The pugnose shiner (''Notropis anogenus'') is a species of

ray-finned fish Actinopterygii (; ), members of which are known as ray-finned fish or actinopterygians, is a class of bony fish that comprise over 50% of living vertebrate species. They are so called because of their lightly built fins made of webbings of sk ...

in the genus ''

Notropis ''Notropis'' is a genus of freshwater Actinopterygii, ray-finned fish in the family (biology), family Leuciscidae, the shiners, daces and minnows. They are known commonly as eastern shiners.Leuciscidae Leuciscidae is a family of freshwater ray-finned fishes, formerly classified as a subfamily of the Cyprinidae, which contains the true minnows. Members of the Old World (OW) clade of minnows within this subfamily are known as European minnow ...

which consists of freshwater shiners, daces and minnows. Its distribution has been decreasing due to the removal of aquatic plants in order to create swimming beaches and boating access in freshwater lakes and is now mostly found in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan.

Distribution

The pugnose shiner is a non-abundant species of ''Notropis'' and within the United States, it is distributed across parts of

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

, and

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

. It is native to North America and its historic range was from eastern Ontario and Western New York to North Dakota, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, ending in the

St. Lawrence River The St. Lawrence River (, ) is a large international river in the middle latitudes of North America connecting the Great Lakes to the North Atlantic Ocean. Its waters flow in a northeasterly direction from Lake Ontario to the Gulf of St. Lawren ...

drainage. The population that was once in North Dakota is now thought to be extirpated due to turbidity and uprooted vegetation within the freshwater lakes and streams. This minnow can also be found in a few areas of

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

but those ranges have also decreased throughout time so now the Canadian population mostly lies within Ontario.

Description

The pugnose shiner is a type of minnow that can live for up to 3 years and is able to reach sizes between 20–60mm, although it is about 47mm on average. It has a lateral dark stripe on the side of its body that runs from the tip of the caudal fin, through the eye, and to the nose tip. It has a small, terminal mouth angled upwards, giving it the pug-nose appearance. The abdominal region is yellow, and it has a clear-colored tail fin. Each fish has about 34–37 round, silver

cycloid scale A fish scale is a small rigid plate that grows out of the skin of a fish. The skin of most jawed fishes is covered with these protective scale (zoology), scales, which can also provide effective Underwater camouflage, camouflage through the us ...

s covering its body which has a

fusiform Fusiform (from Latin ''fusus'' ‘spindle’) means having a spindle (textiles), spindle-like shape that is wide in the middle and tapers at both ends. It is similar to the lemon (geometry), lemon-shape, but often implies a focal broadening of a ...

shape to help the pugnose shiner swim against the constant stream currents. The

pelvic The pelvis (: pelves or pelvises) is the lower part of an anatomical trunk, between the abdomen and the thighs (sometimes also called pelvic region), together with its embedded skeleton (sometimes also called bony pelvis or pelvic skeleton). ...

fins are in the

abdominal The abdomen (colloquially called the gut, belly, tummy, midriff, tucky, or stomach) is the front part of the torso between the thorax (chest) and pelvis in humans and in other vertebrates. The area occupied by the abdomen is called the abdominal ...

position. Because it is a ray-finned species, the fin rays are used as elements to support the skeletal features. The pugnose shiner has an 8-rayed dorsal fin on top of the dusky-colored back, a feature separating it from the pugnose minnow. This fish is also the only Minnesota ''Notropis'' species that has a darkly pigmented

peritoneum The peritoneum is the serous membrane forming the lining of the abdominal cavity or coelom in amniotes and some invertebrates, such as annelids. It covers most of the intra-abdominal (or coelomic) organs, and is composed of a layer of mesotheli ...

