The rosyface shiner (''Notropis rubellus'') is a small fresh water fish of the minnow and carp 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 native to eastern

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 ...

Description

The species can grow up to . They have a fusiform body shape with silvery sides with blue and green lateral iridescent stripes and transparent fins. Their pectoral and pelvic fins are in the abdominal region. They have a pointed snout with a terminal mouth position. The caudal fin is angled inwards to make a forked shape. Breeding males have red colorations on their face, head, and behind the gills. Breeding females will also have minimal red colorations.

Distribution

The rosyface shiner's native range is in the eastern United States and southern Canada. They are found from eastern Wisconsin and in the drainages of the

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lakes ...

to New York, down south in the upper Ohio River, along the

Appalachian Mountains The Appalachian Mountains, often called the Appalachians, (french: Appalaches), are a system of mountains in eastern to northeastern North America. The Appalachians first formed roughly 480 million years ago during the Ordovician Period. They ...

and

Cumberland Plateau The Cumberland Plateau is the southern part of the Appalachian Plateau in the Appalachian Mountains of the United States. It includes much of eastern Kentucky and Tennessee, and portions of northern Alabama and northwest Georgia. The terms "Alle ...

to Tennessee, and down the James river, and

Rapidan River The Rapidan River, flowing U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed April 1, 2011 through north-central Virginia in the United States, is the largest tributary of the Rappahannock ...

which drain into the Atlantic Ocean. Rosyface Shiner Distribution

Habitat

They are freshwater fish living in large to moderate-sized streams with clear waters and fast flowing currents. Bottoms of streams have clean gravel or rubble usually in or around riffles. They are not conducive to streams with consistently murky waters. They are nonmigratory spending winters (mid- November)in deeper pools and eddies and then returning to the riffles in mid-March.

Diet

The rosyface shiner is an omnivorous fish and has been reported to eat insects such as caddis fly larvae, mayfly nymphs,

diptera Flies are insects of the order Diptera, the name being derived from the Greek δι- ''di-'' "two", and πτερόν ''pteron'' "wing". Insects of this order use only a single pair of wings to fly, the hindwings having evolved into advanced ...

, fish eggs, algae,

diatoms A diatom (New Latin, Neo-Latin ''diatoma''), "a cutting through, a severance", from el, διάτομος, diátomos, "cut in half, divided equally" from el, διατέμνω, diatémno, "to cut in twain". is any member of a large group com ...

, and other organic material, although insects make up a large majority of its diet. They are known to feed on insects on the surface of the water including terrestrial insects that fall into the water, but will also feed in mid-waters as well. They have even been known to jump out of the water to capture flying insects. In a study conducted by Roger J. Reed in 1957 rosyface shiners were reported to have 20% of fish with full stomachs during the months of late April to late May during pre-spawning activities. Feeding activities then picked back up again post-spawning in mid-June with 80% of the population having full stomachs.

Reproduction

Pre-spawning activities include schools of both sexes circling between two pools below spawning riffles. The front of the school consists of females while the back of the school consists of males. Spawning takes place on a riffle at the head of the pool. Spawning area was over gravel at the bottom in the lower part of a riffle where water was 1 to 3 inches deep. Depressions 5 to 12 inches in diameter served as nests. Fish will vibrate together over a depression for 5 to 6 seconds, rest for 30 seconds and then repeat the cycle for about 5 minutes and then return to the pool, this cycle is repeated every 10 minutes. Both sexes are sexually mature after 1 year of life. One year old females have a fecundity of about 600 eggs and 3-year-old females have an average fecundity of 1,175. They live to be 3 years old.

References

* Robert Jay Goldstein, Rodney W. Harper, Richard Edwards: ''American Aquarium Fishes''. Texas A&M University Press 2000, , p. 110 () * Boschung, Herbert T. Jr.; Williams, James D.; Gotshall, Daniel W.; Caldwell, David K.; and Caldwell, Melba C. ''National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Fishes, Whales, and Dolphins''. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1983. 441. {{Authority control Notropis Fish described in 1850 Taxa_named_by_Louis_Agassiz Freshwater fish of North America