Pygmy madtom (Noturus stanauli)
Biologists
from TVA, USFWS, and University of Tennessee assisting
Conservation Fisheries Inc, gathered in rural East
Tennessee to look for some very rare and secretive
fish. This collection effort to find some rare,
federally listed fish was quite a success! The
biologists caught 5 pygmy
madtoms! A HUGE find! This was a record for
the number collected in a single effort for this
federally listed, endangered fish. Pygmy madtoms,
like the slender chub, are one of the rarest fishes
in the Southeast. The 5 fish were taken back to
specially prepared tanks at CFI facilities for
propagation efforts for the proposed French Broad/Holston
Rivers nonessential experimental population. The
very rare slender chub continues to elude capture,
but the biologists have not given up yet.