A Review of the Distribution and Status of Fishes
in the Red River Basin Upstream from Lake Texoma

GENE R. WILDE, ROBERT R. WELLER, CHRISTOPHER D. SMITH, AND RICARDO JIMENEZ, JR. (Department of Range, Wildlife, and Fisheries Management, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas 79409-2125)

We compiled museum and literature records for fish collections made in the Upper Red River Basin, upstream from Lake Texoma. A total of seventy species have been reported from this area, sixty of which are native to the basin. Between 1920 and 1994, over 1.1 million fish were collected from the basin, 92% of these are accounted for by ten species: red shiner Cyprinella lutrensis (31.3%), plains minnow Hybognathus placitus (28.1%), Red River shiner Notropis bairdi (9.9%), mosquitofish Gambusia affinis (5.4%), plains killifish Fundulus zebrinus (4.7%), emerald shiner Notropis atherinoides (4.5%), Red River pupfish Cyprindon rubrofluviatilis (4.4%), bullhead minnow Pimephales vigilax (1.7%), fathead minnow Pimephales promelas (1.1%), and speckled chub Macrhybopsis aestivalis (1.1%). All other species comprised less than 1% of fish captured upstream from Lake Texoma.

Fish collections have been made from 330 uniquely identifiable sites. The most widely distributed species are the red shiner (present at 76% of sites), mosquitofish (58% of sites), plains killifish and green sunfish (52% of sites), fathead minnow (47% of sites) plains minnow (46%), bullhead minnow (44%), longear sunfish Lepomis megalotis (43%), Red River pupfish (37%), and Red River shiner (36%).

Overall, the fish fauna of the Upper Red River Basin is largely intact, only five species (sharpnose shiner Notropis oxyrhynchus, silverband shiner Notropis shumardi, freckled madtom Notorus nocturnus, paddlefish Polyodon spathula, and shovelnose sturgeon Scaphirhynchus platorhynchus) have apparently been lost from the basin. In a number of cases, comparable numbers of species have been lost from localized reaches of the river; notable examples include the Pease and Wichita rivers, from which five and six cyprinid species, respectively, have apparently been lost. There also has been a general decline in relative abundance of plains minnow and a general increase in relative abundance of red shiner throughout the basin. Our results suggest that, although the fish fauna of the Upper Red River basin is largely intact, it is under considerable stress as evidenced by ongoing changes in both the distribution and relative abundance of several native species.

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