Nanfa Fish List

I was looking at the NANFA fish check list, and I noticed it was missing a fue fish.
I did not study it in great detail but these are my sugestions

We seem to be missing:

Cuban Gar (Atractosteus tristoechus)
Tropical Gar (Atractosteus tropicus)
Wichita Spotted Bass (Micropterus punctulatus wichitae) thought to be EXTINCT

Montana Grayling (I will have to look up their scientific names)
Michigan Grayling EXTINCT

Should the Sunapee Trout be listed as endangered

Was Zander on the list? It lives in eather a South Decoda or North Decoda lake, I saved an artical out of
In-fishermen Magazine, I will look it up if you want. EXOTIC

Mike

I was looking at the NANFA fish check list, and I noticed it was missing a fue fish.

Hi Mike,

Thanks for your questions regarding the list. It's good to know that people are using it, I'm sure Chris will be thrilled to see its use

I'll save Chris some time since I was curious before he replied...

I would need him to more specifically answer the grayling question, I'm unable to find the citation, although I'm pretty sure that there were determined to not have significant enough divergence for subspecies status. However, if I'm remembering correctly, they are as a Unique Evolutionary Unit, and there's some fighting going on with USFWS about listing the remaining populations under the ESA.

Your gar species do not fall within his defined universe for "North American Species". The Cuban gar occurrs on a Caribbean island, the tropical gar occurs south of the North American physiogeographic province.

The Wichita bass was thrown out by both meristic and genetic evidence. Below is the paper examining the genetics.

Genetic Structure of Spotted Bass (Micropterus punctulatus) in the Red and Arkansas River Basins: Microsatellite and Mitochondrial DNA Variation
Warren D. Coughlin, Anthony A. Echelle, Ronald A. Van Den Bussche, Larry M. Cofer, William L. Fisher
The Southwestern Naturalist, Vol. 48, No. 4 (Dec., 2003), pp. 526-533

Abstract
Mitochondrial DNA sequences and 5 microsatellite DNA loci were used to assess the genetic structure of Micropterus punctulatus (spotted bass) in the upper Red, Ouachita, and Arkansas river basins. Results for 318 spotted bass from 14 localities indicated that extant populations in East Cache Creek, which potentially supported the nominal subspecies M. punctulatus wichitae, are either introductions or they are weakly divergent native populations. Both mtDNA and microsatellite DNA indicated that populations of M. punctulatus in the Ouachita River basin are more similar to those in the Arkansas River basin than to those in the Red River basin. This conflicts with a previous Pleistocene model for the aquatic biogeography of the region. Microsatellites showed no evidence of genetic introgression by M. dolomieu; mtDNA was not divergent between the 2 species, possibly because of ancient introgression.

Not real sure what's going on with the Sunapee Trout:
http://nas.er.usgs.g...p?speciesID=936

Probably not listed as a nominal form. I couldn't find anyone who'd looked at the genes, so I imagine that means it won't have achieved any Fed status until this is examined.

The zander introductions are in question wether they were succesful:
http://nas.er.usgs.g...p?speciesID=830

Again, Chris can answer if this is the reason for the omission.

Todd

Whoo hoo! Glad to see someone’s reviewing the Checklist carefully. Todd already addressed the questions so some of this will be repetitive.

> Cuban Gar (Atractosteus tristoechus)
> Tropical Gar (Atractosteus tropicus)

I do not include these species because they do not occur within the Nearctic Realm. See intro comments at beginning of list.

> Wichita Spotted Bass (Micropterus punctulatus wichitae) thought to be EXTINCT

I haven’t fully vetted the centrarchids (that’s scheduled for next year), but as Todd pointed out there’s little genetic support for this nominal subspecies, so it’s off the list (for now, at least).

> Montana Grayling (I will have to look up their scientific names)

Montana Arctic Grayling, T. a. montanus Milner 1874, is considered a synonym by most recent salmonid taxonomsts. See: Behnke, R. J. 2002. Trout and salmon of North America. New York: The Free Press.

