The pallid shiner (''Hybopsis amnis'') is a small freshwater

minnow Minnow is the common name for a number of species of small freshwater fish, belonging to several genera of the families Cyprinidae and Leuciscidae. They are also known in Ireland as pinkeens. Smaller fish in the subfamily Leusciscidae are c ...

in the family Cyprinidae. Its synonym is ''Notropis amnis''.Phillips, Gary L., Schmid, William D., and Underhill, James C. 1982. Fishes of the Minnesota Region. University of Minnesota Press. Minneapolis, MN. pg. 133 They are native to North America and can be found in the

Mississippi watershed The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it ...

. The pallid shiner is considered a rare fish in its northern distribution but not in its southern distribution. The pallid shiner was first discovered in the early 1900s in the St. Croix river north of Taylor Falls, and its population has been declining since. Little is known about their feeding and reproductive habits.

Physical description

The pallid shiner is a small silver fish with very little pigmentation on its fusiform body and like most fishes, it is laterally flattened.Pallid Shiner
University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute
2013. Retrieved 2015-04-23 The only marking on its body is a thin lateral stripe that extends from its head to its tail. The scales on its body are composed of round lateral scales called

cycloid In geometry, a cycloid is the curve traced by a point on a circle as it rolls along a straight line without slipping. A cycloid is a specific form of trochoid and is an example of a roulette, a curve generated by a curve rolling on another cu ...

scales. It has a slightly subterminal mouth and no

adipose fin Fins are distinctive anatomical features composed of bony spines or rays protruding from the body of a fish. They are covered with skin and joined together either in a webbed fashion, as seen in most bony fish, or similar to a flipper, as se ...

. Like other members of the family Cyprinidae, the pallid shiner is a toothless fish and has no stomach. Instead they chew their food using gill rakers on their gills and

pharyngeal teeth Pharyngeal teeth are teeth in the pharyngeal arch of the throat of cyprinids, suckers, and a number of other fish species otherwise lacking teeth.Cyprinidae, Carps and Minnows. Encyclopedia of Life

2010. Retrieved 2015-05-07. Its caudal fin is white and is forked with pointed tips. The dorsal fin of the pallid shiner is high and has eight soft rays. The pelvic fins are Fish fin#Types of fins, abdominal.

Geographic distribution

Today the pallid shiner can be found in the Mississippi river basin from southern Wisconsin and Minnesota to Louisiana. Specifically its distribution is from the

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

valley north to the St. Croix river in

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

and

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

. Its southern distribution is to the Amite river in

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

and west to the Guadalupe river in

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

.Kwak, T.J. 1951. Ecological characteristics of a northern population of the pallid shiner. ''Transactions of the American Fisheries Society.'' 120:106-115. The pallid shiner is very rare in its northern distribution and there are more abundant populations in its southern distribution. Historically the pallid shiner was abundant in the state of

Missouri Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee): Iowa to the north, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee to the east, Arkansas t ...

, but the populations there declined greatly.Skelly, T. M., and Sule, M. J. 1983. The pallid shiner, ''Notropis amnis'' Hubbs and Greene, a rare Illinois Fish. ''Transactions of the Illinois State Academy of Science.'' 76:131-138. Distribution Pallid Shiner

Habitat

As mentioned before, the pallid shiner is distributed in many rivers. These rivers are typically medium to large rivers. They can also be found more downstream of sand and gravel bars in streams.''Hybopsis amnis'' Hubbs and Greene. 1951
Species Profile: Minnesota Department of Natural Resources
Pallid shiners prefer slow moving waters and quiet waters over sand and silty bottoms.NatureServe 2013
Hybopsis amnis
The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2014.3. . Retrieved on 02 May 2015. Because of increased human activity in the rivers that they are found, sedimentation has become more of a problem for the pallid shiners.

Conservation status

The pallid shiner is listed as least concern because, although its distribution and abundance have been reduced, the number of subpopulations and populations are still relatively large and have not declined greatly. Until recently the pallid shiner was thought to have become regionally extinct in Illinois, but was then rediscovered in the Kankakee River. It has been affected by sedimentation and increased human activity in the rivers that it is found in.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1102418 Hybopsis Fish described in 1951 Fish of the United States Endemic fauna of the United States