Cyprinella spiloptera
Spotfin Shiner
NS
G5
Taxonomic Hierarchy
Actinopterygii (Ray-finned Fishes)
Cypriniformes (Carps and Minnows)
Cyprinidae (Carps and Minnows)
Cyprinella
Cyprinella spiloptera (Spotfin 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.)
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Characters
Body shape: fusiform / normal.
Distribution
North America: Atlantic Slope from St. Lawrence drainage in Quebec, Canada to Potomac River drainage in Virginia, USA; Great Lakes (except Lake Superior), Hudson Bay (Red River) and Mississippi River basins from Ontario, Canada and New York to North Dakota and south to Alabama and eastern Oklahoma, USA; isolated populations in Ozarks, USA.
Habitat Associations
Freshwater. benthopelagic. Found in: streams, lakes.
Biology
Inhabits sand and gravel runs and pools of creeks, and small to medium (sometimes large) rivers (Ref. 5723, 86798). Adults feed on surface insects and aquatic immatures (Ref. 10294). Spawning season is from mid-June to mid-August. Eggs are deposited in crevices of rocks and logs and are defended by males (Ref. 27549).
Max length: 12.0 cm TL; common length: 7.7 cm TL; max age: 5 years.
Reproductive mode: dioecism; fertilization: external.
IUCN Red List Status: Least Concern (LC), assessed 2011-11-17. Resilience: Medium (tmax=5).
References
Etnier, D.A. and W.C. Starnes (1993) The fishes of Tennessee. The University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA. (pls. check date).
Johnson, J.H. and D.S. Dropkin (1995) Diel feeding chronology of six fish species in the Juniata River, Pennsylvania. J. Freshwat. Ecol. 10(1):11-18.
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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