> Michigan Grayling EXTINCT

Some workers (e.g., Hubbs and Lagler, 2004) treat North American populations as a separate subspecies, T. a. signifer (Richardson 1823), but I follow Behnke (see above), at least for now. And yes, the MI population from the Great Lakes is extinct.

> Should the Sunapee Trout be listed as endangered

The online version of the Checklist only notes if a species is federally listed by the U.S., Canadian and/or Mexican governments. The annotated version of the Checklist – 2 of 4 parts printed in American Currents so far – go into more detail and include state and provincial listsings: The Sunappe trout (Salvelinus alpinus oquassa) is listed as Endangered in New Hampshire, Special Concern in Quebec, and extirpated in New Hampshire and Vermont.

> Was Zander on the list?

Sander lucioperca is not on the Checklist since there are no known reproducing populations in North America. That’s the criteria for including exotics – are they currently breeding in North American waters?

Chris Scharpf
Official NANFA Checklister

> Was Zander on the list?

Sander lucioperca is not on the Checklist since there are no known reproducing populations in North America. That’s the criteria for including exotics – are they currently breeding in North American waters?

Chris Scharpf
Official NANFA Checklister

Hi Chris,

I saw the artical in a IN-Fishermen magazine. I saved it, but we did a lot of work in the basement, it might take me a while to find it.
I think it was last year a woman caught a large Zander, they were stocked by the States DNR. In the 1980's I believe in either North Dakota or South Dakota. They were going to look into if the Zander were reproducing. I am only going by memory here.
Mike

I read the same article. They were suspicious the non native fish might be naturally reproducing due to the fact that the last state stocking had been done so many years previous. It's hard to be certain this is a naturally reproducing fish to be honest. You would think if they were naturally reproducing, you could find juveniles from time to time.


I can't believe she let that fish go!

> Cuban Gar (Atractosteus tristoechus)
> Tropical Gar (Atractosteus tropicus)

I do not include these species because they do not occur within the Nearctic Realm. See intro comments at beginning of list.



Chris Scharpf
Official NANFA Checklister

Hi Chris,

I thought Cuba was attached to North America at one time (last ice age). Like England was attached to mainland Europe. That would explane why it has so many North American species.
But I could be wrong, I will look into it.
I wonder if exceptions should be made for Northern Species that live south of the line. There must be others becides these two gar.

Mike

I read the same article. They were suspicious the non native fish might be naturally reproducing due to the fact that the last state stocking had been done so many years previous. It's hard to be certain this is a naturally reproducing fish to be honest. You would think if they were naturally reproducing, you could find juveniles from time to time.
I can't believe she let that fish go!

I can't believe she let it go eather. It could have been a State Record, or at least the North American Record. Also its not native, but to most anglers that does not matter for Gamefish. Gamefish have been spread all accross the country.

Did you stop at that store, was the gar still there? He told me that he could get more.

Well, everything was connected if you go back far enough!

I exclude Cuba from the NANFA North American freshwater fish Checklist because predecessor lists do the same (e.g., Mayden et al, 1992, and the AFS-ASIH names list). Despite a few shared species, Cuba's ichthyofauna is quite different from mainland America's, with a high degree of endemicity, especially among poeciliids. I can't locate my reference for this, but Cuba (as well as Puerto Rico) are both giant peaks of a vast underwater mountain range that's connected to South America.

Hope this clarifies a little more.

Chris Scharpf
NANFA Checklist Central

Hi Chris,

I thought Cuba was attached to North America at one time (last ice age). Like England was attached to mainland Europe. That would explane why it has so many North American species.
But I could be wrong, I will look into it.
I wonder if exceptions should be made for Northern Species that live south of the line. There must be others becides these two gar.

Mike

Well, everything was connected if you go back far enough!

I exclude Cuba from the NANFA North American freshwater fish Checklist because predecessor lists do the same (e.g., Mayden et al, 1992, and the AFS-ASIH names list). Despite a few shared species, Cuba's ichthyofauna is quite different from mainland America's, with a high degree of endemicity, especially among poeciliids. I can't locate my reference for this, but Cuba (as well as Puerto Rico) are both giant peaks of a vast underwater mountain range that's connected to South America.

Hope this clarifies a little more.