Ecology

Although it is not an abundant species, the pugnose shiner can be found inhabiting weedy, clear lakes and slow-moving streams throughout its

temperate In geography, the temperate climates of Earth occur in the middle latitudes (approximately 23.5° to 66.5° N/S of the Equator), which span between the tropics and the polar regions of Earth. These zones generally have wider temperature ran ...

freshwater Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. The term excludes seawater and brackish water, but it does include non-salty mi ...

range. When temperatures are warmer, this fish is found in shallow water but when it cools down in the winter months, it is found in waters as deep as 2 meters. The pugnose shiner is a great indicator for healthy ecosystems because it is very sensitive to its environment because it is intolerant to turbidity. Their diets tend to consist of filamentous algae and

cladocera The Diplostraca or Cladocera, commonly known as water fleas, is a superorder (biology), superorder of small, mostly freshwater crustaceans, most of which feed on microscopic chunks of organic matter, though some forms are predatory. Over 1000 sp ...

(water fleas), eggs, insects, worms, and anything else under 2mm. Their predators consist of any omnivorous fish that is larger than this shiner. They are mid to low level

consumers A consumer is a person or a group who intends to order, or use purchased goods, products, or services primarily for personal, social, family, household and similar needs, who is not directly related to entrepreneurial or business activities. Th ...

and therefore take little part in the transfer of nutrients.

Reproduction

The pugnose shiner reaches sexual maturity between the ages of 1 and 2 for both the male and female genders. They are an

oviparous Oviparous animals are animals that reproduce by depositing fertilized zygotes outside the body (i.e., by laying or spawning) in metabolically independent incubation organs known as eggs, which nurture the embryo into moving offsprings kno ...

species and

spawning Spawn is the Egg cell, eggs and Spermatozoa, sperm released or deposited into water by aquatic animals. As a verb, ''to spawn'' refers to the process of freely releasing eggs and sperm into a body of water (fresh or marine); the physical act is ...

and fertilization occur in summer between May and July. The female distributes her eggs in shallow water in areas of dense vegetation in which she lays between 530 and 1275 eggs. Once the eggs are fertilized, they generally hatch within one or two days. This species does not spend energy in

parental investment Parental investment, in evolutionary biology and evolutionary psychology, is any parental expenditure (e.g. time, energy, resources) that benefits offspring.Clutton-Brock, T.H. 1991. ''The Evolution of Parental Care''. Princeton, NJ: Princeton ...

so after the eggs are laid and fertilized, the male and female leave the eggs. In pugnose shiners, sexual dimorphism occurs and they have a

polygynandrous Polygynandry is a mating system in which both males and females have multiple mating partners during a breeding season. In sexually reproducing diploid animals, different mating strategies are employed by males and females, because the cost of gam ...

mating system, meaning that both males and females have multiple mates. Sexes are physically different in that the males' pelvic fins go beyond the anal openings while the females' don't.

Conservation status

The conservation status of the pugnose shiner has been changing quite a bit in the past few years. This is partly because its status is dependent on where the species population is. In

, the pugnose shiner is currently listed as

endangered An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching, inv ...

but the status varies by state in the United States. This species has been declining through the upper midwest because of

turbidity Turbidity is the cloudiness or haziness of a fluid caused by large numbers of individual particles that are generally invisible to the naked eye, similar to smoke in air. The measurement of turbidity is a key test of both water clarity and wa ...

, decreasing vegetation, and invasive species within its home. There are multiple subpopulations of pugnose shiner but there is limited connection between the different populations because of low dispersal potential. It was listed as

Near Threatened A near-threatened species is a species which has been Conservation status, categorized as "Near Threatened" (NT) by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as that may be vulnerable to Endangered species, endangerment in the ne ...

in 2010 but as of 2014, the pugnose shiner has been of

Least Concern A least-concern species is a species that has been evaluated and categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as not being a focus of wildlife conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wil ...

status. It has patterns of population decline so it is continually on concern conservation attention.

Etymology

The pugnose shiner genus name ''Notropis'' comes from Greek descent and it is a name given to shriveled-like specimens. It translates to the words "back

keel The keel is the bottom-most longitudinal structural element of a watercraft, important for stability. On some sailboats, it may have a fluid dynamics, hydrodynamic and counterbalancing purpose as well. The keel laying, laying of the keel is often ...

". The species name ''anogenus'' is also from Greek descent and it translates to "without a chin".

References

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q17107 Notropis Fish described in 1885 Taxa named by Stephen Alfred Forbes