Download UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO PRESS in cooperation with NEW

UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO PRESS in cooperation with
NEW MEXICO DEPARTMENT OF GAME AND FISH
@ UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO PRESS, 1957
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
COMPOSED, PRINTED, AND BOUND AT
UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO PRINTING PLANT
ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO, U.S.A.
Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 57-12457
First Edition
MINNOW
67
grown bluntnose shiners, which have relatively larger eyes and thicker
caudal peduncles than do the adults. This species is smaller, less
streamlined, and less silvery than the bluntnose shiners. Fully mature
adults generally are less than 21/2 inches long. The least depth of the
caudal peduncle, when measured from the tip of the snout, reaches
about to the middle of the pupil instead of only to the iris or even to
the front of the eye, and is about equal to, instead of less than, the
distance between the eyes. The general color is silvery with a broad,
obscure band of small punctulations along the sides. The Pecos shiner
occurs in schools in the main channels of the Pecos. It spawns in the
summer.
RED SHINER, REDHORSE SHINER
Notropis lutrensis (Baird and Girard)
Although the angler often recognizes the male red shiner in breeding color, he is likely to consider the females and non-breeding males
as belonging to some other species. The shape of the body and the
black blotch between the halves of the lower jaw will distinguish the
red shiner from all common minnows. Because the last ray is more,
instead of less, than half as long as the first, the dorsal fin has a more
quadrangular appearance than that of the other minnows. The rear
of the oblique and nearly terminal mouth fails to reach as far back as
the front of the eye. About 35 to 40 scales occur along the lateral line.
The usual color on the back and sides is a silvery or steely olive that
fades to white on the belly. A series of dark lines, which outline the
scale pockets, forms a crosshatched pattern on the upper sides. When
the males are about to breed, they become strikingly different. Their
scale pockets become more intensely outlined, their backs and sides
become a dark, steely blue, their fins and lower sides, as well as the
head, become tinged with red or orange, and a dark-purple bar develops
on the side just back of the pectoral fin. Pearl organs develop on the
head and much of the body.
The red shiner occurs in the main rivers, canals, and creeks at lower
elevations east of the Continental Divide. Both plant and animal
materials such as algae, insects, and crustaceans are included in its diet.
Spawning takes place in the spring and early summer. The maximum
length of adults is about 4 inches. Red shiners are useful as small bait
and forage fishes.
Nearly identical with the red shiner are the Guzman shiner, Notropis
68
FISHES OF NEW MEXICO
formosus (Girard), and the proserpine shiner, Notropis proserpinus
(Girard) , both of which usually have 8 rays in the anal fin instead of 9,
the most frequent number in the red shiner. The Guzman shiner,
found in the Palomas Valley, has smaller scales, and has the tip of the
lower jaw and base of the anal fin blackish instead of whitish. The
proserpine shiner of the Rio Grande and Pecos valleys has the snout
more blunt, the mouth lower and more horizontal, and the scales more
intensely outlined.
Notropis deliciosus (Girard)
This little shiner is most likely to be confused with the Arkansas
River shiner or with the roundnose minnow since they, too, are silvery
or brassy minnows with a dusky band along each side. Traits for distinguishing the roundnose are mentioned under that species. -While
the sand and Arkansas River shiners are similar in most respects, the
sand shiner clearly differs in having a larger eye and shorter anal fin.
The eye is about equal to the snout in length, and there almost invariably are 7 rays in the anal fin. The mouth is large, has the tip of the
upper jaw nearly on a level with the lower margin of the pupil, and
has the rear of the upper jaw about opposite the front of the eye. The
body is moderately compressed. The scales, which are large and number
between 32 and 35 along the lateral line, tend to be crowded before
the dorsal fin. The scale pockets are outlined by pigment in a rounded,
irregular fashion quite unlike that of the red shiner. Ordinarily the
color is silvery olive, but in clear water it tends to be distinctly yellowish
above and whitish beneath. The lateral line is accentuated by pigment
spots that are often obscured by a dusky lateral stripe. An indistinct
black spot occurs at the base of the caudal fin and 2 others occur under
the dorsal fin, 1 under each end.
Slightly different forms of the sand shiner exist in rivers and larger
creeks of the Arkansas and Pecos drainages. Large schools are frequently found feeding in shallow water. Sand shiners are more-or-less
omnivorous fish that breed in the summer and reach a length of 3
inches.
They are fine small bait and forage minnows.
SAND SHINER