Spawning has been documented form March to mid-September. by shad on eggs and larvae is difficult; in fact, Heidinger (1983) was unable to detect fish eggs in threadfin shad guts immediately after consump-tion. Threadfin shad are sexually mature at approximately 2 to 2 ½ inches. Their consumptive demand is so heavy, it can cause collapses in the zooplankton community, which has far-reaching effects through the ecosystem of which they are a part. Diet and feeding habits. The threadfin shad is not very selective in its food habits and does not change its diet very much as it increases in size. L. HASKELL THE purpose of this paper is to record the principal foods ingested by adult Mississippi threadfin shad, Dorosoma peten-ense atchafalayae (Evermann and Kendall), in lakes of central Arizona where the fish was recently introduced. At night, it moves into shallow waters. Furthermore, Guest et al. Spawning begins in the spring when the water temperature reaches 65 to 70 degrees F. Threadfin are heavy spawners with a single female capable of laying 10-12,000 eggs. The species ofshad we’ll discuss here are the gizzard shad and threadfin shad.

A) Threadfin shad (TFS) exhibiting cachexia (N = 4) and 1 asymptomatic TFS fed 10 ppm microcystin diet (D10) after 57 d dietary exposure. For yearling largemouth bass, Micropterus salmoides, and black crappie, Pomoxis nigromaculatus, of lengths from 75 to 200 mm, in Arizona, threadfin shad, Dorosoma petenense, never made up more than 13% of the diet, possibly because they had a short season in which they became too big too rapidly. During the day, the threadfin shad spends its time in deeper waters. As discussed above, diet overlap between age-0 gizzard shad and white crappie may be important.

Spawning has been documented form March to mid-September. Diet and zooplankton samples were collected every other month from April 1992 to February 1994. Microscopic plants and animals that live suspended in the water (that is, phytoplankton and zooplankton) are eaten in about equal quantities and make up the bulk of the diet.

Females, trailed by several males, lay eggs along the shoreline, usually around daylight … Threadfin shad can be found in most lakes across the southeast and are the staple diet of all bass from Largemouth in Lake Guntersville and Kentucky Lake to Smallmouth bass in clear deep lakes such as Tim’s Ford and Dale Hollow.

B) Lateral view of the abnormal TFS indicating severe emaciation characteristic of cachexia (severe ill health and malnutrition). B) Lateral view of the abnormal TFS indicating severe emaciation characteristic of cachexia (severe ill health and malnutrition).

Follow The Threadfin Shad and Water Temperatures Most Lake Texoma Fishing Guides know Striper feed heavily on both gizzard and threadfin shad throughout most of the year, but nature has its own ways of taking care of possible overpopulations of these prolific baitfish. Gizzardshad attain lengths of 12 to 18 inches, whereas threadfin shad seldom exceed 6inches. Threadfin shad are sexually mature at approximately 2 to 2 ½ inches. Small zooplankton, phytoplankton, and detritus are filtered through their gill rakers while large zooplankton, especially copepods, are chased down and caught as individual prey. Gizzard shad are planktivorous in early life, feeding mainly on phytoplankton, before switching to a diet of zooplankton when they become older. Diet of the Mississippi Threadfin Shad, Dorosoma petenense atchafalayae, in Arizona' WM. A) Threadfin shad (TFS) exhibiting cachexia (N = 4) and 1 asymptomatic TFS fed 10 ppm microcystin diet (D10) after 57 d dietary exposure.

Threadfin shad feed exclusively on plankton but have two methods of catching it, resulting in a broad diet of the available invertebrates. Microscopic plants and animals that live suspended in the water (that is, phytoplankton and zooplankton) are eaten in about equal quantities and make up the bulk of the diet. We examined stomachs containing prey from 170 large blueback herring (>140mm), 96 small blueback herring (<140mm), and 109 threadfin shad, and we also examined 45 zooplankton samples.