Mimic Shiner

Description

The mimic shiner (Paranotropis volucellus) is a species of freshwater ray-finned fish beloinging to the family Leuciscidae, the shiners, daces and minnows. This species is native to areas of the Hudson Bay drainage, Great Lakes drainage, much of the Mississippi River basin including areas of Tennessee, Virginia, North Carolina, and regions of the Gulf of Mexico extending from Mobile Bay to the drainage of Texas. However, this particular species can be found in other places such as the Atlantic Coast drainage in Connecticut and Housatonic rivers. This genus is usually characterized by almost all having a complete lateral line, 8 dorsal fin rays, a premaxillae protactile, and a silvery or speckled peritoneum. As the common name indicates, this species is difficult to classify in the wild because it looks similar to many other shiners. In fact, some even hypothesize that this species is actually a complexity of many cryptic species. While this is the case, it is important to take more caution to not misidentify this species and to understand its impact on introduced areas. The diet of P. volucellus consists of some terrestrial insects, small crustaceans, and midge pupae and larvae. Mimic shiners are reported to only live a total of three years, and are suspected to reach sexual maturity after one year. In lakes, fish spawn in large schools located over beds of aquatic plants.

Summary adapted from the Wikipedia article “Mimic shiner”.