Plains minnow facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Plains minnow |
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The plains minnow (Hybognathus placitus) is a type of fish found in the central United States. It's a fairly large minnow that used to be popular as bait. These fish need shallow, slow-moving rivers and streams to live and have babies. Sadly, things like pollution, dams, and new types of fish have caused their numbers to drop.
You can find plains minnows from the Mississippi River in Tennessee all the way west. They live in river systems like the Missouri, Arkansas, Red, Brazos, Canadian, and Colorado. Their range stretches from Montana and North Dakota down to New Mexico and Texas. They are one of the more common fish in the western plains.
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What Does the Plains Minnow Look Like?
The plains minnow is a large fish in the minnow family (Cyprinidae). It usually grows to about 5 inches (127 mm) long. Their backs are brown or olive green, their sides are shiny silver, and their bellies are white. They have a stripe along their side and between 34 and 42 scales.
Body Shape and Features
This minnow has a body that is slightly flattened from side to side. Its head is shaped like a triangle, and its mouth is on the underside of its head, not at the very front. There's also a small bump on its lower jaw.
Differences Between Males and Females
Male and female plains minnows look a bit different from each other. This is called sexual dimorphism. Males have bigger heads, longer tails, and shorter bodies. These differences might be because females choose mates based on these features. The easiest way to tell a male from a female is by looking at the first ray (or "spine") of their dorsal fin. It's longer in males. It's pretty unusual to see such clear differences between male and female minnows.
Where Do Plains Minnows Live?
Plains minnows are found across a large area of North America called the Great Plains. You can find them in many states, including Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming.
Preferred Habitat
These fish love big, shallow, and cloudy (turbid) streams with sandy bottoms. They also seem to like calm areas of water, like backwaters and eddies, especially if there are water plants. However, plains minnows can live in both cloudy and clear streams. They can even survive in tough environments if there aren't many other fish competing with them. The streams where plains minnows live are often shallow, have low oxygen, are cool, and flow slowly.
What Do Plains Minnows Eat?
We don't know a lot about what plains minnows eat or how they find food. They are known to eat algae, tiny living things (microorganisms), and detritus (dead plant and animal matter). Interestingly, during spawning season, they have even been seen eating their own eggs! Larger fish, like bluegill and largemouth bass, probably hunt and eat plains minnows.
The Plains Minnow Life Cycle
There isn't a lot of detailed information about the life cycle of the plains minnow. They usually lay their eggs from April to August, with most females laying eggs in June.
Reproduction
When it's time to lay eggs, females scatter them over sandy areas. They do this together in groups. Unlike some other fish, neither the male nor the female plains minnow protects the fertilized eggs or the nesting spot.
Female plains minnows become old enough to have babies when they are 1 year old. At this age, they lay about 800 eggs each year. If a female lives to be 2 years old, she can lay even more eggs, averaging about 2,000 per year. Plains minnows don't live very long. Many of them die between being an egg and reaching 1 year old. Very few plains minnows survive to be 2 years old.
Protecting the Plains Minnow
The plains minnow is listed as a species of "least concern" by a big international group. This means they are not currently in danger globally. However, some states have different ideas.
State-Level Concerns
- Colorado lists the plains minnow as an endangered species.
- Kansas says it's a species that needs conservation.
- Nebraska, South Dakota, and Wyoming don't see the plains minnow as a species of concern.
- Utah even considers this fish to be an "exotic" species, meaning it's not native to their area.
Threats to Their Survival
In some places where they naturally live, the number of plains minnows has gone down. This is due to:
- Dams: These block their movement and change their habitat.
- Pollution: Runoff from farms can harm their water.
- Introduced Sport Fish: New types of fish brought into their habitat can compete with them for food or eat them.
There aren't many laws specifically protecting the plains minnow. In Colorado, it's a "restricted use" species, meaning there are rules about how people can interact with it. Wyoming has rules to help prevent the loss of plains minnow habitat.
