Once abundant and widespread in the basin, its numbers have declined to the point where it has been extirpated from the Mexican part of its range and was listed as endangered in the US part in 1967, a fate shared by the three other large Colorado Basin endemic fish species: bonytail chub, humpback chub, and razorback sucker.

The Colorado pikeminnow is currently listed as vulnerable by the IUCN,[1] while its NatureServe conservation status is "critically imperiled".

Color grades from bright olive green on the back to a paler yellowish shade on the flanks, to white underneath.

Biologists now consider the typical size of an adult pikeminnow to be between 4 and 9 pounds (1.8 and 4.1 kg), and reports of the fish lately exceeding 3 feet (0.91 m) in length are now in question.

Habitat for the young fish is predominately alongshore backwaters and associated shorelines of more alluvial reaches of the turbulent and turbid rivers of the Colorado system.

These migrations can begin as upstream or downstream movements, depending on the location of home range of individuals, and may involve 100 kilometres (62 mi) or more.

Damming and habitat alterations have confined the species to the upper Colorado drainage; currently, remnant populations are known from the Green, Gunnison, White, San Juan, and Yampa Rivers.

Due to human impacts and the introduction of non-native fish species, the population has receded to the upper basin.

With the introduction of various invasive catfish species, Greenback cutthroat trout, and red shiner (Cyprinella lutrensis), the population of Colorado Pikeminnow has declined drastically.

In the mid-1960s, the federal government poured the poison rotenone into the Green and San Juan Rivers, attempting to create an environment supportive of non-native sportfish.

[15] A draft recovery plan published in 2022 projected a cost of nearly US$180 million over 15 years to recover the Colorado pikeminnow through management of water flow, maintenance of fish passages and control of nonnative species, among other measures.