Arkansas River Shiner

Diet and feeding

The FishTraits compilation records these diet categories for this species: algae or phytoplankton; invertebrates or larval fish. These are broad categories, not a claim that every individual consumes every example in a category.

Habitat preferences

Reported habitat associations include streams and small rivers.

The source records associations with sand. An association indicates reported use, rather than an exclusive requirement.

Reproduction and parental care

Recorded spawning months are Jun, Jul for the source’s reporting region (AK). This is a regional calendar, not a range-wide schedule.

Size and recorded longevity

FishTraits reports a maximum total length of 5.7 centimetres. Some entries use an estimated asymptotic length; this value should not be treated as a certified record catch.

Recorded longevity in the compilation is 3 years. Wild observations were preferred, but captive records were accepted where wild records were unavailable, and unspecified records were assumed wild. The value is not a guaranteed wild lifespan or an aquarium life expectancy.

Native range

Arkansas River drainage from western Arkansas to western Kansas, western Oklahoma, Texas panhandle, and northeastern New Mexico (Page and Burr 1991).

Introduction history

According to Bestgen et al. (1989), introduction of Notropis girardi into the Pecos River probably resulted from release of baitfish by anglers below Sumner Dam in 1978. Its use as a bait fish may have been inadvertent, for it was speculated that the species may have been included in a bait shipment of plains minnow, Hybognathus placitus. The initial stock is unknown, but it may have come from the nearby Canadian River drainage. From the presumed point of introduction, the species dispersed downstream at least 260 km by the late 1981 and was common in collections made in the river in 1986-1987. However, Bestgen et al. (1989) admitted that dispersal may have been aided by multiple introductions throughout the Pecos River. Cross (1970) presumed that the species gained access to the Red River in Oklahoma by way of human introduction. However, he could not rule out natural transfer from the South Canadian River (Arkansas drainage) to the adjacent Washita drainage.

Ecological impacts

The population in the Pecos River may be posing a problem for the survival of the endemic bluntnose shiner Notropis simus pecosensis (Gilbert, personal communication).