Contributed by Doug Carlson and Aidan Perkins, Posted 8/9/24: While microfishing in Cattaraugus Creek in 2022, an angler caught and photographed a minnow that appeared to be a Silver Chub, Macrhybopsis storeriana.

Photo of the possible Silver Chub

Aidan Perkins has been in pursuit of rare fish in New York through his college years at ESF, and he had the help of an Instagram blog group that encouraged him to get the photos logged-in as this rare species into iNaturalist. Fisheries staff in Ohio and Pennsylvania, as well as at the New York State Museum, examined the photos and agreed that the identification could be correct. There was a dissenting opinion from a researcher studying this species in Michigan that it was inconclusive. Closer examination of photos of Silver Chub by the authors led them to conclude that it should be left as inconclusive and more possibly a Spottail Shiner, Hudsonius hudsonius. Silver Chub can be distinguished by their hard-to-see barbel, subterminal mouth and milky white lower edge of the tail fin. The orientation of the lower jaw is also diagnostic, and it is considered more horizontal than sloping.

Silver Chub has maintained a population in western Lake Erie despite years with massive degrading changes in the lake’s fish community, and their range is slowly creeping back to the east. There is only one recent record in this eastern end, confirmed by trawling by PA Fish and Boat Commission in 1995, and it has not been reported in New York since 1928. Recent records from trawling in Ohio extended as far east as the PA/Ohio border and on the north shore in Ontario. This minnow is probably in New York waters and is a prize to be seen.

Observations like this (typically without archival) are highly sought-after. They depend on the diligent fishing, photography, reporting and web browsing by today’s biologists. Officials seeking this information don’t always get alerted. It has been classified as endangered in NYS for many years, while it was considered extirpated. More updated information is highly sought-after.