Blacknose shiners

Blacknose Shiners

Have black pigment on the tip of the snout and upper jaw and none on the white lower jaw. This black pigment is the beginning of a black stripe that runs through the eye, across the gills, and along the side to the base of the tail. The scales on the back and upper sides have distinct dark edges. There is a narrow stripe of golden colored scales that lack any dark edges just above the black stripe. Blacknose shiners have an incomplete lateral line with a dusky bar at the rear edge of the scales along the black stripe on the sides. The snout overhangs the lower jaw of the rather small and slightly sub-terminal (ending below tip of snout) mouth. All fins are transparent and they have 8 anal fin rays. The blacknose shiner differs from the closely associated blackchin shiner in having a smaller mouth and no pigment on the lower jaw. The blacknose shiner is a member of the minnows and carps family: Cyprinidae. Typically just 2-3 inches, these shiners can occasionally reach 3.5 inches.

Blacknose shiners spawn in June or July by scattering eggs over vegetation. The eggs hatch in a few days and no further parental care is given.

Blacknose shiners are documented in Minnesota, The Woman lake area  They were found in slow moving, small, meandering prairie streams, glacial lakes, and the bays and marshes Blacknose shiners require very clear water with moderate amounts of aquatic vegetation and a clean sand substrate. This species quickly disappears when waters become turbid and the substrate silted over with clay. They typically feed on various aquatic invertebrates.