Fish Iowa - Fish Species - Yellow Bullhead

Species Information

Characteristics

Light olive-brown to yellow on top, with a white or cream belly. It can be immediately distinguished from other bullheads by the white or cream-colored barbels or whiskers on the chin. The tail is rounded. There are 24 to 27, usually 25 or 26, rays in the anal fin.

Foods

Yellow Bullheads are somewhat more selective in their feeding than other bullheads, but the principal foods are insects and larvae, crustaceans, small mollusks, crayfish, and small fishes.

Expert Tip

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Details

Yellow Bullhead are found in clear streams, rivers, overflow pools, lakes and reservoirs. It prefers streams with permanent flow, but avoids strong currents.

Spawning activity takes place in May and early June in water from 1 1/2 to 4 feet deep. Males build nests and female deposits 2,000 to 7,000 eggs. Eggs hatch in 5 to 10 days, and the fry are guarded by the parent fish until late July or August. They reach about 3-inches long at the end of the first year and mature in the third year of life. Individuals weighing as much as 2-pounds are taken from the Mississippi River.

Recent stream sampling information is available from Iowa DNR's biological monitoring and assessment program.

Sources:

Harlan, J.R., E.B. Speaker, and J. Mayhew. 1987. Iowa fish and fishing. Iowa Conservation Commission, Des Moines, Iowa. 323pp.

Loan-Wilsey, A. K., C. L. Pierce, K. L. Kane, P. D. Brown and R. L. McNeely. 2005. The Iowa Aquatic Gap Analysis Project Final Report. Iowa Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, Iowa State University, Ames.

Photo credit: Photo courtesy of the Missouri Department of Conservation, Missouri Fish and Wildlife Information System.

Species Distribution

Distribution Map

Iowa water body distribution image of Yellow Bullhead

Primarily a species of lakes and ponds; abundant nowhere in the state. Taken occasionally in the flowing water of major interior rivers and the Mississippi River, but favors clear water. Occasionally found in the man-made lakes, farm ponds and oxbow lakes.

See our most recent distribution data for this species on the Iowa DNR's Bionet application.