Silver Chub

The maximum size of a silver chub is 231 mm (9.1 in) in total length. It is pale grey-green dorsally, becoming silvery on its sides and silvery white on its belly. The iris of its eye is white-yellow. A faint dusky lateral stripe is usually present. The caudal fin is lightly pigmented, except the lower 3–4 rays, which are completely unpigmented. Silver chubs have a body shape that is slender, moderately compressed, and flattened ventrally. Their mouths are inferior and horizontal. They have a maxillary barbel, the premaxilla is protractile, and the upper lip is separated from the skin of the snout by a deep groove that is continuous along the midline. The lateral line is either straight or has a broad arch. Adult males have large, uniserial tubercles on the dorsal surface of pectoral fins rays 2–10. The head of a silver chub bears minute sensory buds, but not breeding tubercles.

Silver chubs are mainly restricted to large, often silty rivers; they are sometimes found near the mouths of small streams.

Silver chubs are planktivores/invertivores. During the first year, they consume small crustaceans and midge larvae and pupae. The adults eat mayfly larvae, small mollusks, and crustaceans.

Macrhybopsisis Greek "long rounded face" and storeriana named for David H. Storer (1804–1891), an early student of North American fishes.

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