Arroyo chub

The shape of the arroyo chub is somewhat chunky, with a deep body and thick caudal peduncle.

Picture of the Arroyo chub has been licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike.
Original source: BioTrek California website Author Curtis Clark, or Cal Poly Pomona.
Author: Curtis Clark, or Cal Poly Pomona. Permission (

The Arroyo chub lives in the benthopelagic, freshwater environment.

The arroyo chub Gila orcuttii is a cyprinid fish found only in the coastal streams of southern California, United States. The shape of the arroyo chub is somewhat chunky, with a deep body and thick caudal peduncle. The eyes are larger than average for cyprinids. More

Arroyo Chub as a Species of Special Concern. The fish is quite distinctive. Like the carp and minnow, the Arroyo Chub belongs to the cyprinid family, but its gray-olive green back, white bellies, big eyes, and small mouth differ from the average cyprinids. More

Arroyo chubThe arroyo chub (Gila orcutti) is a minnow-like fish native to coastal streams of Southern California. It has a gray-olive green back, white belly, fairly large eyes and a small mouth. Omnivorous, its diet includes algae, insects and crustaceans. More

Arroyo chub are native to the streams and rivers of the Los Angeles plain in southern California, including the Los Angeles, San Gabriel, San Luis Rey, Santa Ana, and Santa Margarita Rivers, and Malibu and San Juan Creeks. More

Arroyo Chub May Prove Effective in Mosquito Control, UC Mosquito Research Program Study Suggests William Walton William Walton discussing arroyo chub. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey) DAVIS —Move over, mosquitofish. Make room for the arroyo chub. More

Arroyo chub may prove effective in mosquito control Arroyo chub (Courtesy of California Department of Fish and Game) DAVIS—Move over, mosquitofish. Make room for the arroyo chub. More

The arroyo chub is distributed within two watersheds, the Santa Ana and Santa Margarita watersheds. It occurs in several locations within these watersheds. More

The reintroduction of the Arroyo chub, a native fish of the Arroyo Seco Stream, is an integral part of the stream restoration. Backwater pools and riffles will be built to help recreate the chub's natural habitat. More

The project culminated with the planting of 300 Arroyo Chub in the restored stream area. The Chub, a native fish, is a key indicator of riparian health and also serves an important role in controlling mosquitoes, its natural food source. More

“The introduction of the Arroyo chub pushed them out of the river. Curtis Springer saved them from complete extinction without knowing what he was doing. More

the rare and wee Arroyo Chub, a leeetle beeeety fish that dwells solely in some SoCal streams, and which is valuable not only for adding its own little fishy topping to the biodiversity pizza pie, but ‘cuz it eats mosquito larvae: hooray for the Chub! The nice people More

Arroyo chub are adapted to survive in cool to warm (10 – 24 oC) streams that fluctuated between large winter storm flows, and low summer flows, and the low dissolved oxygen and wide temperature fluctuations associated with this flow regime. More

arroyo chub was the focus of Pasadena’s recent habitat restoration efforts on a soft-bottom stretch of the Arroyo Seco – a tributary of the Los Angeles. More

Common names

Arroyo chub in English
Gila Orcuttova in Czech (česky)
奥氏骨尾鱼 in Mandarin Chinese
奧氏骨尾魚 in Mandarin Chinese

Order : Cypriniformes
Family : Cyprinidae
Genus : Gila
Species : Gila orcuttii
Authority : Eigenmann and Eigenmann, 1890