The ghost shiner (''Notropis buchanani'') is a North American species of freshwater fish of the family

Cyprinidae Cyprinidae is a family of freshwater fish commonly called the carp or minnow family. It includes the carps, the true minnows, and relatives like the barbs and barbels. Cyprinidae is the largest and most diverse fish family and the largest verte ...

. It is generally characterized as being a small bodied, silvery and fusiform shaped cyprinid.Holm, E. and J. Houston. 1993. "Status of the ghost shiner, ''Notropis buchanani'', in Canada". ''Can. Field Naturalist'' 107:440-445. ''Notropis buchanani'' is morphologically similar to and often mistaken for the

Mimic Shiner The mimic shiner (''Notropis volucellus') is a species of North American cyprinid freshwater fish in the genus ''Notropis''. The genus ''Notropis'' is commonly known as the eastern shiners. It is native to areas of the Hudson Bay drainage, Great L ...

(''Notropis volucellus''), which is evident by its former classification as a subspecies of ''Notropis volucellus''.Trautman, M. B. 1981. ''The Fishes of Ohio''. Ohio State University Press. 782 pp.

Geographic distribution

The current range for ''Notropis buchanani'' extends from the

Mississippi River 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 f ...

basin in the southern United States to

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

in southern Canada. Populations have been reported in eastern

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...

, southeastern

Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the southwe ...

, western

Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...

and south to northern

Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = "Alabama (state song), Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery, Alabama, Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville, Alabama, Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County, Al ...

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 ...

, and

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 ...

. Populations of ''N. buchanani'' are also present in Gulf slope drainages in

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

, Louisiana, and Mexico. In 1993, populations were found in southern Ontario. The trend in the United States is that the farther north the state is from the

Gulf Coast The Gulf Coast of the United States, also known as the Gulf South, is the coastline along the Southern United States where they meet the Gulf of Mexico. The coastal states that have a shoreline on the Gulf of Mexico are Texas, Louisiana, Mississ ...

, the less secure populations of ''N. buchanani'' become. In Ontario, the population is apparently stable. The first population of ''Notropis buchanani'' in Ontario was discovered in the

Thames River The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...

watershed in 1979. After the discovery, the

Canadian Museum of Nature The Canadian Museum of Nature (french: Musée canadien de la nature; CMN) is a national natural history museum based in Canada's National Capital Region. The museum's exhibitions and public programs are housed in the Victoria Memorial Museum Bui ...

was checked for similar species of ''Notropis'', and a specimen of ''Notropis buchanani'' was found to have previously been collected from Mollys Creek in 1972. The population in southern Ontario has been thought to have been introduced in the 1970s; however, recent studies suggest that it is native to Canada due to natural migration after

deglaciation Deglaciation is the transition from full glacial conditions during ice ages, to warm interglacials, characterized by global warming and sea level rise due to change in continental ice volume. Thus, it refers to the retreat of a glacier, an ice shee ...

Ecology

The diet of ''Notropis buchanani'' has not been studied yet, but the diet of adults probably consists of insects, phytoplankton, and benthic crustaceans. ''Notropis buchanani'' are

benthopelagic The demersal zone is the part of the sea or ocean (or deep lake) consisting of the part of the water column near to (and significantly affected by) the seabed and the benthos. The demersal zone is just above the benthic zone and forms a layer of ...

freshwater fishFroese, R. and D. Pauly. Editors. 2011
FishBase
World Wide Web electronic publication. August 2011. that generally inhabit areas with slow currents in lower magnitude streams of orders one to four. In the higher order streams, ''N. buchanani'' are characteristic of low-gradient sections of creeks and rivers with moderate flow and moderately clear to turbid waters.Reeve M. Bailey. Reviewed work(s): ''Atlas of North American Fresh Water Fishes'' by D. S. Lee; C. R. Gilbert; C. H. Hocutt; R. E. Jenkins; D. E. McAllister; J. R. Stauffer, ''Copeia'' Vol. 1982, No. 4 (December 21, 1982), pp. 983-985 They also inhabit larger pools and protected backwaters without noticeable current in stream orders from one to four. Streams with submerged vegetation create suitable habitat for ''N. buchanani'' species, as many species have been found in submerged vegetation in the

Ohio River The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of Illino ...

valley. Impoundments such as

dam A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use, a ...

s have a negative impact on the species' abundance because they limit their range. Dams that are less than 12 feet high do not have to be reported as dams, and these pose a significant risk to populations of ''Notropis buchanani'' because they are unregulated.

