NorthwestScience Notes

"Notes" Thepurpose of is to periodicuLl publish short pc4ters(4picalll lessthan Jive ltages in length). Thereis rto spet:ific.f(,nndt or contentrcquired fln' articlespublished here, htrt all papers will be peer-reviewedawl mtrstlte stientiJicalll'credible. Authors mat contact the Editor about the stritabilif; (t manu\cripts.for this section.

Roger A.Tabor, U S F sh and W d fe Servce Lacey Washngton, 98503 roger tabor@f\,!sgov EricWarner, MLrck eshoot ndianTrrbe AubLrrn Washnqton,98002 ancl StephenHager, U S. Flshand W d fe Servce, LaceyWash ngton, 98503

An OrientafWeatherfish (Misgurnus anguillicaudatus) Population Establishedin WashingtonState

Abstract 'I'he objccli!c ol this paper\r,as to presentsonic prelininary life history ohservationson a nelv exotic \pecies.oricnkl \reatbefish (Mkgurnut uryuillitaudartlr). in the $atershed of nashington S!atc.Durirg 1999 electrofishing sul.iels of Lake $hshinglon Ship C.rnal(, Lake LJnion.FremoDt Cut, and ). 21 oriertal weatherfishu,erc collecred. An rdditional l5 spccinens \tere obse.vedbut no! captured.Two additionaloriental wcalherlish were found in lhc stomachof r largemouthbass (Mr. f.?tu,/rr .rdrro,.L,r). Oriental wca|herlish were collectedin arcasrhat conrainedaquaric macrophlles and a mud./slltsubsrale. Nlost fllnale oriental wcalhcrflsh were gra!id. On a|erage. fcmaleslr'ere considerablv largcr fian male\. Only I of 19 oricnul weatherfrshcontained prey. Chironomid larvae and pupae.anrphipods. and cladoceransmadc up 96'z ofthe dier b! wct $cight. Cladoceransand chirononrid lal!ae were the most frequently consumedprey. It is unclear $hal impact orienial $eatherfish t!illh.r\e on drefish assemblagein lbc Lake $'ashmgtonShip Canal.Since oriental \r'eaiherfishcan \rilhsland a wide rangeofenvironncnral conditions rhe) may cxpand ro many areasofthe Lake washington basin. lntroduction Oriental weatherfish, as well as several other membersofthe family, arc popularin rheUnircd Exotic iish speciesare wide-spreadthrough Statesas aquariun fish. Introductionsofthe ori- out the Pacillc Nofihwest.Many specieshave entalweathefish in the UnitedStates are believed expandedtheir ranges(Wydoski andWhitney, in to be eitherescapees from aquariumsupply com- press.):howe\er. thcir impacton aquaticecosys- paniesor discardedaquarium pets. The oriental tems is oftgn unclear. Most recent reseluchon $eathedishis a cool\,llterspecies that has be- introduccd fishes in the Pacific Nonhwest has comeestablished in severalstates including: Cali- focusedon predationofnative salmonidsby large, fornia. Florida,Hawaii, Illinois, Idaho,Michigan, predatory fishes. Little work has been done on Oregon.and Tennessee (Logan et al. 1996;Fuller other potential impacts such as competition. in- ct al. 1999).In the PacificNorthu.est, odental direct effectson the aquaticcotrmunity stl'Llcturc. \\"eatherfishwere first reportedfrom the Clackamas or introductionof fish parasites. River. a tributary to the Willamette River (Bond The orientalweatherfish l.M i.t gumu.s anguilLi 1994).More recently,this specieswas repofted Laud.ttLts)is a mernberof the family Cobitidae from the Owyhee.Malheur. and SnakeRivers in (loaches)which are native to Eurasiaand nonh- easternOregon and westernIdaho (Logan et al. em Africa. [t is nativeto eastemAsia from Bum]il 1996).Until now. therehas notbeen any evidence to Siberia(Berg 1941J.Talwar and Jhingran 1992). of a viable population in WashingtonSrate

