Article text: Wikipedia contributors, Dusky shiner (source revision). Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Retrieved 2026-10-11.
Dusky Shiner
Notropis cummingsae
Leuciscidae · freshwater water fish
2 minute read · Species guide

About Dusky Shiner
The dusky shiner (Pteronotropis cummingsae) is a species of freshwater ray-finned fish belonging to the family Leuciscidae, the shiners, daces and minnows. It is endemic to the United States, where it is found in the lower Tar River drainage, North Carolina, south to Altamaha River drainage in Georgia, the St. Johns River drainage in Florida, and the Aucilla River drainage to Choctawhatchee River drainage, Florida, Georgia, and Alabama.
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 streams and small rivers, creeks.
The source records associations with muck, clay or silt, sand, gravel, cobble. An association indicates reported use, rather than an exclusive requirement.
Reproduction and parental care
The compilation reports a representative maturity age of 1 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 May, Jun, Jul for the source’s reporting region (SC). This is a regional calendar, not a range-wide schedule.
The reproductive-guild classification includes hiding a brood without subsequent guarding.
Size and recorded longevity
FishTraits reports a maximum total length of 7.2 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.
Range
Where it lives
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 110 of its sites, in 5 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.
- Migration
- Undetermined
Classification
Taxonomy
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Superclass
- Actinopterygii
- Class
- Teleostei
- Order
- Cypriniformes
- Family
- Leuciscidae
- Genus
- Notropis
- Species
- Notropis cummingsae
- ITIS TSN
- 163438
- WoRMS AphiaID
- 1016366
- GBIF key
- 2362208
Common questions about Dusky Shiner
What is the scientific name of Dusky Shiner?
Does Dusky Shiner live in fresh water or salt water?
Where has Dusky Shiner been recorded in the United States?
Closest relatives
Other Notropis species
Same family