Rudolph the Red-nose…Shiner? 🔴🦌 Red Shiner (Cyprinella lutrensis) - also called Red Horse Minnow or Rainbow Dace - leads us into #25DaysofFishmas Day 15 not with a nose so bright but with a cautionary tale of a potentially invasive species in the #GreatLakes (+ is the answer to #SundayFishSketch!) - ThreadSky

drkatfish.bsky.social • 74 days ago

Rudolph the Red-nose…Shiner? 🔴🦌

Red Shiner (Cyprinella lutrensis) - also called Red Horse Minnow or Rainbow Dace - leads us into #25DaysofFishmas Day 15 not with a nose so bright but with a cautionary tale of a potentially invasive species in the #GreatLakes (+ is the answer to #SundayFishSketch!)

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drkatfish.bsky.social•74 days ago

You otter know: The scientific name lutrensis comes from the word “lutra” meaning “otter."

Sadly, the red shiner has absolutely nothing to do with otters, but the name is instead a reference to the location from which the species was originally described (Otter Creek, Arkansas) #25DaysofFishmas

drkatfish.bsky.social•74 days ago

While red shiner is native to parts of the #GreatLakes region that fall within the Mississippi River basin (portions of Wisconsin, Illinois + Indiana), they’re not considered native to the lakes themselves and there’s some concern that they could become invasive if introduced #25DaysofFishmas

drkatfish.bsky.social•74 days ago

Red shiners are incredibly hardy + tolerant of harsh environmental conditions - they've even been found in waters with temps ~100°F/39°C. They can thrive in habitats too degraded for other fish species, a trait that's helped them become highly invasive in places like the western US #25DaysofFishmas

markusbuehler.bsky.social•74 days ago

Those are really beautiful fishes, I kept some of them years ago in a tank.

drkatfish.bsky.social•74 days ago

Competition and hybridization with native fish species are the main impacts red shiners have had when they've been introduced to new places. These impacts are typically most pronounced on populations of fishes that are isolated, such those found in desert and prairie springs/streams #25DaysofFishmas

jayhawktiemann.bsky.social•74 days ago

The hybridization between non-native Red Shiners and native minnows has been described as "hybrid swarms"

Page & Smith. 1970. Recent range adjustments and hybridization of Notropis lutrensis and Notropis spilopterus in Illinois. Trans IL Acad Sci. 63:264–272

Paper: https://ilacadofsci.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/063-45-print.pdf

drkatfish.bsky.social•74 days ago

Most of the time, both male + female red shiners have silvery sides and whitish bellies, but males in breeding coloration have iridescent blue sides + bright red fins. Which such flashy couture, it’s not surprising that they're often sold in the aquarium trade as “Rainbow Dace” 🌈 #25DaysofFishmas

drkatfish.bsky.social•74 days ago

Red shiners are often used as bait fishes because of their flashy colors + tolerance of the temp extremes, crowding, and low oxygen conditions typical of bait buckets. Unfortunately, bait releases are thought to be a major way that they've been introduced outside their native range #25DaysofFishmas

stanton.bsky.social•74 days ago

The suffixes "-ensis/-ense" is Latin meaning "from," "-ensis" masculine/neutral, "-ense" feminine.

drkatfish.bsky.social•74 days ago

TIL! Very interesting; thanks for sharing!

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