^m m IS m LI G) RAFLY OF THE U N IVLRSITY Of ILLINOIS NATURAL HISTORY SURVEY. 7 >«* THE MIGRATION OF ILLINOIS FISKES David H. Thompson j^. ''/% STATE OF ILLINOIS Department of Registration and Education Division of the NATURAL HISTORY SURVEY Theodore H. Prison, Chief BIOLOGICAL NOTES NO. 1 URBANA, DECEMBER 1, 1933 ; .iji' M '.;•- The Migration of Illinoir! Pishes by David H. Thompson About 7,000 Illinois fishes of the larger and more important kinds have been marked with serially numbered tags and released in the principal streams and lakes of the state. At present we have sufficiently detailed information on the time and place of recapture of more than 120 of these tagged fishe's to warrant a preliminary re- port. Beginning in 1929, Illinois has suffered four years of extreme drouth. During these years unusually low stages of water have pre- vailed in all of our streams. Since most of these fishes bore tags during thi" period, the results which we have obtained may reflect in some degree the effects of drouth on fish movements. It has been found that the movements of fishes as deter- mined by tagging are random in nature, at least in their general aspects and over considerable periods of time. This randomness of their movements is shown by the fact that they are retaken at dis- tances from the starting point proportional to the square root of the time. This relationship of time and distance may be utilized to estim.ate average distances from the starting point. These calculated average distances are shown in Table I, p. 2 for periods of one day, one week, one month, one year, and five years. This table shows rather accurately the rate at which waters depleted of their fishes, but connected with waters containing desirable kinds, may be restocked by the natural movements of the fishes themselves. It also indicates to what degree we may expect fishes to utilize uniformly the food resources in the different portions of a stream or lake. These returns from, tagged fishes have given information on other questions. Grapples, sunfishes, and basses move upstream strikingly faster than dov/nstream, while, on the other hand, the carp moves downstream rather than upstream. The black bullhead makes rapid upstream m.igrations in spring and tends to run in schools, since on one occasion an angler caught in one day three tagged bull- heads, which had been tagged 15 miles downstream 18 days earlier, A number of instances have given meaaurementn of growth in length and weight over considerable periods of time and enablen a check on the rates of growth obtained by counting the annual rings in scales. Striking difference^, in the capacities of different fishes to carry tags have appeared, certain kinds not carrying tags more than a few days or weeks, v/hile others seemingly carry tagr: indefinitely. m •r-i o lO t-:) o o CO 00 ui to H Oi ^ !> H ^JTJ rH o r- CO CO £> CO + CO H LO to 05 ft Cj to ^ H • O • • ci lO LD M ■^ o CU CM o ■sH lO H H L-5 Oi o CO CO =;t^ o o O H H + (£> ^^ o O H CM LO c^ CM •H P. .to ■H to to • rH • LO • H • O • H • • to • • CO • H • Oi • CO • • CO • CO • to • H • to W to CO W O o o lO t'i CM o o O H Oi ^ H c •r- ti' + K LO (J> rH LO ^ •sH Oi H CO o CO o £-- CO CM i • • CO • H • • o • H • H • O • CM • 00 • o • H • OJ • LTi • O • • • r-\ o H H o o o o OJ H o o o o O H rH O Cm iH (D •H a tJ Cfl ^ •H X o o a > •H ■X CO •H "m CO X Kl CO > H S CO bO (~* 5 CO Fox River & Fox Lakes i 1 Lakes along Ohio River rH CO o Eh Large mouth black bass 8 161 2 8 51 3 233 Small mouth black bass 12 12 24 Rock bass 17 59 76 War mouth bass 4 32 36 White bass I 1 32 2 35 Yellow bass 6 14 1 21 Black crappie 12 530 7 9 37 224 10 829 White crappie 68 416 52 40 41 152 157 926 Bluegill 2 112 2 1 6 260 21 404 Pumpkins eed 13 16 29 Long-eared sunfish 10 10 Green sunfish 1 1 3 5 Garman's sunfish 1 1 Wall-eyed pike 3 45 2 50 Yellow perch 17 8 25 tickerel 60 60 Grass pike 1 1 Sheepshead 40 67 77 4 26 214 Eel 4 2 6 Channel cat 71 99 22 74 140 116 2 524 Blue cat 1 1 Flathead cat 13 41 30 1 88 Black bullhead 4 45 289 292 89 719 Speckled bullhead 15 101 116 Yellov; bullhead 12 1 9 11 33 Carp 88 1228 72 48 113 134 10 1693 Red mouth buffalo 164 8 1 2 2 177 Mongrel buffalo 23 2 1 1 1 28 Small mouth buffalo 1 28 5 15 49 Quillback 34 3 5 5 47 Sweet sucker 1 3 4 Black sucker 9 2 23 34 Hog sucker 1 r? / 8 White-nosed sucker 1 46 47 Common red