Nest Association and Reproductive Microhabitat of the Threatened Blackside Dace, Chrosomus cumberlandensis

Abstract

Abstract Chrosomus cumberlandensis (Blackside Dace) is a federally protected cyprinid fish found in small tributaries of the upper Cumberland River system in southeastern Kentucky and northeastern Tennessee. Relatively little is known about the species’ reproductive ecology and early life history. From a small number of field observations, the species is known to spawn as an associate with other cyprinid nest-building hosts, namely Campostoma anomalum (Central Stoneroller) and Semotilus atromaculatus (Creek Chub). In the present study, we first analyzed Blackside Dace co-occurrence patterns with other cyprinids to predict the relative importance of each species to Blackside Dace nestassociation behavior. We next studied Blackside Dace spawning activities in seven 200-m reaches in five Kentucky streams during May-July 2006 to document nest associations and measure microhabitat conditions at spawning and non-spawning locations. Three of the seven study reaches were impacted by active logging operations. We ...