Name:
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- Notropis, from the Greek, "back keel"
- heterolepis, from the Greek, "varying scale"
- Common name from the black lateral band over the snout
- Other common names include: Blacknose Dace, Blacknose Minnow, Black-sided
Minnow, Blunt-nosed Minnow, Cayuga Minnow, Muskoka Minnow, Northern Blacknose
Shiner
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Taxonomy:
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- Kingdom Animalia
- Phylum Chordata, animals with a spinal chord
- Subphylum Vertebrata, animals with a backbone
- Superclass Osteichthyes, bony fishes
- Class Actinopterygii, ray-finned and spiny rayed fishes
- Subclass Neopterygii
- Infraclass Teleostei
- Superorder Ostariophysi
- Order Cypriniformes, minnows and suckers
- Family Cyprinidae, carps and minnows
- Genus Notropis, the eastern shiners
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Description:
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- A small blackstripe minnow.
- Length to 2½"
- Weight
- Coloration
- olive-yellow on the back
- silvery sides
- whitish belly
- conspicuous lateral band with vertical black crescents which crosses the
snout but does not extend to chin
- scales on back outlined with dark pigment give a cross-hatch appearance.
- Body
- slender with only slight lateral compression
- lateral line of 33-37 scales, but not all scales have pores
- dorsal, anal, and pelvic fins of 8 rays
- pectoral fins of 12-14 rays
- Head
- mouth sub-terminal with slight oblique angle
- barbel lacking
- pharyngeal teeth in a 4-4 pattern
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Identification:
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Distribution:
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- Hudson Bay drainage across southern Canada to Nova Scotia, through the
Great Lakes and Mississippi drainage south to Nebraska and Missouri.
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Habitat:
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- Small creeks and the weedy shallows of lakes and ponds.
- Becoming rare in many parts of its range due to habitat loss and deterioriating
water quality.
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Food:
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- Feeds primarily from the bottom and not at all from the surface, generally
early in the morning and late in the day.
- Feeds by collecting zooplankton on the bottom. Small individuals feed on
vegetation.
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History:
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Uses:
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Reproduction:
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Comments:
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Links:
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Last updated on 11 December 1999
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