horse 7 2 1 90 100 Short-headed redhorse 1 1 J- 12 1 57 72 Spoonbill cat 90 90 Totals 313 2986 317 579 712 1592 316 6815 Fishes tagg ed in stat e fis h hatch leries and miscell aneou s oth er wa ters (1 arge mouth black bass , cha nnel cat, bl ack crappies, w 'hi te crapp ies, and bib legills 323 Grand total 7138 I ■ Table III. — Summary of tags returned Kind of fish Number tagged Number of tags returned Hook line fisher men and -L Commer- cial fisher- men I NHS field parties No. of days tags v/ere carried( excludi those retaken by IW. Maximum Average Large mouth bass Small mouth bass Rock bass Yarmouth bass White bass Yellow bass Black crapple White crappie Bluegill f umpklns e ed Long-eared sunfish Sreen sunfish Garman's sunfish Wall-eyed pike Yellow perch tickerel jrass pike Sheepshead Eel Channel cat Blue cat Flathead cat Black bullhead Speckled bullhead Yellow bullhead Carp Red mouth buffalo Mongrel buffalo Small mouth buffalo Quillback Sweet sucker Black sucker Hog sucker White-nosed sucker Common red horse Short-headed red haree ■ Spoonbill cat 233 24 76 36 35 21 829 926 404 29 10 5 1 50 25 60 1 214 6 524 1 88 719 116 33 1693 177 28 49 47 4 34 8 47 100 72 90 2 1 8 4 2 1 4 1 2 5 5 2 3 20 4 1 1 5 10 1 1 1 1 1 10 2 9 1 1 2 about 650 6 23 251 117 108 115 1174 ( ? f' 620 1067 277 990 170 8 24 159 111 51 56 686 326 500 79 231 108 159 Totals 68i; 46 31 47 A tagged fish, reported to be a 4-pound black bass, was taken at Elgin about May 10, 1932. The tag number was read incorrectly and the fish returned to the v.-ater. '""On Feb. 16, 1933 officers of the lov/a State Fish and Game Commission kindly forwarded a tag given them by an itinerant fisherman with the information that it was taken near Rockingham Light on the Mississippi River about Aug. 16, 1932. This date is obviously incorrect since this fish was not tagged until Aug. 29, 1932. We have not been able to find the fisherman. 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In TabTe V, p. 18, the 37 carp returns are divided into five convenient time periods and the migration constant is calculated for each. In contrast vvith the similarity of these calculated migration constants, the average distance per day varies widely, as may be seen in the last column. Since the number of returns on other single species of fish is insufficient for statistical upes, I have lumped the data from all of the basses, crappies, and sunfishec — the so-called "fine fish." It may be seen in Table I that all of these have sim.ilar calculated rates of migration. These data have been arranged in throe different time periods in Table VI, p. 19, v/hore it may be seen that the cal- culated migration constants are more uniform than the average distances per day. To determine whether fishes of differ-cnt sizes migrate at different rates, the 37 returns from carp, which ranged from 1 to 5^ pounds, have been divided, in Table VII, p. 20, into four weight classes. The migration constants for those four weight classes vary from 0,23 to 0,66 but it ir, not considered that these numbers indi- cate any real differences in rate of movement between carp of different sizes. Fox River is obvious since it is crossed at many points between McHenry and the mouth by dams. These dams are high enough to prevent fish going upstream at any time except during very high floods, and from going downstream, unles'^^ they go through the turbines or over the tops of the dams at flood stage. Furthermore the river v/as so lovf throughout 1930 and the years succeeding that carp are for the most part restricted to the pools imriediatoly above those dams. For 15 years the carp of the upper and middle Illinois River have exhibited an unusual abnormality referred to by local fishermen as "knothead" carp. We have learned that the knothead abnormality is caused during the early life of the carp by certain pollutional conditions which existed in the Illinois River. In the winter of 1926-27 when a detailed study of the knothead abnormality was made in the Illinois River, it was found that approximately 90 per cent of the carp from leoria Lake and points upstream showed abnormality in greater or smaller degrees. 