Technical Report

Hybridization Potential and Spawning Behavior of Rio Grande Silvery Minnow (Hybognathus amarus) and Plains Minnow (Hybognathus placitus)

URL: https://webapps.usgs.gov/mrgescp/documents/Caldwell_2003_Hybridization%20Potential%20and%20Spawning%20Behaviour%20of%20RGSM%20%28Hybognathus%20Amarus%29%20and%20Plains%20Minnow%20%28Hybognathus%20Placitus%29.pdf

Date: 2003/05/01

Author(s): Caldwell C.

Publication: Report prepared for U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 18 p.

Abstract:

The presence of a variety of drainage systems in New Mexico (Great Plains, Chihuahuan Desert, Mexican Plateau, Sonoran Desert, Great Basin) has resulted in one of the greatest diversity of native fish faunal assemblages in the interior southwestern states (Sublette et al. 1990). Historically, sixteen families comprising 69 native species of fish have lived in New Mexico waters. At the time of the publication of Fishes of New Mexico (Sublette et al. 1990), eight species had been extirpated with 27 species having their historic ranges restricted. Native floral and faunal communities in the southwestern United States have been severely impacted by activities of pre-Columbian and post-Columbian man. Practices such as irrigation, municipal water use, damming, logging, mining, livestock grazing, and the introduction of nonnative terrestrial and aquatic species have resulted in the decline and extirpation of native fishes. One species receiving considerable attention is the federally endangered and state-protected Rio Grande silvery minnow (Hybognathus amarus). Bestgen and Platania (1991) found H. amarus inhabiting 5% of its former range in the Rio Grande basin of New Mexico, Texas, and Mexico. In accordance with the Rio Grande Silvery Minnow Recovery Plan to re-establish, stabilize, and enhance populations within its historic range of the Rio Grande Basin, information is needed to determine the biological response of the species to altered habitat including the potential for hybridizing with other species.