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Jimmie Pigg, Robert Gibbs and John Stahl
State Environmental Services Laboratory, Oklahoma State Department of Health, Oklahoma City, OK 73152
and
Byron State Fish Hatchery, Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation, Byron, OK 73723
Received: 1991 Oct 04; Revised: 1992 Mar 13
| Blue Tilapia | Grass Carp | Rudd | References | Top of Page | Table of Contents | Home |
On July 26, 1990 we seined three Blue tilapia, Tilapia aurea, from the Arkansas River, 200 m upstream from the 23rd Street stormsewer outfall, at Riverside Drive in Tulsa. During the collection visit the river was in low flow conditions and the channel consisted of large, clear, shallow (<0.5 m) pools with narrow, shallow riffles between pools. The pools had bedrock substrata and piles of large rocks along the bank and throughout the area, providing habitat for the many Lepomis and Micropterus species. The three specimens were collected in the same seine haul while we were "kicking" around these piles of rocks (Table 1).
We have been monitoring another population of the Blue tilapia in the North Canadian River at Harrah and Wetumka since 1977 (1). In 1987 it was collected in large numbers (469 specimens) from six locations by W.J. Matthews and F.P. Gelwick (2). Since 1987 we have been unable to find Blue tilapia in the river.
We collected a grass carp, Ctenapharynogodon idella, from the Blue River 0.4 km north of Connerville at the HW 99 crossing in Johnston County on July 26, 1988 (Table 1). On May 21, 1990 we seined one large specimen from the Deep Fork River 1.4 km east of the Lake Arcadia Dam (Table 1). The site was 0.8 km west on HW 64 and 0.4 km south of Arcadia in Oklahoma County. The grass carp was trapped in a long shallow pool ending in long shallow riffles which were too small for the fish to swim in and too shallow to escape. The specimen was in poor physical condition because of its struggles to escape the pool and we discarded it.
On May 5, 1991 we found a large dead grass carp on the shore in the Spring River arm of Grand Lake at the Twin Bridges State Park swimming beach (Table 1). Grass carp occur in the Cimarron River (3), Little River (3), Caddo Creek (3), the Clear Boggy river system (4), and small streams in south central Oklahoma (4). This species will undoubtedly be collected in increasing numbers because it is being stocked in many farm ponds for the control of aquatic weeds and algae.
| Blue Tilapia | Grass Carp | Rudd | References | Top of Page | Table of Contents | Home |
On May 12, 1990 we collected a single rudd, Scardinius erythrophthalamus, from the Salt Fork of the Arkansas River below the Great Salt Plains Lake located north of Jet in Alfalfa County (Table 1). This fish had a hook scar through its body. Another collection in June 1991 produced a single large specimen, taken by John Stahl of the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation (ODWC) from this same site during the ODWC annual survey of the river (Table 1).
On June 22, 1990 we collected a single specimen of the rudd from the mouth of a small tributary of the Arkansas River which enters the river in the Sand Springs City Park in Tulsa County (Table 1). Another single specimen was taken from the Arkansas River north of Bixby on the same day. On June 26, 1990 we seined two rudds from Elm Point, which is 5.2 km south of Blocker at the HW 31 crossing, in the Gaines Creek Arm of Lake Eufaula in Pittsburg County (Table 1). Three rudds were seined from the South Canadian River on August 6, 1990, 0.4 km north of Calvin on HW 75, in Hughes County. Another single rudd was caught from Lake Texoma on April 19, 1989 by a biologist from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department during routine sampling in Grayson County, Texas (6). In July, 1991 a very large rudd was collected by
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John Stahl during a ODWC survey of Lake Watonga, in Roman Nose State Park north of Watonga in Blaine County. With our three earlier reported locations of the rudd we have now found this species in eleven wild environments since February 1989 (5).
| Blue Tilapia | Grass Carp | Rudd | References | Top of Page | Table of Contents | Home |
1. Pigg, J., The. Tilapia Saratherodon aurea (Steindachner) in the North Canadian River in Central Oklahoma. Proc. Okla. Acad. Sci. 58, 111-112 (1978).
2. Matthews, W.J., and Gelwick, F.R., Fishes of Crutcho Creek and the North Canadian River in Central Oklahoma: Effects of Urbanization. Southwest. Nat. 35, 403-410 (1990).
3. Wagner, B.A., Edds, D.R., and Pigg, J., Grass Carp in Oklahoma Streams. Proc. Okla. Acad. Sci. 63, 106 (1983).
4. Cashner, R.C., and Matthews, W.W., Changes in the Known Oklahoma Fish Fauna from 1973 to 1988. Proc. Okla. Acad. Sci. 68, 1-7 (1988).
5. Pigg, J., and Pham, T., The Rudd, Scardinius erythrophthalamus, a New Fish in Oklahoma Waters. Proc. Okla. Acad. Sci. 70, 37 (1990).
6. Howells, R.G., Luebke, R.W., Hysmith, B.T., and Moczygemba, J.H., Field Collections of Rudd, Scardinius erythrophthalamus. Southwest. Nat. 36, 244-245 (1991).
