Bigmouth buffalo

Species of fish

The bigmouth buffalo (Ictiobus cyprinellus) is a fish native to North America that is in decline. Even at a century old they show no age related declines, but instead improvements relative to younger individuals, making this species a biological marvel. It is commonly called the gourdhead, marblehead, redmouth buffalo, buffalofish, bernard buffalo, roundhead, or brown buffalo. The bigmouth buffalo is not a carp, nor is any other fish in the sucker family. Although they share the same order, each belong to different suborders and are native to separate continents. The bigmouth buffalo is typically a brownish olive color with dusky fins, but can vary greatly in color across individuals including melanistic, golden, and even xanthic color morphs. Like other catostomids it has a long dorsal fin, but unlike all other extant species it has a terminal (forward facing) mouth reflecting its unique, pelagic feeding ecology. It is the largest of the buffalofishes and can reach a length of more than 4 feet (1 m) and in weight. Generally it lives in lakes, or in sluggish areas of large rivers. Bigmouth buffalo populations have been in decline in the northern extent of their range since the 1970s, including Minnesota, North Dakota, and Canada. Their life history attributes, including the ability to survive several decades with no successful recruitment (i. e. episodic recruitment), are more pronounced than other long lived freshwater fishes, including sturgeon and paddlefish. Unregulated, unmanaged and wasteful lethal fisheries are not compatible with their biology, yet such fisheries exist in the United States and the species is declining. It is native to the Red River of the North and Mississippi River drainage basins, from Manitoba, Canada, and North Dakota, United States, to the Ohio River and south in the Mississippi River system to Texas and Alabama. In Canada, they inhabit the Milk River which flows through Alberta, and the Qu'Appelle River which flows through Saskatchewan and Manitoba into Lake Winnipeg. Beginning in the northern United States, they are native to Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and down to southern states including eastern Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana. The major systems where they are found include the Hudson Bay and Mississippi River drainages. The introduction of bigmouth buffalo has largely been done for commercial purposes. Regions of reintroductions include some reservoirs along the Missouri River drainage of North Dakota and Montana. Regions of introduction include some reservoirs in Arizona,

Native to North America, bigmouth buffalo are integral to ecosystems therein. Bigmouth buffalo young are prey for several predatory fish, including walleye, northern pike, catfish, alligator gar, etc. Bigmouth buffalo filter feed on invasive zebra mussels during the mollusk's larval (veliger) planktonic stage. They form the native counterpart to the invasive bighead and silver carp, and they compete with the invasive common carp. Though it has small bones suspended in its muscle tissue like northern pike, its good flavor makes it one of the most valuable of the traditional, non game freshwater fish. In addition to being a foodfish, the bigmouth buffalo has recently become a sportfish as catch and release anglers have learned to pursue them on rod and line, and as lethal bowfishing has also increased in the 21st century. Bigmouth buffalo, unlike its close relatives the black and smallmouth buffalos, is a filter feeder, using its very fine gill rakers to strain plankton from the water. It sometimes feeds near the bottom, using short up and down movements to filter from the water the plankton that hover near the bottom or rest lightly on it. The juveniles and adults are mostly limnetic plankton feeders that also eat cladocerans, copepods, algae, chironomids, ostracods, and other insect larvae and invertebrates depending on availability. The optimum habitat for spawning bigmouth buffalo is freshly flooded vegetated waters.|alt=]]

The bigmouth buffalo are group spawners The minimum dissolved oxygen during the spring and summer is 5 mg/L. [[File:Bigmouth buffalo spotting. jpg|thumb|240x240px|Another extremely old bigmouth buffalo with both black and orange spots. Both types of spotting accrue and intensify with age, With a previous maximum longevity estimate (prior to 2019) for this species at 26 years, evidence of its extended longevity came as a surprise and was initially met with skepticism. Thorough bomb radiocarbon dating was conducted on their otolith microstructure and confirmed the age estimates generated from thin sectioned otoliths, making bigmouth buffalo the oldest age validated freshwater fish in the world. Besides this state, the bigmouth buffalo is not currently listed as threatened or endangered in any other region of its native distribution, although the Saskatchewan Nelson River populations designatable unit has been listed under Schedule 1 of the Species at Risk Act as being of special concern since 2011 due to contiguous declines The hybridization does not seem to be negatively affecting their populations but makes it difficult to determine how many hybrids and how many black buffalo are actually in certain reservoirs. The fish is vulnerable in shallow water and is often captured by bow and arrow via bowfishing. In some places like the southern US, progeny have been reared in hatcheries. caught the Wisconsin state record bigmouth buffalo fish. It measured and weighed The catch beat the previous record of , caught by Greg Megibben in 2001, also at Percy Priest. After the record was certified, Wilkins released the fish back into the lake. The International Game Fish Association all tackle record stands at , caught on April 21, 1980 by Delbert Sisk in Bastrop, Louisiana.