Chris Scharpf
NANFA Checklist Central

Thats fine we have to draw a line somewhere.

Mike

A fue more questions; should these be added or noted?

Southern Brown Bullhead (Ictalurus nebulosus nebulosus)
Angayukaksurak Char (Salvelinus anaktuvukensis)

Blueback Trout
Quebec Red Trout (I will look up scientific names later)


Three species of Muskinonge used to be recognized before the wide spread stocking.
Barred, Clear, & Spotted Muskie.

Has there been any more discussion by anyone on makeing the Silver Pike a subspecies of Northern Pike?

And for that matter, has there been any more discussion on the Blue Waleye in some ONT. Lakes?
Some of them sure are bright blue.

> A fue more questions; should these be added or noted?
>
> Southern Brown Bullhead (Ictalurus nebulosus nebulosus)

Gilbert (1998) reports that “prevailing opinion” is that strikingly different pigmented southern populations represent a valid subspecies, A. n. marmoratus (Holbrook 1855), but such an opinion is not expressed in several publications (e.g., Warren et al., 2000; Boschung and Mayden, 2004); a thorough study of variation within the species is needed.

> Angayukaksurak Char (Salvelinus anaktuvukensis)

S. anaktuvukensis Morrow 1973, inhabiting Brooks Range (AK) headwaters and often listed as its own species (e.g., Page and Burr, 1991), is a landlocked form of S. m. malma (Behnke, 2002).

> Blueback Trout
>Quebec Red Trout

Both also known as Sunapee Trout, Salvelinus alpinus oquassa.

>Three species of Muskinonge used to be recognized before the wide spread stocking.
> Barred, Clear, & Spotted Muskie.

Three subspecies are sometimes recognized (e.g., Hubbs and Lagler, 2004): the nominate form (Great Lakes muskellenge); E. m. ohiensis Kirtland 1854, Ohio and Tennessee R. drainages (misspelled “ohioensis” in Hubbs and Lagler, 2004); and E. m. immaculatus Jordan 1888, upper Mississippi R. drainage. (2) A distinctive lake form, the Masquinonge, from smaller lakes in ON, MI, WI and MN, may represent an undescribed taxon. LeBeau (1992) gave it the manuscript name Esox “lacustris” in his Ph.D. dissertation. That name, unavailable by the rules of zoological nomenclature, is treated as a presumably valid name on a university fish lab Website (Höök, 1994). Coad (2006) treats the form as an undescribed species.

> Has there been any more discussion by anyone on makeing the Silver Pike a subspecies of Northern Pike?

Don't know about that one.

> has there been any more discussion on the Blue Waleye in some ONT. Lakes?
> Some of them sure are bright blue.

The now extinct Blue Pike, Sander vitreus glaucus (Hubbs 1926), is usually treated as a subspecies, but Hubbs and Lagler (2004) treat it as a full species. There may be some extant blueish walleye, but I recall a study by Carol Stepien who said that these were merely ecomorphs whose blue coloration was due to their living in deeper water. I need to investigate this further.

BTW, I sent Part III of the Annotated Checklist to the printer last night. It covers New World silversides, halfbeaks, needlefishes, rivulines, Middle American killifishes, topminnows, poeciliids, goodeids, pupfishes, sticklebacks, pipefishes, and swamp eels. A lot of little-known Mexican taxa.

Chris Scharpf
NANFA Fishlistmeister

> Was Zander on the list?

Sander lucioperca is not on the Checklist since there are no known reproducing populations in North America. That’s the criteria for including exotics – are they currently breeding in North American waters?

Chris Scharpf
Official NANFA Checklister

Hi Chris,

I was looking at the USGS sight & had to bring new light to this old subject.

On the 14th page of introduced fish is the Zander, & under the fact sheet it states that they are established in Spirtwood Lake, North Dakota. They caught two year old fish in 1999, & 2000, & 5 young of the year fish in 2005. As of 2009 the ND Game & Fish Dept. caught yearlings & two year olds. Genetic sampling of the Zanders found that there has been no hybridization. http://nas.er.usgs.g...p?speciesID=830
Mike