Fish, Conewango Creek, Allegheny River Drainage, New York, USA

Abstract

Fishes of the Conewango Creek basin of the Allegheny River watershed were surveyed in 2004 and 2005. This basin is a part of the extreme northeastern portion of the vast Mississippi River drainage in North America and includes several species on the periphery of their range; many are rare in the state of New York, USA. One goal of the survey was to develop a species list for the system and assess the change in status of species by comparing recent catches to those of a synoptic survey conducted in 1937. We collected representatives of 70 species and three hybrid taxa. Ten of these fishes have not been reported from the system previously. Prior to this survey, 69 species of fish were reported from the basin. We failed to collect representatives from nine of these species. We collected representatives from 16 families, with 26 species in Cyprinidae and 11 in Percidae, the two most speciose families.