12 NorthwestScience, Vol.75. No. 1.200l

c 21)(llb,- rhe \onh*en scienrili.Asso.ix!or..\ll neh( r.\encd (Wydoskiand Whitney. in press).This paperdocu- Results and Discussion mentsthe collectionof orientalwcathcrfish and sumnarizessome ljte historyobservations in thc Co ection Locations u'atershed Lake Washington of WashingtonState. Twent.yodental weatherfish u'ere collected trom the southside of PortageBay and onc wascol- Methods lectedfrom thc FrcmontCut (Figure1 ). An addi- Fish surveysrvere conductedduring April-July. lional 15specimens were obsen'ed in PonageBay 1999in theLakeWashington Ship Canal (including but escaped.Two other orientalu'eathertish rvere PortageBay. , Fremont Cut. and repofted eariier from the Lake Washingtonwa- Salmon Bay) in the Lake Washingtonu'atershed tershed(Figure l). The first specimenwas col- ncar Scattle.Washingtor'r (Figure l). Fish were lectedfrom the northeastshorc of Union Bal, in collectedat nightwith boatclcctrofishing equip the summer of 1997 (T. Sibley, University of ment along shorelinetlarsects. Odental $'eatherfish Washington,pers. comm.) and anotherwas col- were preservedin l07r fbrmalin. Total length lectedtiom ThorntonCreek in Juneof 1998(Re- (nearestmillimeter; TL) and\\"eights (nearest gram) sourcePlanning Associates 1998). We also lbund uere takcn.Thc abdominalcavity was openedto two odental weathedishin the stomachof a ,138 determinethe sexand remove thc digestivetract mnr fbrk length largemouthbass (Micropterus for diet analysis.Prey items were idcntificd Lo snlrrftles) collectedin southPortage Bay on May ordcr or other broad taxonomic level. For each 5, 1999.as partof rnotherstudy (R. Tabor,un- fish, prey groupswere enumeratedand wcighed publisheddata). Onc of the ingestedodental to fic nearest0.001 g. wcathcrfishwas a 166 mm TL female.We wele

Figure 1. Localion\ (slars ) that oriental weathedishhave beencollected in the Lake $'ashinlr u n $ l rcI ih(rl.

Notes: Oriental Weatheffishin WashinstonStatc 13 unableto dctcrminethe sizeor sexof the other IABLE 1. Totrllengrhs (nm) und sexof orienral$ eatherfish orientalueathcrfish because of thc advancedstate coilectedin thc t-akel'ashington basin.Ma,"--Jul] of digestion. 1999.

\ulnber T',r,rll(n!dr (mrnl Hab tat I Female 200 In south PoftageBay. orient;r1weatherllsh werc l Fc ale t9/ collectedon the bottorr in low-gradient,shallow 3 Fcnale 178 water(0.2 0.5 n). Fish rvereover mud/siltsub- Female 175 stratein aquaticmarcophyte beds consisting of 5 Female 1',t1 Chara .sp.,Nitelltt sp.,ZannicltelLio palu stris,trnd 6 Female 1',l3 Nr4as./Ze,ri/is.In the FremontCut. a singlc orien- 1 Femxle 173 tal weathefish was collectedin an areaof mud,/ li Femalc 1.15 silt,cobble. andboulders. Few aquaticmacrophytes Femalc lt8 wele plescnt.Accordlng to Walker (197,1)and l7l.'1 Talwarand Jhinger (I992). orientalweathedish 10 Nfule r66 prefcr a muddy substratcin $'hich they can bur- 11 NIrle 162 row until only their headprotrudes. In Oregon, 12 NIale r58 Logan eL al. (1996) found thar mosr ofiental tl Mal. l,lit weatherlishinhabited mudd)' sediments among Male 1,11 aquatrcmacrophytes. ln contrast,Lintemtans et t5 N,h1e 131 al. ( 1990b)found oriental weathedish in a range l6 Malc 120 of substrateslrom t'ine silt to bedrock. t7 \{alc 120 I,13.3 S ze Range and Sexual l\,4aturty Immaturc lt0 Oriental*eathcrfish collected in 1999ranged in 19 lmmature 108 sizefiom 85-200mrn TL. The maximumreported 2t) r00 size of oriental weathefish is 2:18rnm TL (Berg ll 85 19,18).The averagelcngth of female oriental 103.3 weatherflsh(l7l rrnr TL: Tablel) wasconsider- ably largerthan that of mrles ( l:13mn TL). Males TABLE 2. Pooled food ilcns of sevenoriental could wearherfish easilybe clistinguishedextemally fiom fe- lroln south PortageBav 1999 (FO = lrequenc) males by their largc pectoral fins and the pres- of occufrence).Thc diel lrnalvsisdoc! nol ir- enceof a roundlamina circularis (Masuda et al. cludesnallamou.t! ofderitus which \lcre nor 19E.1;Lintennans and Burchmore1996). Sixty- measured. ser,enpercent of the temale oriental weathedish \\ret we collcctedwere gravid. ln Mrv and June,all Tolal Percentageof FO ['eight (N = 5) t'emaleswere grtrvid *hile only one(N = Prc\ !ruup nu bcr Organisms (C.) (.q.) .l) wasgravid in July.Somc of thenales hadcn- 221 59.,1 r00 36.9 lalged gonads, but we did not see anv obvious Cladoccra 1',72 16.2 11.1 16.5 signsthat they were dpe. Copefoda 6 28.6 0.5 Ostracoda t0 2.1 5l.t 0.E Food Hab ts Amphipoda ll 8.9 57.1 l9.l

