Logperch in a hatchery tank. Photo by Megan Bradley/USFWS.

Freshwater mussels are host specific, not just any fish will do. Snuffbox, a federally endangered species of mussel, depend on Logperch, a large darter that can grow up to approximately six inches and is found across the Midwest to transform their larvae into juvenile mussels. This fall a biologist with the Columbia Environmental Research Center in Missouri let us know that he’d had a great year raising Logperch in his ponds and we were able to pick them up in November. Five hundred Logperch arrived on station and were moved into quarantine. Logperch are a favored fish species because they learn very quickly to associate food with people and are charming when they beg for their breakfast with their rostrums (noses) out of the water. The Logperch are here to act as hosts for Snuffbox collected from the Wolf river system in the late fall. The hatchery is hosting three female Snuffbox collected from the Wolf River for the winter. Biologists from the hatchery and Wisconsin DNR plan to infest the Logperch in the spring and then drop off and grow the juveniles for a couple of years before reintroducing the species back into Wolf River streams where the species has been extirpated. By Megan Bradley