Disclaimer:

The Nonindigenous Occurrences section of the NAS species profiles has a new structure. The section is now dynamically updated from the NAS database to ensure that it contains the most current and accurate information. Occurrences are summarized in Table 1, alphabetically by state, with years of earliest and most recent observations, and the tally and names of drainages where the species was observed. The table contains hyperlinks to collections tables of specimens based on the states, years, and drainages selected. References to specimens that were not obtained through sighting reports and personal communications are found through the hyperlink in the Table 1 caption or through the individual specimens linked in the collections tables.

---

Common name: White Crappie

Taxonomy: available through www.itis.gov

Identification: White crappie, Pomoxis annularis, have deep laterally compressed bodies which are iridescent olive green in color on the back and silvery white on the sides. The sides will also have 10 or fewer indistinct dark vertical bars. The head is small with a sharp depression in the profile above their eyes and the mouth appears to project because it is large and oblique. The dorsal and anal fins are large and round with 5-6 spines. Dorsal fins have 13-15 rays and anal fins have 17-18 rays. In the pelvic fins there is 1 spine and 5 rays and in rounded pectoral fins 15 rays. Dorsal, anal, and caudal fins are checkered with dark spots. The lateral line of White crappie is arched with 38-45 scales. Breeding males are very dark with the head and breast becoming nearly black (Moyle 1976).

Size: 53 cm.

Native Range: Southern Great Lakes, Hudson Bay (Red River), and Mississippi River basins from New York and southern Ontario west to Minnesota and South Dakota, and south to the Gulf; Gulf Slope drainages from Mobile Bay, Georgia and Alabama, to the Neuces River, Texas (Page and Burr 1991).

Alaska	Hawaii	Puerto Rico & Virgin Islands	Guam Saipan

Native range data for this species provided in part by NatureServe

Hydrologic Unit Codes (HUCs) Explained
Interactive maps: Point Distribution Maps

Ecology: White crappie are found in warm, turbid lakes, rivers, river backwaters and are most abundant in lakes and reservoirs greater than 5 acres in size. In rivers, Pomoxis annularis prefers low velocity areas (Edwards et al. 1982; Moyle 1976). Vegetation is not required in habitat (Becker 1983). Despite White Crappie’ tolerance of, and apparent preference for turbid waters, greater growth is observed in clearer water (Edwards et al. 1982). Optimum water temperature range is 27-29°C and the maximum observed temperature was 31.1°C (Becker 1983). Ideal dissolved oxygen concentrations are 5 mg/L and the lowest concentration White Crappie have been observed at was 2.2 mg/L. It is assumed that the safe pH range is 5-9 and for best production a  pH of 6.5-8.5 is required. The highest salinity in which White crappie have been observed is 1.3 ppt (Edwards et al. 1982).

White crappie are schooling fish and schools are frequently localized in distribution (Becker 1983). During the winter they are reportedly inactive and remain close to the bottom in deep water (Moyle 1976).  Spawning begins in April or May when temperatures reach 17-20°C, but spawning could possibly be delayed by continuously low water temperatures. Males will construct nests in colonies of shallow depressions in hard clay bottoms, near beds of plants, algae or submerged plant debris to which eggs typically adhere. Nests are typically near overhanging bushes or banks in water that is less than 1 meter deep but nests have also been observed in 7 meter deep water (Moyle 1976; Hansen 1951). White crappie have exhibited territorial behavior over nests and will chase away intruders until eggs have hatched, which typically takes 2-5 days. Growth rates of White crappie can vary greatly depending on conditions and it is common for stunting and overcrowding to occur (Etnier and Starnes 1993). Individuals become mature in their second or third spring. It is rare for individuals to survive more than five years with 50% of fish in a brood typically dead by the third year of life (Becker 1983). The maximum lifespan is estimated to be 10 years (Etnier and Starnes 1993).

White crappie congregate around submerged logs or boulders in 2-4 m deep water during the day and leave to feed in open water during the evening and early morning.  They use long, fine gill rakers for straining zooplankton from the water and also have large protrusible mouths for consuming large prey . White crappie are an opportunistic feeders and will feed on fish and available aquatic insects (Moyle 1976). Individuals less than a year old only feed on zooplankton, but as they become mature fish become the most important source of food (Becker 1983).  Fish identified in the stomach contents of White crappie include the Spotfin shiner, Lepomis spp., the Tessellated darter, among other unidentified fish (Mathur 1972). It is preyed upon by larger fishes which can include Largemouth bass, Smallmouth bass, Northern pike and Muskellunge (Becker 1983).

Means of Introduction: Intentional stocking for sportfishing.

Status: Established in most locations.

Impact of Introduction: White Crappie prey on threatened and endangered juvenile salmon that spawn in rivers of the Northwest United States and may further contribute to salmon decline through habitat alteration, though the extent of those impacts are unknown (Sanderson et al. 2009). Nonnative predators, including crappie, have been shown to reduce the abundance and diversity of native prey species in several Pacific Northwest rivers (Hughes and Herlihy 2012).

Remarks: It is probable that all the White crappie in California are descendents of the original 16 fish planted in the state in 1917 (Goodson 1966a).

References: (click for full references)

Anonymous 2001. Oregon's Warm Water Fishing with Public Access. [online]. URL at http://www.dfw.state.or.us/warm_water_fishing/index.asp.

Becker, G.C. 1983. Fishes of Wisconsin. University of Madison Press Madison, WI. http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/EcoNatRes.FishesWI.

Edwards, E.A., D.A. Krieger, G. Gebhart, and O.E. Maughan. 1982. Habitat suitability index models: White Crappie. USDI Fish and Wildlife Service.

