The slim minnow (''Pimephales tenellus'') is a species of freshwater

ray-finned fish Actinopterygii (; ), members of which are known as ray-finned fishes, is a class of bony fish. They comprise over 50% of living vertebrate species. The ray-finned fishes are so called because their fins are webs of skin supported by bony or hor ...

from the

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

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 ...

, the

carp Carp are various species of oily freshwater fish from the family Cyprinidae, a very large group of fish native to Europe and Asia. While carp is consumed in many parts of the world, they are generally considered an invasive species in parts of ...

s and

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 co ...

s which is endemic to the United States, in

Ozarks The Ozarks, also known as the Ozark Mountains, Ozark Highlands or Ozark Plateau, is a physiographic region in the U.S. states of Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma and the extreme southeastern corner of Kansas. The Ozarks cover a significant port ...

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the Osage ...

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 ...

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

, and

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 ...

Description

It is a cylindrically shaped, slender fish, similar in shape to the

bluntnose minnow :''"Bluntnose minnows" is also used for the genus '' Pimephales'' as a whole.'' The bluntnose minnow (''Pimephales notatus)'' is a species of temperate freshwater fish belonging to the genus '' Pimephales'' of the cyprinid family. Its natural geog ...

(''Pimephalus notatus''), with a blunt snout and a slightly oblique mouth which has an upper lip which is much thicker in the middle than at the corners. It has a dark lateral band and a large eye which has a diameter of roughly a quarter of the length of the head. It has a dark-olive back and creamy white underparts with a well defined dark lateral band which terminates in a spot just before the caudal fin with a small dark spot often found on the front of the dorsal fin. The breeding male has three rows of 12 tubercles and the

dorsal fin A dorsal fin is a fin located on the back of most marine and freshwater vertebrates within various taxa of the animal kingdom. Many species of animals possessing dorsal fins are not particularly closely related to each other, though through conv ...

anal 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 ...

and

caudal 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 ...

become tinged with orange while the

pectoral fins 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 ...

turn black with a white leading edge. the head often turns black too. It is the smallest species in the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

Pimephales ''Pimephales'', commonly known as the bluntnose minnows (a term used locally to refer to ''Pimephales notatus'' specifically), is a genus of cyprinid fish found in North America. All of the four species are small fish, with ''P. notatus'' being t ...

'' with the adults normally being with a maximum length of . It has 8 soft rays in the rather rounded dorsal fin and seven in the anal fin.

Distribution

It is found in southern Missouri, eastern Kansas, Arkansas, and northeastern Oklahoma where they are restricted to the

, particularly in the drainage basins of the

Red Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a secondar ...

and

rivers as well as in some independent tributaries of

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 ...

. It has also been recorded in a pond in the drainage of the

Osage River The Osage River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed May 31, 2011 tributary of the Missouri River in central Missouri in the United States. The eighth-largest river i ...

in Kansas where it was probably released by an angler using the fish as bait.

Habitat and ecology

The slim minnow occurs in sand-bottomed and gravel-bottomed pools and stretches of creeks and small rivers. It is a sociable species which forms schools in the middle or bottom of the water column and, unlike other ''Pimephalus'' species can often be found swimming in the current. It breeds in May–July and spawning is thought to occur in the swifter riffles. The breeding males become territorial, establishing a nest site in a suitable crevice, for example in a stone or cobble and begin to display at females. Females approached the nest and when mating they adhered the eggs to the substrate while pressed against the male which simultaneously fertilised them. The eggs eventually form a cluster adhered to the underside of the rock and the female leaves them to be guarded, cleaned and aerated by the male. The males will try to mate with any available females. The eggs hatch after 6 days and the fry drop to the bottom after hatching, paternal care stops and the fry are often preyed upon by adult fish. Females lay between 37 and 209 eggs in a season with a mean of 83.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q3765048 Pimephales Freshwater fish of the United States Fish described in 1856 Taxa named by Charles Frédéric Girard