Of l9 oriental weathedishdigestive tracts exan Insecta l5l .10.6 85.7 61..1 1ned,only seven digestive tracts containedany Diptera '7t.1 pley. The dict *as mostly small bcnthic inverte Chironomidae l:19 .10.1 60.1 hrutesrTablc )1. Srnalllrnount. ofJctrilU. \\ere Ephemcroptera I 0.3 1.1.1 0.3 also presentbut were not measured.Chironomid Uridenrified Insccr I 0.3 1'1.3 0.3 larvre andpupae, anrphipods, and cladocerans Plantmaterial madc up 96.3% of thc diet by wet $,eight. 1,1.3

74 Tabol Warel. and Hager Collectively.cladocerans and chironomids wcrc lmpactson AquaticEcosystems the nlost liequentlyingested prey items,repre- The impact of oriental weatherflshintroductions senting46% and 407., rcspcclivelyof the prey on aquatic ecosystemshas received Iittle atten- items.Linle is kno$,nabout thc dict of oriental tion. In Hawaii, they were categodzedas having $'eatherfishin theirnaturalhabitat. However, Kim intermediateinrpacts to nalivc streamtauna be- et al. (199,1)found that they readily consume causeof their prefened habitat.food habits. and mosquitolarvae and have been used successtully abunJanee 1984.;.In 'omt trcd:.ori- in SouthKorca to control mosquitoesin rice pad- lMaeiulek ental weatherfishintroductions have been con- dies.Some diet analyseshave been donc on fish sideredbcncficial (Welcomme 198,1). because they collectedfrom lotic systernsin Australia, where c n he u'ell usa l,r,'rll'ish ,'r u'cd l,'r mo.quilo oriental wcatherfishare also an introducedfish. control(Kim et al. 1994).Due to pussibleinr- Burchmoreet al.(1990) lbund thcir diet consisted pactsto nativefishes and other organismsinAus- of algae.detritus. ostracods, cladocerans. and tralia, the govemment made the importation of gastropods.Lintermans et al. (1990b)noted sev oriental wcatherfishillegal in 1986 (Lintermans cral orientalweatherfish frorn GinnindenaCreek. et al. 1990a;Dove and Ernst 19913).Prescntly. Austrrlia.had been ttcding of zooplankton. fishery managershave speculatedon possible Range Expanson impactsbut little datais available.Possible inter actionsinclude introduction olfish parasites(Dove Sinceoriental $,eathcrlishcan withstanda wide andEmst 1998),competition 1br lbod or spacc. rangeof environmentalconditions (Schultz I 960t prcdation of fish eggs,ol some type of indirect Baenschand Richl 1993;Logan et al. l996) and effectby restructuringthe aquaticecosystems. given the habitat preferences of oriental Funhcr rcscarchis neededon the ecologyofori weathcrfish,the taxon may be able to expandto ental weatherflsh.Future etlbrls should also in- nliln)irr(u\ ol'lhe Lakc \\ lrh ingtonbc.in or tnal clude a nonitoring progranrto documentthe dis- alread,vbe present.Because Union Bay (Figure tribution andpossible range expansion oforiental 1) is large,has similar habitat, and is closeby to $,eathertish. Portage Bay, it may also contaiD a substantial population of odental weathertish.Because ex- Acknowledgments tensive marcophytebcds are common along the shorelineof LakeWashington, oriental \a'eathcfi sh A. Hird. F Mejia, C. Cook Tabor and D. Low, may be able to mpidly expandaround the entire U.S.Fish and Wildlifc Scrvicc(USFwS) andW. lake. Additionally. they could move into the Meyer andB. Bolding.Wishington Depnnmcnt SammamishRiver drainagc, which is a low gra of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) assistedwith the dient systemwith abundantaquatic maorophytes fieldcollcctions. We thank J. Petersen, U.S. Geo and line sediments.In some locations. oriental IogicatSuney (USCS)and S. Bonar WDFW tbr weathefish appearto be able to quickly expand useoftheir electrofishingboats. J. Willians, USGS theirrange (Lintennans ct al. 1990a).In anAus cxamined and verified the oriental weatherfish. tralian drainage,oriental $eatheffish werc docu- J. Parsons,Washington Depaftment of Ecolog)', mentedto haveexpanded their range over sevcn identilied the aquatic vegetatiolr.K. Aitkin, kilomctcrs per year, which resultedin a six-tbld USFWS,D. Wydoski,E. Schreinerand t*'o anony- rangeincrease in 34 months(Lintermans et al. mou. re\ieu er. prorideJ r alurhlcsuggc.t ion. to 1990b).However. in ShiawasseRiver, Michigan, improvc this paper This project was funded in odental$'eatbefiish only dispersed2 km upstream pafi by King County and administered by D. and 1.1km downsteamin 19veals (Schultz 1960). Houck.

