Bigeye Shiner: Facts & Habitat

About Bigeye Shiner

The bigeye shiner (Notropis boops) is a species of freshwater ray-finned fish belonging to the family Leuciscidae, the shiners, daces and minnows. This fish is a slender, silvery minnow with a dusky lateral stripe and a maximum total length of about 80 mm (3.1 in). Its distinct characteristic is its large-diameter eyes. It is a common species in upland streams of the middle Mississippi River system. Bigeye shiners prefer warm, quiet pools with clear water and silt-free substrates. Siltation, channelization, and gravel dredging are all threats to bigeye shiner populations. During spawning season, typically late April to August, bigeye shiners have several clutches of eggs. State agencies and the EPA have both played a role in the surveying of bigeye shiner populations. Populations have decreased in Ohio due mostly to habitat destruction. In addition to habitat destruction by humans, habitat alteration of the small streams and dried pools has also had a significant effect on abundance. Rivers and streams should not be channelized or modified in any way, which is becoming an increasingly popular trend in urban locations. Agricultural areas and properties within the watershed should adhere to regulations to prevent runoff into the streams.

Native and introducedFresh17 states

Distribution

The bigeye shiner is a common species in upland streams of the middle Mississippi River system, including the eastern highlands of Kentucky, Tennessee, and northern Alabama, the Ozark and Ouachita highlands of Missouri, Arkansas, and Oklahoma, and subhighland regions of northern Louisiana and southeastern Kansas. In Ohio, siltation of stream bottoms and higher water turbidity that accompanied agricultural development of the lowland parts of the state may have eliminated remaining relict populations and threatened established, larger populations. Dams also can separate populations and ultimately fragment the habitat to where a population can no longer survive. Dams are also responsible for temperature and flow variability, sediment accumulation, and altered dissolved oxygen. Overall, habitat fragmentation and destruction are responsible for the extirpation of Notropis boops in many waterways.

Ecology

Bigeye shiners inhabit flowing, usually clear and rocky, pools of creeks and small to medium rivers. The benthic environment includes a substrate of gravel, rock, or sand. They are often found near emergent vegetation along the stream margin. Higher-gradient streams are typically ideal because they carry silt out of pools more efficiently than low-gradient streams. Being benthopelagic, the bigeye shiner lives and feeds near both the bottom of the river and near the surface. The bigeye shiner is a sight feeder; it preys mostly on small insects hovering at the water surface. It also preys on small aquatic invertebrates. Because the bigeye shiner relies on sight to find prey, the water quality is important. Turbidity and siltation are major threats to their success.

Life history

Most of these fish spawn during their second summer, with only a few surviving to spawn the following season. Egg diameter frequencies suggest that individuals spawn more than one clutch per season. Several variables play a role in when the spawning season occurs for N. boops. Temperature and rainfall are both the major contributing factors to their reproductive cycles. They spawn from June into August in Kansas and Missouri. Some males with breeding tubercles and females with mature eggs have been present from April into August. This occurrence is more popular in southern populations of Notropis boops. Increased sediment from agricultural runoff or the installation of dams has affected their ability to successfully reproduce.

Current management

Currently, very little management of the bigeye shiner is occurring. According to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, the species is of relatively low conservation concern and does not require significant additional protection or major management, monitoring, or research action.

Article text: Wikipedia contributors, Bigeye shiner (source revision). Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Retrieved 2026-10-11.

Diet and feeding

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

Reported feeding positions include surface or water-column feeding. The compilation combines published observations; diets can vary with age, locality, and available food.

Habitat preferences

Reported habitat associations include streams and small rivers, creeks.

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

Reproduction and parental care

The compilation reports a representative maturity age of 1.5 years. Its maturity field summarizes mean, median, or modal estimates, usually for females; male estimates can be used when female data are unavailable. It is not a fixed age at which every fish first breeds.

Batch or serial spawning has been reported somewhere in the species’ range. This does not establish the same spawning pattern for every population.

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

The reproductive-guild classification includes spawning on open substrates without guarding the brood.

Size and recorded longevity

FishTraits reports a maximum total length of 9 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

Lake Erie drainage, northwest Ohio; Mississippi River basin from central Ohio to eastern Kansas and south to northern Alabama, northern Louisiana, and southern Oklahoma (Page and Burr 1991).

Introduction history

Probable bait bucket introduction into the Gasconade River during the 1950s and subsequent dispersal (Pflieger 1997).

Range

Where it lives

44.7%of mapped records

Share of 5,744 GBIF observation records with a state location, across 17 states. The orange dots are USGS stream-survey sites where this species was caught.

A blank area on the dot layer usually means nobody sampled there, not that the fish is absent. Turn on “every survey site” to see where the survey looked.

Share of records by state

The USGS stream survey caught it at 631 of its sites, in 11 states. That survey and the GBIF records are two different counts of two different things, so the site keeps them apart.

Habitat

Water and movement

Water: WoRMS records this species in fresh water.
USGS NAS habitat: Freshwater
US status: Native transplant — native to part of the United States, moved to other waters inside it.
Migration: Not migratory

Classification

Taxonomy

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Superclass: Actinopterygii
Class: Teleostei
Order: Cypriniformes
Family: Leuciscidae
Genus: Notropis
Species: Notropis boops
ITIS TSN: 163430
WoRMS AphiaID: 1019858
GBIF key: 2362225

Common questions about Bigeye Shiner

What is the scientific name of Bigeye Shiner?

The scientific name is Notropis boops, in the family Leuciscidae. Classification follows ITIS.

Does Bigeye Shiner live in fresh water or salt water?

WoRMS records this species in fresh water.

Where has Bigeye Shiner been recorded in the United States?

GBIF has observations in 17 states, with the most records in Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri. The map shows observation records, which do not establish the complete natural range.

Closest relatives