Etnier, D.A., and W.C. Starnes. 1993. The fishes of Tennessee. The University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville, TN.

GLMRIS. 2011. Inventory of Available Controls for Aquatic Nuisance Species of Concern, Chicago Area Waterway System. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Goodson, L.F. 1966. Crappie. Pages 312-322 in Calhoun, A, ed. Inland fisheries management. California Department of Fish and Game. Sacramento.

Hansen, D.F. 1951. Biology of the white crappie in Illinois. Illinois Natural History Survey Bulletin 25(4):209-265.

Hocutt, C.H., R.E. Jenkins, and J.R. Stauffer, Jr. 1986. Zoogeography of the fishes of the central Appalachians and central Atlantic Coastal Plain. 161-212 in C.H. Hocutt and E.O. Wiley, eds. The zoogeography of North American freshwater fishes. John Wiley and Sons, New York, NY.

Hubbs, C.L., and K.F. Lagler. 1949. Fishes of the Great Lakes region. Volume 26. Cranbrook Institute of Science.

Hughes, R.M. and A.T. Herlihy. 2012. Patterns in catch per unit effort of native prey fish and alien piscivorous fish in 7 Pacific Northwest USA rivers. Fisheries 37(5):201-211.

Insider Viewpoint. 2001. Fishing Records – Nevada. Insider Viewpoint Magazine. 3 pp.

Linder, A. D. 1963. Idaho's Alien Fishes. TEBIWA, 6(2), 12-15.

Macenia, M.J., and I.F. Greenbaum. 1988. Allozymic Differences between Black and White Crappies. North American Journal of Fisheries Management 8:123-126.

Matern, S.A., P.B. Moyle, and L.C. Pierce. 2002. Native and alien fishes in a California estuarine marsh: twenty-one years of changing assemblages. Transactions of the American Fisheries Society. 131: 797-816.

Mathur, D. 1972. Seasonal Food Habits of Adult White Crappie, Pomoxis annularis Rafinesque, in Conowingo Reservoir. The American Midland Naturalist 87(1):236-241.

Meronek, T.G., P.M. Bouchard, E.R. Buckner, T.M. Burri, K.K. Demmerly, D.C. Hatleli, R.A. Klumb, S.H. Schmidt, and D.W. Coble. 1996. A Review of Fish Control Projects. North American Journal of Fisheries Management 16:63-74.

Miller, R.R. and C.H. Lowe. 1967. Part 2. Fishes of Arizona, p 133-151, In: C.H. Lowe, ed. The Vertebrates of Arizona. University of Arizona Press. Tucson.

Miranda, L.E. 1999. A Typology of Fisheries in Large Reservoirs of the United States Large Reservoirs of the United States. North American Journal of Fisheries Management 19:536-550.

Moyle, P.B. and J. Randall. 1999. Distribution maps of fishes in California. [on-line] Available URL at http://ice.ucdavis.edu/aquadiv/fishcovs/fishmaps.html.

Page, L.M., and B.M. Burr. 1991. A field guide to freshwater fishes of North America north of Mexico. Volume 42. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, MA.

Patrick, P.H., A.E. Christie, D. Sager, C. Hocutt, and J. Stauffer, Jr. 1985. Responses of fish to a strobe light/air-bubble barrier. Fisheries Research 3:157-172.

Rasmussen, J.L. 1998. Aquatic nuisance species of the Mississippi River basin. 60th Midwest Fish and Wildlife Conference, Aquatic Nuisance Species Symposium, Dec. 7, 1998, Cincinnati, OH.

Red River Authority of Texas. 2001. Red and Canadian Basins Fish Inventory: Grayson County. Red River Authority of Texas.

Red River Authority of Texas. 2001. Red and Canadian Basins Fish Inventory: Red River County. Red River Authority of Texas.

Rohde, F. C., R. G. Arndt, J. W. Foltz, and J. M. Quattro. 2009. Freshwater Fishes of South Carolina. University of South Carolina Press, Columbia, SC. 430 pp.

Sanderson, B.L., K.A. Barnes, and A.M.W. Rub. 2009. Nonindigenous Species of the Pacific Northwest: An Overlooked Risk to Endangered Salmon? BioScience 59(3): 245-256.

Sommer, T, B. Harrell, M. Nobriga, R. Brown, P. Moyle, W. Kimmerer, and L. Schemel. 2001. California's Yolo Bypass: Evidence that flood control can be compatible with fisheries, wetlands, wildlife, and agriculture. Fisheries. American Fisheries Society. 26 (8): 6-16.

Starnes, W.C., J. Odenkirk, and M.J. Ashton. 2011. Update and analysis of fish occurrences in the lower Potomac River drainage in the vicinity of Plummers Island, Maryland—Contribution XXXI to the natural history of Plummers Island, Maryland. Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 124(4):280-309.

Tilmant, J.T. 1999. Management of nonindigenous aquatic fish in the U.S. National Park System. National Park Service. 50 pp.

Trautman, M.B. 1981. The Fishes of Ohio. Ohio State University Press. Columbus, OH. 782 pp.

Other Resources:
USGS/NAS Technical Fact Sheet
Missouri River Introduced Fish - White Crappie
FishBase Fact Sheet

Great Lakes Waterlife

Author: P.Fuller, M. Cannister, M. Neilson and K. Hopper

Peer Review Date: 5/29/2012

This information is preliminary or provisional and is subject to revision. It is being provided to meet the need for timely best science. The information has not received final approval by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and is provided on the condition that neither the USGS nor the U.S. Government shall be held liable for any damages resulting from the authorized or unauthorized use of the information.