Life history

Populations of ''Notropis buchanani'' usually breed in the second year of life during the period from May until late August depending on the location of the populations. In

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

, ''N. buchanani'' were reported to be in a reproductive state in late May,Etnier, D.A., and W.E. Starnes. 1993. ''The fishes of Tennessee''. University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville, Tennessee. 681 pp. while in Kansas breeding individuals were found in mid-August. The majority of the populations breed during their second summer, and relatively few breed during the third because their lifespan is three years. ''Notropis buchanani'' spawn in rivers with sluggish sand or gravel riffles. In Tennessee, the spawning occurs in slow moving, silt covered gravel areas in the

Stones River The Stones River (properly spelled Stone's River) is a major stream of the eastern portion of Tennessee's Nashville Basin region. It is named after explorer and longhunter Uriah Stone, who navigated the river in 1767. Geography and hydrography T ...

below the Walter Hill Dam or in the silty sand substrate of the Mississippi River in northwest part of the state. During the breeding season, males develop nuptial

tubercles In anatomy, a tubercle (literally 'small tuber', Latin for 'lump') is any round nodule, small eminence, or warty outgrowth found on external or internal organs of a plant or an animal. In plants A tubercle is generally a wart-like projection ...

, particularly on the snout, internasal region, orbit, and underside of the lower jaw. The anterior pectoral rays are slightly thickened, and small blunt tubercles are densely packed along the dorsal surface of rays 2-6. For ''Notropis buchanani'', the year of the young in October are on average 0.8” to 1.5” long. At one year, they are an average of 1.1” to 2.3 inches long, and as adults individuals grow to an average of 1.3” to 2.3” inches. The largest species of ''Notropis buchanani'' caught was recorded at a length of 2.6”.

Management

Currently, there are no widely used management practices to monitor ''Notropis buchanani''. Populations are stable in southern drainages and all states that populations of the species exist in, and the species has a low vulnerability compared to other species of ''Notropis''. ''Notropis buchanani'' was previously listed as a

protected species An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and invas ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

due to habitat loss according to the American Fisheries Society. It is currently not listed as threatened or endangered in any of the states the populations exist in.Fish and Wildlife Service
2010. Information on the historical distributions and success of ''Notropis buchanani'' is not accessible before 1920 because the species was thought to be a subspecies of ''Notropis volucellus''. The abundance of ''N. buchanani'' was considered to be larger before it was discovered in Ohio in 1930. Habitat loss is thought to be a large factor in the decline of populations in the

Basin. The impounding of waters through damming creates a natural barrier for populations. A 1947 collection of the species was taken from lower

Norris Reservoir Norris Dam is a hydroelectric and flood control structure located on the Clinch River in Anderson County, Tennessee, Anderson County and Campbell County, Tennessee, United States. The dam was the first major project for the Tennessee Valley Autho ...

that suggests the range of ''N. buchanani'' extended farther up the

Tennessee River The Tennessee River is the largest tributary of the Ohio River. It is approximately long and is located in the southeastern United States in the Tennessee Valley. The river was once popularly known as the Cherokee River, among other names, ...

. The population survived for roughly 10 years after the completion of the reservoir, but it is now considered

extirpated Local extinction, also known as extirpation, refers to a species (or other taxon) of plant or animal that ceases to exist in a chosen geographic area of study, though it still exists elsewhere. Local extinctions are contrasted with global extinct ...

, as

TVA The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is a federally owned electric utility corporation in the United States. TVA's service area covers all of Tennessee, portions of Alabama, Mississippi, and Kentucky, and small areas of Georgia, North Carolina ...

biologists failed to capture any recent specimens after frequent sampling. State and Federal Fish and Wildlife agencies are monitoring the abundance of populations of ''Notropis buchanani'' as well as the other native and non-native freshwater fish, but due to the stabilization of species, no specific actions have been designed to help mitigate the risk for the loss of the species. ''Notropis buchanani'' was previously listed as a protected species in Ohio due to habitat loss according to the American Fisheries Society, but it is currently not listed as threatened or endangered in any of the states that populations of the species occur.

References

External links

GLANSIS Species FactSheet
* {{Taxonbar, from=Q3757541 Notropis Fish described in 1896