WESTERN MUD MINNOW 



pliiiii, southward in tlie central 

 basin to the Upper Oliio River 

 system, and in northwestern Ten- 

 nessee, nortlieastern Arkansas, and 

 Kansas. It prefers sprino;-fed, 

 soft -bottomed pools, and weedy 

 streams and ponds. It is common 

 in bo^ijy or stagnant places. 

 Spawning- takes place in early 

 spring, usually upstream in small 

 brooks. 



The mud minnow hibernates in 

 the mud and will go dow^n 4 to 9 

 inches. It may be found in the 

 mud in a horizontal position or in 

 a vertical position with the head 

 upward. When alarmed, it usu- 

 ally buries itself in the mud. 



Food. — The food of the mud 

 minnow is mostly of an animal 

 nature. It has been known to eat 

 insects, spiders, mites, amphipods, 

 entomostracans, snails, leeches, 

 oligochaete w o r m s , nematodes, 

 earthworms, rotifers, protozoans, 

 and algae and other plants. A 

 summary of the records indicates 

 that mud minnows will take as 

 much as 80 percent of their food 

 from insect fauna, some have taken 

 90 percent amphipods, others have 

 taken 50 ])ercent entomostracans. 

 More than 20 percent of the stom- 



ach contents of others has been 

 plant food. More than 50 percent 

 of the food of some stomachs has 

 been mollusks, and in one collec- 

 tion 40 percent of the stomach con- 

 tents was surface drift. 



Stomach analyses by various 

 workers show^ed that the digestive 

 tracts of mud minnows contained 

 the following average percentages : 

 Insects, 45.6; amphipods, 11.1; en- 

 tomostracans, 16.3; mollusks, 12.3; 

 arachnids, 0.16; plants, 7.1; surface 

 drift, 4.6; algae, 1.4; miscellane- 

 ous, 1.24; and silt, 0.2. 



Importance. — The mud minnow 

 is very hardy, but is not a popu- 

 lar bait species, except in Wiscon- 

 sin, as it is not very active. 



Evermann (1901) had the fol- 

 lowing to say regarding this fish: 



So pei'sistently do they cling to life 

 that it is really difficult to kill them. 

 * * * Its unexcelled tenacity of life is, 

 however, about the only thing it has to 

 recommend it as a bait minnow. Its 

 somber, unattractive color prevents it 

 being readily seen by game fishes, and 

 its tendency to pull down or get to the 

 bottom also militates against it. But 

 bass and pickerel and pike do some- 

 times take it and, in spite of its de- 

 ficiencies, the Mudfisli is a good thing to 

 have in one's minnow pail. 



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