Trautman (1957:444-445) describes the habitat of the tadpole madtom as
"low-gradient lowland streams, springs, marshes, oxbows, pothole lakes,
and protected harbors and bays of Lake Erie, where conditions were
relatively stable, the water was usually clear, the bottom was of soft
muck which generally contained varying amounts of twigs, logs, and
leaves, and where there usually was an abundance of such rooted aquatics
as pondweeds and hornwort. The species seemed to be highly intolerant to
much turbidity and rapid silting,..." The tadpole madtom was obtained
only at the middle Marais des Cygnes station in a small, deep,
mud-bottomed pool in 1957 after water levels, and probably turbidity,
had been low for five years. The occurrence provides the westernmost
record station in Kansas. Cross and Minckley (1958:106) reported the
species from the lower part of the Marais des Cygnes in Kansas.
#Noturus nocturnus# Jordan and Gilbert