About Hornyhead Chub

Hornyhead chub have a fairly large mouth that ends before it reaches the front of the eye, which has a small barbel in the rear corner on each side of the head. They have dark edges on their scales which gives them a crosshatched pattern over much of the body. They have darker brown backs with lighter brown or gold sides and a cream colored belly. They have a dark stripe down the side which is most visible on young and non-breeding adults. The fins, particularly the tail, often have a slight red or orange tinge to the otherwise brown coloration. They differ from the closely related river chub in having a shorter snout, slightly more terminal (ending at tip of snout) mouth, and a dark spot at the base of the tail which is most visible in young and females. Adult breeding males differ from the river chub in having a bright red spot behind the eye and the breeding tubercles (horn like projections) on top of the head extend from a little in front of the eye to well behind the eye above the gill covers. Hornyhead chubs can also be mistaken for creek chubs, which have a larger mouth extending just beyond the front edge of the eye, a dark base to the front edge of the dorsal fin, and lack the crosshatched body pattern formed by dark scale edges. They belong the the Cyprinidae (minnows and carps) family, and are sometimes just called chubs. Adults are typically 4-7 inches long, but they can sometimes reach up to 9 inches.