Cutlip Minnow

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; fish or frog eggs. These are broad categories, not a claim that every individual consumes every example in a category.

Reported feeding positions include bottom feeding and 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 medium to large rivers, streams and small rivers, creeks.

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

Reproduction and parental care

The compilation reports a representative maturity age of 2 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.

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

The reproductive-guild classification includes guarding eggs or young at a spawning substrate or nest.

Size and recorded longevity

FishTraits reports a maximum total length of 16 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 4.5 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.

Identification and appearance

Smith (1985); Page and Burr (1991); Jenkins and Burkhead (1994). Exoglossum be distinguished from most other North American cyprinids by the presence of a central bony plate flanked by fleshy lobes on the lower jaw. Exoglossum maxillingua can be distinguished from the Tonguetied Minnow E. laurae by the size and distinctiveness of the fleshy lobes on the lower jaw (much larger and distinct in E. maxillingua) and the absence of barbels at the corner of the mouth (present in E. laurae).

Native range

Atlantic Slope from St. Lawrence River drainage, Quebec, to upper Roanoke River, North Carolina (absent in Connecticut River and other rivers in Northeast); Lake America drainage, Ontario and New York (Page and Burr 1991).

Introduction history

Probable bait bucket release. The first records of this species (and hybrids with E. laurae) in the New drainage are from 1956 from the Walker Creek system, a heavily fished area (Jenkins and Burkhead 1994).

Ecological impacts

Cutlips minnows in the New drainage are known to hybridize with the Tonguetied Minnow E. laurae (Jenkins and Burkhead 1994).