Notes:Oriental Weathedishin WashingtonState 75 LiteratureCited Lintennrn\. \,1.,and T. Rutzon, and K. Kukolic. i990b. Thc status.dlnribulion and possiblcimpacrs ofrhe oricn Baensch,H.A.. and R. Riehl. 1993.Aquarium Fishes. Vol- tal $eatherloachMir,grl,"/l us airy ill autlarus in rhe unre2. RareFishes md Planls.t{an! ,{ Baensch.Mellc. Cinnindeffacreek calchnent Researchrcport 2 ACT Ccmrany. Park\ rnd ConseNarionScr\ice Tuggeranong.Aus Bcrg.L. 19,18.Ffeshwatcr Fishes oflhe U.S.S.R. andAdja- traIa. ceni Counries.,hh Edition. Volumc I Translaredfronr Logrn. D.J.. E.L. Bibles and D.F-.Markle. 1996.Reccnt col Russian 1962 1965.ibr rheSmirhsonian lnslirurion lcctions ofej{otic aquarium lishes in rhe frcsh\|der\ and thc National ScienceFoundarion. b)- Israel Pro of Oregonand thermal tolcrance of orienralwcafiedish graln lbf Scientific Translations.Jerusale . lslael. and pirapatinga.Califomia Fish and came 8:(2):66- BoDd,C.E. 1991.Kcls to OfegonFrerh$arr Fishes.OSU 80. Book Slores.Inc., Con allis. Oregon. Ivlaciolek.J.A. 198,1.Exotic fishes in llawaii and orher is Burchmorc. J.. R.. Faragher.and C Thorncrafr. t990. Oc landsofOceania. Pages l3l-161 /,?WR. Counena\'. cunence of the inlroducedofienial rcaderlolch Jr. and J.R. Stauttcr.Jr. (editofs). DistributioD.Biol- (M Ir!rnus a gltilliclutLtl,!) in fi. $'ingacardbee og,"".and \,lanagemcnrolExotic Fishes.John Hopkins River. Ne\\' South Wales. Pages38-'16 /n I).A. Pol, Uni!ef sity Press.Baltimore, Maryland. lrrd (editor).Austr.rlian Societ!, for Fish Biolog),'' Masudu.H.. K. Amaoka. C.Araga. T. Uyeno. \\'orkshop.introduccd andranslocared llshc! andrheir andT. Yoshino. editors.I 9E4.Thc ecological cllecls. Bureau of Rural ResourcesPfo- Fishesof ihe Japancsc Ar.chipe lago. ceedingsNo. 8. AustralianCovenment Publishing Tokai Unilersity Prcss.Tokyo. Japan. SeNice. Canberra.Auslralix. ResourccsPlanning Associates. 