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Silver Redhorse

The silver redhorse (Moxostoma anisurum Rafinesque) was not collected by early investigators in the Red River basin of the United States, but Eigenmann (1895) reported it from the Red River at Winnipeg. Evermann and Latimer (1910) listed it as "not uncommon" in the Lake of the Woods; Carlander (1942) reported it as less abundant than M. macrolepidotum, the shorthead redhorse. Eddy et al. (1972) listed it as common in the commercial catch in the Red Lakes, which is in the Red River drainage. The first stream site record from the Red River basin was from the Pelican River in 1974 (1) (Fig. A13). The silver redhorse occurs in the Red (9,19), Otter Tail (6,9,10), Goose (13), Sheyenne (9,12,14,16), Bois de Sioux (9), Buffalo (9), Red Lake (1,9,18), Clearwater (1), and Roseau (3) rivers, and the Wild Rice rivers in North Dakota (12) and Minnesota (9,11). It occurred in 14% of stream sites sampled in the Red River basin since 1962, and site collections have typically contained 6-12 individuals (9). Aside from a single specimen collected from the Red Lake River near the mouth of the Clearwater River in 1994 (9), the silver redhorse had not been reported in that drainage since 1976.

The silver redhorse is most common in streams (Fago 1992) and prefers deep reaches, 24-50 meters wide, with gravel and sand substrates (Becker 1983). Its range extends from southern Alberta east through the Great Lakes basin and south through the Mississippi and Ohio river drainages (Lee et al. 1980). In Canada it is present in most Hudson Bay drainage subsystems (Crossman and McAllister 1986). In Minnesota it is present in all major drainage systems (Underhill 1989). It is absent from the Missouri River drainage in North Dakota (Ryckman 1980) and has not been collected in South Dakota (Bailey and Allum 1962).

Maps by Period

• 1978-1994
  
• 1962-1977
  
• 1892-1961