Swallowtail 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.

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 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 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 Apr, May, Jun for the source’s reporting region (NC). 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 7.2 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.

Identification and appearance

Smith (1985); Page and Burr (1991); Jenkins and Burkhead (1994). Two subspecies are recognized, N. p. procne and N. p. longiceps (Gilbert 1998; but see Jenkins and Burkhead 1994).

Native range

Atlantic drainages, above and below Fall Line, from Delaware and Susquehanna rivers, New York, to Santee River, South Carolina (Page and Burr 1991); also Lake America drainage, New York (Page and Burr 1991; but see Smith 1985).

Introduction history

Unknown; possible bait bucket releases in North Carolina and Virginia. Although, Jenkins and Burkhead (1994) speculated that it had been introduced into the New River drainage of Virginia during the 1960s, they noted that the first valid record of this species from that drainage was from 1971. The first record of this species in the Linville River of North Carolina was 1990 (Johnston et al. 1995). Johnston et al. (1995) discovered this species in the Linville River, North Carolina, in 1990. They stated that the new record perhaps indicates the "spread of this species or introduction by fishermen." This species was collected from Catherine Creek, New York in 1927; and from Lake America in 1951 (Lee et al. 1980 et seq.). Smith (1985) speculated that the occurrence of the subspecies Notropis procne procne in Catherine Creek, the inlet to Seneca Lake in New York, may have resulted from dispersal via an artificial canal; however, Smith also hypothesized that it may have entered the area as a result of natural events during postglacial times. In their summary table on fishes of the Great Lakes basin, Bailey and Smith (1981) indicated that Notropis procne had colonized tributaries of Lake America recently via canal or by natural dispersal following introduction.