1 998. Lo\\,er Thomton Creek Do!c. A.D.M.. and L Emsl. 1998.Concuffent in\adcrs lbur evaluationofsalmonid habital conditionsand oppor eroiic specicsol Monogeneanow cstablishedon ex- tLrnities.lask I nemorandum. Rcpon to SeattlePub olic lieshwaterfishesin Auslralia.Internarional Joumal lic Lltiliiics. contraclDCR955202. Se.rttle,$hshing for Parasitology28:1755- 176,1. Fullcr. PL.. L.G. Nico, and J.D. Wiliiams. I999. Schu1lz.E.E. 1960. Establishmentand early dispersalof a NonindigcnousFishes intfoduced in1o Inland Watefs loach.I/i:,gumus a g illi(?uldrlr (Canror).in Michi of t|c Unibd State\.American Fisheries Societl', Spc gan. Transactionsof the American FisheriesSocict) cial Publication 27. Bclhcsda,Marr-land. 89:376-377. Kinr. H. NL Kiln. and H. Yu. 199,1.B iologicalconrol ofvector Tal\\'ar.PK.. and A.G. Jhingran.editors. 1992.Inland fishes mosquitoes by the use of fish prcdators. Mrrd., of lndia and adjacentcounlries, volume 1. A.A. o.\\'(ephdlusand Misgutnus unXuillicautldl^ in rhc BJll,flr!. RrIe"d. In. lhc N(rl, trnd,. laboratoryand scni iield rice paddy.Korean Journal $/alker, B. 197.1.Sharks and l,oaches.T.F.H. Publicalions. of Enlomolog) 2.1:26928,1. NcptuneCity. Ne.|l Jerse}. Lintermans,NI.. and J. Burchnofe. 1996.l-oaches. famil!' \ltlconme, R.L. 198.1.tntcmalional rfansfersof inland fish Cobitidae.Pages ll,1-115 tu R.M. McDowall (edi species.Page\ 22-,10/, $'.R. Coudenay,Jr. and J.R. tor).Fresh*,ater fishcs ofsourh,easrern Australia. Reed Srauiitr. Jr.(editors), Dislriburion. Biolog,v, and MrD- Books, Chatslvood.Australia. agemen!of Erotic Fishes.John Hopkins Uni.!ersi1,"- Lintermans. \,1..and T. Rutzou. and K. Kukolic i990a. In- Press,Baltimorc. Maryland. troduced lish in the Canbcrra Region - fecent rangc Wydoski, R.S. and R.R. Whi|ney. /, /,r"r.!. Inland Fishe\ of expansions. Pages50 60 /, D.A. Pollard (edilor). Washington.Sccond Edition. University ol Washing- Ausiralian SocietvforFish Biolog,,-\brkshop. intro lon Pfess,Sea!!lc. Wrshingron. ducedand translocaledfishes and their ecologic.rlef-- fecls, Burcau of Rural ResourccsProceedings No. 8. AusrralianGo\ emnrcnlPublishing Sen ice.Canbena.

Reeeived16 Det'enberI 999 Accepted30 Augu.st2000

76 Tabor.Wamer. and Hager