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A Virtual Museum on the State's Fish Biodiversity

Gila atraria

Utah Chub
NS G5
Collection Details

Specimens

Photos

Records

Taxonomic Hierarchy

Actinopterygii (Ray-finned Fishes) Cypriniformes (Carps and Minnows) Cyprinidae (Carps and Minnows) Gila Gila atraria (Utah Chub)

Description

This species account was compiled from FishBase (Froese, R. and D. Pauly. Editors. 2025. FishBase. World Wide Web electronic publication. www.fishbase.org, version 04/2025.) and processed using AI-assisted text extraction. It may contain errors in spelling, punctuation, or formatting. When citing, please reference the original source rather than this page. Learn more about our species accounts.

Characters

Body shape: fusiform / normal. Gila atraria can be distinguished by the following characters: deep, compressed body; large eye; short, blunt snout; 45-65 scales on lateral line; dorsal fin usually with 9 rays; anal fin with 8 rays; pharyngeal teeth 2,5-4,2; olive-brown to blue-black above; yellow to brassy side; clear to olive-yellow fins; and large males with yellow to gold-fin bases, mouth and side of the head, may be gold overall (Ref. 86798).

Distribution

North America: Snake River system above Shoshone Falls in Wyoming and Idaho; Lake Bonneville basin (including Great Salt Lake drainage and Sevier River system) in southeastern Idaho and Utah, USA. Introduced into east Nevada, upper Missouri River basin in Montana, and Colorado River drainage in Wyoming and Utah.

Habitat Associations

Freshwater. benthopelagic. Found in: streams, lakes.

Biology

Occurs in lakes, quiet pools of headwaters, creeks and small to medium rivers. Often found in vegetation over mud or sand (Ref. 86798).
Max length: 56.0 cm TL; common length: 17.5 cm TL; max age: 12 years.
IUCN Red List Status: Least Concern (LC), assessed 2012-02-07. Resilience: Low (K=0.12-0.28).

References

Page, L.M. and B.M. Burr (1991) A field guide to freshwater fishes of North America north of Mexico. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston. 432 p.
Page, L.M. and B.M. Burr (2011) A field guide to freshwater fishes of North America north of Mexico. Boston : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 663p.

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