Reflections
on Ellerbe Creek and the Watershed

A place like Ellerbe Creek can inspire the artist in us all.  We may be moved paint, sketch, write, photograph, or otherwise capture some aspect of the creek and its environs.  If you would like to use this page to share your personal vision of Ellerbe Creek just contact us.

Ode to the Lowly and Regal Chub

by Chad Hallyburton

Each spring, according to Cherokee legend, the Ugunsteli ("horned fish") and his brightly attired band of attendants hold court under the cold waters of mountain streams. The Ugunsteli’s diminutive followers, all dressed in red, gather stones from the stream and pile them into a throne for their regal leader. This must be quite a scene to behold: the Ugunsteli, rumored to posses a large head covered in horns and red spots, attended by shimmering minnows in robes of red, all hovering about the stony seat of judgment. Even more astounding though are the reports that with spring’s close, the Ugunsteli undergoes a miraculous transformation as it shape-changes from fish to lizard (called Giga-Tsuha by the Cherokee).

As is often the case, there is much truth in this tale. The Cherokee account is surprisingly accurate, mentioning most of the important details of an annual occurrence. The "horned fish" of legend is most likely the common river chub, Nocomis micropogon. With the advent of spring’s warming waters and longer days, males of this large (30+ centimeters), otherwise drab and unremarkable minnow species do in fact undergo an astounding physical transformation (though, I am sad to report, they do not morph into lizards). In preparation for the coming spring spawning season, the heads of male chubs swell dramatically and take on a bright pink hue. Small, sharp "tubercles," the horns of legend, form along the snout and crest of the head to complete the strangely gruesome "Ugunsteli" form.

As if this feat of physiology weren’t astounding enough, the newly transformed males are surprising engineers. The "throne" of Cherokee mythology is in fact a love bower constructed by male chubs as a place to stake out a territory, attract and court females, and safely rear a new generation of chubs from egg to tiny fry.

With patience and perseverance, a male searches the stream bottom for small stones which he carries in his mouth to the chosen nesting site. Here he piles them to form a large mound consisting of up to 7000 or more individual stones and often weighing in total over 200 pounds! While gathering stones of the appropriate size, a male chub may swim over 12 miles in his out-and-back again search. And though Rome may not have been built in a day, the tenacious chub constructs his nest within the course of a few rising suns.

This construction frenzy does not go unnoticed by other stream dwellers. Many other fish species, often brightly colored for spawning, swarm over the developing nest, where they too deposit eggs (Thus the origin of the legendary attendants of the Ugunsteli. The specific species described are probably Tennessee shiners, Notropis leucioides, which develop a brilliant red hue when reproducing). And though these affiliates do not aid in the nest’s construction, as legend purports, some species are known to dig pits, in which to better place eggs, on the mound’s surface. Other species, such as trout, also take note of the commotion, and visit nests in search of a meal of fresh caviar or a small, sexually distracted minnow.

Fortunately for those of us intrigued by the lives of little-known stream fishes, a trip to the mountains is not needed to observe the antics of spawning chubs. In the upper Neuse region, three chub species can be found. Nocomis raynei, the bull chub, inhabits many of the region’s larger streams and rivers, while N. leptocephalus, the bluehead chub, frequents smaller streams and headwater creeks. Both species construct pebble-mound nests similar to the river chub, and both display bright nuptial coloration (the bluehead chub’s head is, predictably, bright blue) and sport fierce-looking tubercles. Though less dramatic in appearance, the creek chub, Semotilus atromaculatus, builds pebblemound nests with no less flair.

The most obvious question one might ask is, "Why devote energy and time to constructing such large pebble-mound nests?" Possible answers are surprisingly varied. An important factor in the survival and development of fish eggs is the availability of oxygen. Eggs that become buried under sediment can quickly die from lack of oxygen. Many fishes avoid this scenario by spawning in gravely riffles with fast-flowing, well-oxygenated water. By building a pebble-mound nest, male chubs create their own silt-free, oxygen rich spawning environment. It should then be of little surprise that many other species come to a chub’s nest to spawn. In fact, their darting, swirling efforts to reproduce probably help fan the nest with fresh water, an added bonus to the chub!

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