Observations on recruitment and ecology of razorback sucker: Lower Colorado River, Arizona–California–Nevada

Authors

Paul C. Marsh, Arizona State University, Tempe
W. L. Minckley, Arizona State University, Tempe

Abstract

The Colorado River system downstream from Lake Mohave yielded 42 adult, 19 juvenile, and 39 larval wild razorback suckers (Zyrauchen texanus) between 1962 and 1988. Forty-six additional young captured between 1984 and 1987 may have been wild or stocked, hatchery-propagated fish. Wild juveniles of this endemic, imperiled species, with one exception, have not been otherwise known from the Colorado River basin downstream from the Grand Canyon since the 1950s. A majority of adults and larvae were from the river or its mainstream impoundments, while all but one wild juvenile and all presumably stocked fish were captured from irrigation canals. The ecology of artificial canals in which young razorback suckers survive and grow is poorly understood.

Recommended Citation

Marsh, Paul C. and Minckley, W. L. (1989) "Observations on recruitment and ecology of razorback sucker: Lower Colorado River, Arizona–California–Nevada," Great Basin Naturalist: Vol. 49: No. 1, Article 5.
Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/gbn/vol49/iss1/5