Bonneville cisco
species of fish
The Bonneville cisco (Prosopium gemmifer) is a freshwater cisco endemic to Bear Lake along the Utah-Idaho border of the United States. It is a popular ice-fishing target when the lake freezes and is caught by hand nets during the spawning season of January and February.
Taxonomy
The Bonneville cisco was first described by John Otterbein Snyder in the early 1900s. The species name gemmifer is Latin for bearing or producing gems, and is likely a reference to the pearly tubercles that appear on this species when in spawning condition.
Description
The mouth of the Bonneville cisco is terminal, with the lower jaw slightly extending past the upper jaw. The caudal fin is deeply forked. Normally, the scales of Bonneville cisco are light silver but may become golden, brassy, or yellow during spawning. The Bonneville cisco is generally less than 7.5 in (190 mm) in total length but has been reported up to 8.6 in (220 mm). Age estimation suggests that Bonneville cisco achieve maximum growth in the first two years of their life and can live over five years.
Distribution and habitat
The Bonneville cisco is only found in Bear Lake along the northern Utah-southern Idaho border.
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This entry incorporates text from “Bonneville cisco” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.