Species: Pimephales promelas
Fathead Minnow
Species
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Encyclopedia of Puget Sound
Articles:
Drugs like Prozac and cocaine have been showing up in the region’s salmon. But these are just some of the potentially thousands of different man-made chemicals that escape into the Salish Sea every day, from pharmaceuticals to industrial compounds. Now the race is on to identify which ones pose the greatest dangers.
Classification
Kingdom
Animalia
Phylum
Craniata
Class
Actinopterygii
Order
Cypriniformes
Family
Cyprinidae
Genus
Pimephales
NatureServe
Classification
Other Global Common Names
tête-de-boule
Informal Taxonomy
Animals, Vertebrates - Fishes - Bony Fishes - Minnows and Carps
Formal Taxonomy
Animalia - Craniata - Actinopterygii - Cypriniformes - Cyprinidae - Pimephales - NOR chromosomal data support monophyly of the four extant species of PIMEPHALES and suggest that the genus PIMEPHALES belongs in a monophyletic assemblage with, among others, the cyprinid genera CYPRINELLA and OPSOPOEODUS (Li and Gold 1991); Coburn and Cavender (in press) also indicated that these three genera are phylogenetically closely related.
Ecology and Life History
Short General Description
A small fish (minnow).
Habitat Type Description
Freshwater
Migration
false - false - false
Non-migrant
false
Locally Migrant
false
Food Comments
Feeds opportunistically in soft bottom mud; eats algae and other plants, insects, small crustaceans, and other invertebrates (Becker 1983, Sublette et al. 1990).
Reproduction Comments
Spawns in spring and summer. Eggs guarded by male, hatch in 4-6 days at 23-30 C. Sexually mature at age 0-III, at older age in north than in south. Most adults die after spawning.
Ecology Comments
Schooling species.
Length
10
Conservation Status
NatureServe Global Status Rank
G5
Global Status Last Reviewed
1996-09-17
Global Status Last Changed
1996-09-17
Distribution
Conservation Status Map
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Global Range
Throughout much of North America, from Alberta and Northwest Territories to Quebec and New Brunswick, south to Alabama, Texas, northern Mexico (Chihuahua), and New Mexico; introduced in Colorado River drainage (Arizona and New Mexico), Mobile Bay drainage (Alabama), and elsewhere, through use as bait fish; most common in Great Plains, generally absent from mountains, absent on Atlantic Slope south of Delaware River; common over much of range (Page and Burr 1991).