On August 25, 2021 I went out to a nearby tributary of the Platte River called the Elkhorn river. My goal was to catch orange-spotted sunfish or some sort of catfish (stonecat or tadpole madtom). I was netting along the bank pulling in green sunfish and some sort of shiner. The river was pretty low and wasn't really flowing very fast. The bottom of the river was very muddy with no sand. It was getting dark and I decided I would do a couple more swipes with the net before I left. I swept through a little indent in the river. This area had low flow and lots of big sticks. As I was bringing the net up I saw many shiners and a bigger fish that seemed different. I washed it off and got a good look at it. I immediately knew it was some sort of juvenile chub, but I wasn't sure exactly what it was. I got some pictures of it in my hand which was quite difficult because it wouldn't stop moving. I wanted to get some pictures of it in my collection cup but when I put it in there it started to float to the surface so I released it before it died. I went home and did some research and eventually came to the conclusion that it is a silver chub. The silver chub is not rare and is least concern according to the IUCN red list. They are the second largest species in there genus with 12 species in it. One interesting thing I learned about this fish is that they eat invasive zebra muscles. Overall this fish is very interesting and the coolest part about this is that I am the first person to put a Nebraska caught silver chub on iNaturalist. An awseome fish with amazing characteristics. Thanks!

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29690086/
https://www.amazon.com/Fishes-Nebraska-Robert-Hrabik/dp/1561610283

Posted on September 21, 2021 02:21 AM by nebraska_fish