Whitetail Shiner

Diet and feeding

The FishTraits compilation records these diet categories for this species: aquatic or other vascular plants; invertebrates or larval fish; larger animal prey (a source category covering fish, crayfish, crabs, or frogs). 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 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 Jun, Jul, Aug for the source’s reporting region (NC). 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 15 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 3.5 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

Page and Burr (1991); Etnier and Starnes (1993); a commonly used name is Notropis galacturus.

Native range

Disjunct range east and west of Former Mississippi Embayment. Cumberland and Tennessee River drainages, Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi; upper Savannah and Santee drainages (Atlantic Slope), North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia; and upper New River drainage, Virginia. St. Francis and White River drainages, Missouri and Arkansas (Page and Burr 1991).

Introduction history

Populations of this species, interpreted as the result of human introductions, were most likely the result of bait bucket releases. Jenkins and Burkhead (1994) believed that the West Virginia population is the result of dispersal downstream from the introduced population in the New River in Virginia.