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

freshwater Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. Although the term specifically excludes seawater and brackish water, it does include ...

minnow in 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 ...

. 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 North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

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 Fusiform means having a spindle-like shape that is wide in the middle and tapers at both ends. It is similar to the lemon-shape, but often implies a focal broadening of a structure that continues from one or both ends, such as an aneurysm on a b ...

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 scales. It has a slightly subterminal mouth and no adipose fin. Like other members of the family

, 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.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 valley north to the St. Croix river in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Its southern distribution is to the Amite river in Louisiana and west to the Guadalupe river in Texas.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, 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 The Kankakee River is a tributary of the Illinois River, approximately long, in the Central Corn Belt Plains of northwestern Indiana and northeastern Illinois in the United States. At one time, the river drained one of the largest wetlands in N ...

. 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