Pretty Shiner

Lythrurus bellus

Leuciscidae · freshwater water fish

2 minute read · Species guide

Pretty Shiner field guide illustration

About Pretty Shiner

The pretty shiner (Lythrurus bellus) is a freshwater ray-finned fish belonging to the family Leuciscidae, the shiners, daces and minnows. It occurs in the Mobile Bay drainage, and the Tennessee River drainage of the Bear and Yellow Creek systems in Alabama and Mississippi. Its preferred habitat is sandy and clay bottomed pools and runs of headwaters, creeks and small rivers.

Diet and feeding

The FishTraits compilation records these diet categories for this species: aquatic or other vascular plants; 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 clay or silt, sand, gravel, bedrock. 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.

Recorded spawning months are Apr, May, Jun, Jul 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 7.5 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

Share of 3,509 GBIF observation records with a state location, across 6 states. The orange dots are USGS stream-survey sites where this species was caught.
0%
76.1%
Share of 3,509 GBIF observation records with a state location, across 6 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.

The USGS stream survey caught it at 97 of its sites, in 2 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
Genus
Lythrurus
Species
Lythrurus bellus
ITIS TSN
163851
WoRMS AphiaID
1044810
GBIF key
2366073

Common questions about Pretty Shiner

What is the scientific name of Pretty Shiner?
The scientific name is Lythrurus bellus, in the family Leuciscidae. Classification follows ITIS.
Does Pretty Shiner live in fresh water or salt water?
WoRMS records this species in fresh water.
Where has Pretty Shiner been recorded in the United States?
GBIF has observations in 6 states, with the most records in Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia. The map shows observation records, which do not establish the complete natural range.

Closest relatives

Other Lythrurus species

Same family

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All 267 species in Leuciscidae