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"* •H ft ft cO •H m •H C Sh 03 •H ^ o CD CO O t/3 B > •H a CO CO c •H n •H X X bO o tr; TO rH O to C K o •H H o CO CO O ft 'fS, M cc; W JD fc y) M W ii I i! .1 V: ii 11 w i: r- 21 Carp from Havana and points downstream showed no abnormal- ity, except for a few individuals, perhaps one in a hundred, v/hich supposedly had straggled dov/nstream from teoria Lake. At points between Peoria and Plavana, intermediate percentages of "knothead" carp were found. At fekin, for example, about 30 per cent of the knothead abnormality occurred. These percentages v/ere based on carp averaging about 5 years of ago, hence it seemed clear that carp did not migrate any considerable distances in the five yec.rs from the time the knot- head characteristic was determined in the fry stage until they were caught 5 years later, else the dividing line betv/een knothead and normal carp would not be so clear-cut as it is between Beoria and Havana, Table I shows that the calculated average migration of a carp in five years is 17.9 miles. This figure was rather accurately predicted from a consideration of the distribution of knothead and normal carp in the Illinois River. The data on tagged carp have been arranged in Table IX, p. 22, to show the rates of upstream and downstream migration. The rate of upstream migration shows a calculated migration constant of 0.24 miles in one day, while the downstream rate is 0.57 miles per day, I regard these rates as significantly different. The greater downstream rate may be a reflection of the effects of drouth since fishes commonly seek an optimal stream size and move downstream in times of drouth. The data on tagged "fine fish" show upstream move- ments almost ten times as rapid as downstream. The reason for this difference from the behavior of carp is not clear. It may be supposed that "fine fish," most of which are found in bottomland lakes and other quiet waters, travel upstream willy-nilly when they find them- selves in a current. Their rate of migration in lakes is only one- fourth their upstream rate. It must be remembered that any fish which shows a preferential downstream movement under all conditions cannot long remain an Illinois fish and leave descendants to inhabit Illinois waters. Since these "fine fish" are not typical stream fishes, their reactions may be imperfectly adapted to stream life. This view seems to be supported by the lovi' rates of migration found for typical stream fishes such as channel cat, common redhorse, black sucker, carp, and quillback. It appears that typical stream fishes are those which have a set of reactions which allow them to hold their place in a stream without crowding into the headwaterf. or being swept down to sea. VlTiile the evidence obtained by analysis of statistics presented here shows that the movements of fishes are random in nature, it is not incompatible with many kinds of observations which show that the movements of fishes are directed, i.e., not random. These seemingly opposite views may be readily harmonized by supposing that this randomness of fish movement appears only as a gross rela- tionship covering long periods of time, while those observations tending to show that fish movements are directed commonly apply to much shorter periods of time. A great number of physical variables in water affect the movements of fishes, and these are interrelated in so ■;.■■;> "* .^ I I,, .'• ;j..u,,o. I .': .1 . 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For example, it is well known that fishes move upstream in spring during times of heavy rainfall and floods. Conversely, they move downstream during summer and fall when streams are shrunken and suffer from drouth. This movement exists because most kinds of fishes prefer a stream of a certain size, some great and some small. When rains cause an increase In the volume of v;ater, the fishes tend to move upstream until they find their optimal stream size. Vft.en drouth causes a shrinkage they tend to drift downstream until they find this same optimal stream size. In winter, the Illinois River is occasionally covered with ice for periods of several v/eeks which halts the natviral reaeration of the water and in the presence of pollution causes a deficiency of dissolTed oxygen. Under such conditions fish are seldom killed unless they are caught in nets or are otherwise trapped and cannot escape suffocation. At such times they congregate in the mouths of tributary streams or crowd into "spring holes" which do not freeze. Observa- tions at such times