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A Virtual Museum on the State's Fish Biodiversity

Cyprinella formosa

Beautiful Shiner
Federal: Threatened NS G3
Collection Details

Specimens

Photos

Records

Taxonomic Hierarchy

Actinopterygii (Ray-finned Fishes) Cypriniformes (Carps and Minnows) Cyprinidae (Carps and Minnows) Cyprinella Cyprinella formosa (Beautiful Shiner)

Description

This species account was compiled from FishBase (Froese, R. and D. Pauly. Editors. 2025. FishBase. World Wide Web electronic publication. www.fishbase.org, version 04/2025.) and processed using AI-assisted text extraction. It may contain errors in spelling, punctuation, or formatting. When citing, please reference the original source rather than this page. Learn more about our species accounts.

Characters

Body shape: fusiform / normal. Dorsal fin and caudal fins are colored gray, other fins colored white. In the middle of the body side, there is a dark gray strip (Ref.33303).

Distribution

North America: San Bernardina Creek in southwest New Mexico and southeast Arizona, USA; also in Mexico. Presumed extirpated in the US.

Habitat Associations

Freshwater. benthopelagic. Found in: streams.

Biology

Found in sandy and rocky pools of creeks (Ref. 86798).
Max length: 9.0 cm TL.
Reproductive mode: dioecism; fertilization: external; nonguarders.
IUCN Red List Status: Least Concern (LC), assessed 2018-09-20. Resilience: High (Preliminary K or Fecundity.).

References

Riehl, R. and H.A. Baensch (1991) Aquarien Atlas. Band. 1. Melle: Mergus, Verlag für Natur-und Heimtierkunde, Germany. 992 p.
Lu, K. (1991) Culterinae. p. 88-118. In J.-H. Pan, L. Zhong, C.-Y. Zheng, H.-L. Wu and J.-H. Liu (eds). 1991. The freshwater fishes of Guangdong Province. Guangdong Science and Technology Press, Guangzhou. 589 p.
Page, L.M. and B.M. Burr (2011) A field guide to freshwater fishes of North America north of Mexico. Boston : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 663p.

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