The red shiner or red-horse minnow (''Cyprinella lutrensis'') is a North American species of freshwater fish 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 ...

. They are deep-bodied and laterally compressed,Farringer R.T., III, A.A. Echelle, and S.F. Lehtinen. 1979. Reproductive cycle of the red shiner, Notropis lutrensis, in central Texas and south central Oklahoma. ''Transactions of the American Fisheries Society,'' 108, 271-276. and can grow to about three inches in length. For most of the year, both males and females have silver sides and whitish abdomens. Males in breeding coloration, though, have iridescent pink-purple-blue sides and a red crown and fins (except the dorsal fin which remains dark). Red shiners can live up to three years. They are omnivorous; they eat both aquatic and terrestrial invertebrates, as well as algae. Red shiners have also been known to eat the eggs and larvae of native fish found in locations where they have been introduced.Ruppert, J.B., Muth, R.T., Nesler, T.P. (1993). Predation on Fish Larvae by Adult Red Shiner, Yampa and Green Rivers, Colorado. ''The Southwestern Naturalist,'' 38(4), 397-399.

Reproduction

The spawning season for red shiners is generally from mid-April through September. In addition to spawning in crevices like other members of the genus ''

Cyprinella ''Cyprinella'' is a genus of fish in the family Cyprinidae, the carps and minnows. They are known as the satinfin shiners. They are native to North America, and some are among the most common freshwater fish species on the eastern side of the con ...

'', red shiners also broadcast their eggs and attach them to rocks or vegetation. Females can release up to 16 batches per day with up to 71 eggs per batch. The average clutch size, however, is 585 eggs and they may have five to 19 clutches in one reproductive season. Red shiners are capable of generating viable hybrid offspring with closely related species, such as the

blue shiner The blue shiner (''Cyprinella caerulea'') is a species of fish in the carp family. It is native to the southeastern United States, where it is endemic to the Cahaba and Coosa River systems of the Mobile River Basin. This is a federally listed ...

and the

blacktail shiner The blacktail shiner (''Cyprinella venusta'') is a small freshwater fish in the family Cyprinidae native to the United States. Description and anatomy The blacktail shiner is a somewhat slender minnow with 8-9 rays on the anal fin, and a promi ...

Habitat

Red shiners are found naturally in a variety of aquatic habitats, including backwaters, creek mouths, streams containing sand and silt substrates,

riffle A riffle is a shallow landform in a flowing channel. Colloquially, it is a shallow place in a river where water flows quickly past rocks. However, in geology a riffle has specific characteristics. Topographic, sedimentary and hydraulic indica ...

s, and pools. They are tolerant of areas of frequent high turbidity and siltation, but they tend to avoid waters with high acidity. Red shiner are habitat generalists in that they are adapted to favor a wide range of environmental conditions that are not ideal to most other fish species. These include habitats degraded by human disturbance, and those with poor water quality (such as polluted waterways), natural physiochemical extremes, and seasonally intermittent flows.Burkhead, N. M., & Huge, D. H. (2002). The Case of the Red Shiner:What Happens When a Fish Goes Bad? Retrieved October 13, 1872, from USGS: http://fl.biology.usgs.gov/Southeastern_Aquatic_Fauna/Freshwater_Fishes/Shiner_Research/shiner_research.html

Range

The red shiner is naturally found in the Mississippi River basin from southern Wisconsin and eastern Indiana to South Dakota and Wyoming and south to Louisiana. It is also found as an introduced species in Arizona, Alabama, California, Colorado, Illinois, Georgia, Nebraska, North Carolina, South Carolina, Wyoming, Massachusetts, Utah, Virginia, Nevada, and New Mexico.Nico, L., & Fuller, P. (2010). ''Cyprinella lutrensis.'' USGS Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database, Gainesville, FL. Although the species is overall widespread and common, the

subspecies In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all species ...

from

Maravillas Creek Maravillas Creek is a river in Texas. It is a tributary of the Rio Grande. See also * List of rivers of Texas * List of tributaries of the Rio Grande Tributaries and sub-tributaries are hierarchically listed in order from the mouth of the Rio Gr ...

in Texas (''Cyprinella lutrensis blairi'') became extinct in the late 1950s due to competition from the invasive

plains killifish ''Fundulus zebrinus'' is a species of fish in the Fundulidae known by the common name plains killifish. It is native to North America, where it is distributed throughout the Mississippi River, Colorado River, and Rio Grande drainages, and other ...

.Texas Freshwater Fishes
Cyprinella lutrensis blairi
Texas State University – San Marcos, Department of Biology.

Invasiveness

The red shiner is a common bait fish, and the emptying of bait buckets containing them is believed to be the main cause of introduction of this species into new areas. It is also commonly used as an aquarium fish. It has become a species of special concern in the United States, as it has been implicated in the decline of native fish populations in the areas where it has been introduced. As previously mentioned, red shiners have been known to eat the eggs of native fish and in doing so hinder the growth of those populations. They are also adapted to thrive in a variety of environments, and as generalists, may be better able to persist in disturbed habitats than native species of those areas. Red shiners are capable of hybridizing with the blacktail shiner (''

Cyprinella venusta The blacktail shiner (''Cyprinella venusta'') is a small freshwater fish in the family Cyprinidae native to the United States. Description and anatomy The blacktail shiner is a somewhat slender minnow with 8-9 rays on the anal fin, and a promin ...

stigmatura''), a native species found in the

Coosa River The Coosa River is a tributary of the Alabama River in the U.S. states of Alabama and Georgia. The river is about long.U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed April 27, 2011 ...

, which serves to dilute the gene pool of this species.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q469166

red shiner The red shiner or red-horse minnow (''Cyprinella lutrensis'') is a North American species of freshwater fish in the family Cyprinidae. They are deep-bodied and laterally compressed,Farringer R.T., III, A.A. Echelle, and S.F. Lehtinen. 1979. Repr ...

Freshwater fish of the United States