indicate that the fish do not blunder into the mouths of these tributaries and into "spring holes" but are guided to them by following slightly increasing amounts of dissolved oxygen from points dov/nstream. In the summer of 1931, while fishing in Meredosia Bay with fyke nets, near the mouth of a long narrow slough, we learned that on a certain night the dissolved oxygen in this water fell below the critical concentration and the fishes of this slough moved out into the bay in a body. We learned also that when fishes become embar- rassed from lack of oxygen their movements are more rapid than at other times. Such a reaction tends to carry them over wider areas and will more probably bring them into higher concentrations of oxygen if such exist in the vicinity. During autumn the fishes of certain of our swifter streams, such as Rock River, gradually accumulate in the eddies and quieter pools. By midwinter almost the entire fish population of the stream may be found in pools and eddies which make up only a few per cent of the total area of the stream. When the water warms in spring they leave these quiet spots and scatter until they may be found in about equal abundances in all velocities of water. This behavior, too, is essentially random in nature, since as the water cools the svifimraing movements of the fishes become so slov; that they can no longer stem the current. Then they drift tail foremost downstream until they find water so quiet they can hold their position even though numbed by ice cold water. Evidence that the movements of individual fishes are not completely independent of each other is furnished by certain fish tag returns. On February 26 and 27, 1930, Mr. Hunt tagged and re- leased 99 black bullheads 2 miles above the mouth of the Kaskaskia River, On March 16, 1930 Mr. A. J. Nabelrath caught three of these tagged bullheads while fishing in Dooley Lake in the Kaskaskia bottom- lands, 15 miles upstream. It is clear that these bullheads congregate into schools and travel together, since the possibility of three fishes being caught on the same day and at the same place after having traveled 15 miles by random movement is so remote that it may be re- garded as outside the realm of experience. If fishes moved in a strictly random manner it would be necessary for them to travel, during short periods of time, at velocities much higher than the observed velocities to make possible the daily rates given in Table I. For example, carp which are 0.42 mile distant after one day are calculated to move 7.5 feet in one second were their motions strictly random. In the same way "fine fish" with a dally migration of 1,24 miles are calculated to have a dis- placement of 22.3 feet in 1 second. The observed rates over such short periods of time are much slower than these calculated rates. A carp may swim at the rate of 7.5 feet per second during bursts of speed, but none of our fish can reach speeds of 22.3 feet per second. This divergence of the observed rates from the calculated rates is due to the fact that the movements of fishes are directed over short periods of time by environmental Influences and due to the fact that a fish swims head foremost and is guided as if by a rudder. Direct observations of the movements of fishes show that they frequently spend considerable time in one place, or within a very circumscribed area, and then move rather directly to another place, several yards or more away. Here they may again hesitate and "mill around" for a time, and then proceed either leisurely or in a rather business-like manner in some other direction. The rate of these movements from place to place seldom exceeds more than 1 or 2 feet per second unless the fishes are frightened or are pursued. .■.,■■ ;.c-i.. I':-,.. Mimeographed Publications of the Illinois State Natural History Survey BIOLOGICAL NOTES No . 1 , The Migrations of Illinois Fishes. David H. Thompson. Lecemher 1933. 25 pp . , 1 fig. No . 2 . Relative Growth in Folyodon. David K. Thompson. January 1934. 8 pp . , 1 fig. No. 5 . The Automobile and Frairle Wild Life. W. F. Flint. July 1934. 7 pp. No . 4 . A Report on Tests of Fungicides for the Control of Elm Diseases in Nurseries. J. C. Carter. March 1935, 7 pp. With an introductory note by L. R. Tehon. 1 p No. 5 . Suggestions for Management of Upland Game in Illinois. R. E. Yeatter. May 1935. 6 pp.