This 

 suggests that one female has no 

 fewer than two distinct spawning 

 periods during a season. The 

 young, hatching early in the sum- 

 mer, attain nearly adult size by the 

 end of the first growing season and 

 spawn early the next summer. 

 Those hatching late in the season 

 pass the first wnnter as small fish 

 and require most of the next sum- 

 mer to reach maturity, often not 

 spawning until their third summer. 



Food. — Studies made in the St. 

 Lawrence watershed of New York 

 indicate that the northern redbelly 

 dace is mainly herbivorous, that it 

 feeds almost entirely on diatoms 

 and other algae, the remains of seed 

 plants, and only to a limited degree 

 on insects and animal plankton. 



I rrvportanc e. — Experimental 

 propagation of this species in Mich- 

 igan has shown that 128,000 fish can 

 be raised per acre of water surface. 

 The redbelly dace is best suited to 

 cool waters. This species does not 

 reach a length of more than 21/^ 

 inches and is valuable only as bait 

 for panfish. 



SOUTHERN REDBELLY DACE Chrosomus eryfhrogasfer 

 LIFE HISTORY 



Description. — The southern red- 

 belly dace differs from the northern 

 form in its more horizontal mouth, 

 longer snout, and narrower caudal 

 peduncle. 



Range and hreeding habits. — The 



southern redbelly dace is more 

 southern in range than its northern 

 relative, and has a decided prefer- 

 ence for cool, gravelly creeks from 

 Iowa, southern Minnesota through 

 southeastern Michigan eastward to 

 Ohio River drainages of Pennsyl- 

 vania and West Virginia, and south- 



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