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| NAS - Nonindigenous Aquatic Species |
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Common Name: red shiner
Synonyms and Other Names: Notropis lutrensis
Taxonomy: available through 
Identification: Robison and Buchanan (1988); Page and Burr (1991); Pflieger (1997); commonly used name is Notropis lutrensis.
Size: 9 cm.
Native Range:
Mississippi River basin from southern Wisconsin and eastern Indiana to South Dakota and Wyoming and south to Louisiana; Gulf drainages west of Mississippi River to Rio Grande, Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado. Absent in Ozark and Ouachita uplands (Page and Burr 1991).
Nonindigenous Occurrences: This species is known from the upper Tombigbee River, the Coosa River drainage, Lower Conasauga River, and reservoirs of the Chattahoochee River, Alabama (Boschung 1987, 1992; Mettee et al. 1996; Burkhead 2003); the Colorado River and its major tributaries in Arizona including the Gila and Virgin drainages and Montezuma Castle National Monument and Lake Mead National Recreation Area, Bill Williams River National Wildlife Refuge (Hubbs 1954; Miller and Lowe 1967; Minckley and Deacon 1968; Minckley 1973; Tyus et al. 1982; Greger and Deacon 1988; Stolzenburg 1992; USFWS 2005); the Colorado River, the San Joaquin River drainage, Salton Sea drainages, the Yolo Bypass, and the Los Angeles basin and certain surroundings areas in California (Hubbs 1954; Moyle 1976a, 1976b; Jennings and Saiki 1990; Swift et al. 1993; Dill and Cordone 1997; Sommer et al. 2001); the Colorado River and some of its tributaries in western Colorado (Everhart and Seaman 1971; Tyus et al. 1982; Woodling 1985); the Ocmulgee, Coosa, Etowah, Oostanaula, Coosawattee, and Chattahoochee river drainages in Georgia (Couch et al. 1995; Devivo and Freeman 1995; Burkhead et al. 1997; Burkhead 2003); in northeastern Illinois including lagoons of Lake Michigan in Chicago (Hubbs and Lagler 1958) and Channel Lake, Fox River drainage, in Lake County (Smith 1979); Silvio O. Conte National Fish and Wildlife Refuge (USFWS 2005) and Dickey Brook in New Salem, Massachusetts (Hartel et al. 1996); Boyer Chute National Wildlife Refuge, Washington County, Nebraska (USFWS 2005); portions of the Colorado River basin in Nevada including the lower Virgin River and Lake Mead National Recreation Area (Branson 1968; Cross 1975; Deacon and Williams 1984; Greger and Deacon 1988; Tilmant 1999; Vinyard 2001), and the Moapa River (Deacon and Bradley 1972; Cross 1976); portions of the Colorado River basin in New Mexico including the San Juan, Gila, and San Francisco drainages (Tyus et al. 1982; Sublette et al. 1990; Stolzenburg 1992); portions of Atlantic Coastal drainages in North Carolina including the Yadkin, Pee Dee, Haw and Roanoke river drainages (Moore et al. 1976; Hocutt et al. 1986; Menhinick 1991; W. Starnes, pers. comm); portions of the Colorado River basin in Utah including the Green, White, and Virgin river drainages, Arches and Canyonlands National Parks, Dinosaur National Monument, and Glen Canyon National Recreation Area (Holden and Stalnaker 1975b; Tyus et al. 1982; Deacon 1988; B. Schmidt, personal communication; Tilmant 1999); and from the Green River drainage, Colorado River basin, Wyoming (Tyus et al. 1982).
Means of Introduction: The origin of most introduced red shiner populations can be attributed to bait bucket releases; however, initial introduction is often followed by the species' rapid multiplication, dispersal, and aggressive colonization (e.g., Hubbs and Lagler 1958; Minckley and Deacon 1968; Minckley 1973). In some areas dispersal of introduced populations has been aided by the presence of irrigation ditches and canals (e.g., Jennings and Saiki 1990). Koehn (1965) mentioned that the species has been introduced as a forage fish. According to Dill and Cordone (1997), it was introduced into northern California as forage, not as a bait minnow as Kimsey and Fisk (1964) had suggested. The introduction into the Yadkin drainage, North Carolina, was possibly the result of an aquarium release (Moore et al. 1976). Hubbs (1954) reported this species as established in the lower Colorado River basin by 1953. He attributed the source of the introduction to escapes from the Arizona Fish Farms in Ehrenburg, Arizona. There apparently has been more than one subspecies introduced into the southwestern United States. Hubbs (1954) also noted that red shiners found in the lower Colorado River basin were intergrades between the subspecies N. l. lutrensis and N. l. suavis. In contrast, Minckley (1973) reported that the Arizona specimens he examined more closely resembled the typical subspecies, C. l. lutrensis. Gilbert (1998) also referred it to the typical subspecies (C. l. lutrensis).
Status: Established in areas outside their native range in Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Utah, and Wyoming. In contrast to Hubbs and Lagler's statement (1958), Becker (1983) found that there was no evidence to substantiate the presence of this species in lagoons of Lake Michigan at Chicago.
Impact of Introduction:
The red shiner is very aggressive and where introduced may dilute the gene pools of native Cyprinella via hybridization (Mayden 1989; Burkhead 2003). The red shiner is hybridizing with the blacktail shiner C. venusta stigmatura in Alabama (Mettee et al. 1996; Burkhead 2003).
The red shiner has also affected the distribution and abundance of native fishes. For example, populations in the Moapa and Virgin rivers, Nevada, have been implicated in the decline of the native fish of this region, including spikedace Meda fulgida, woundfin Plagopterus argentissimus, and Virgin River chub Gila seminuda (Moyle 1976a; Deacon 1988; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 1990a, 1995). Members of this species may compete with and affect adversely young Colorado pikeminnow Ptychocheilus lucius, an endangered species (Karp and Tyus 1990). The introduced redside shiner Richardsonius balteatus declined when the red shiner became common in the Green River near the boundary of Dinosaur National Monument, Utah, in 1971 (Holden and Stalnaker 1975b). In degraded streams in Georgia, introduced red shiners have become one of the most abundant species (Devivo and Freeman 1995). The introduction of red shiners into Utah was probably the means by which the Asian tapeworm entered the Virgin River; subsequent tapeworm infestation of woundfin Plagopterus argentissimus, an endangered species, may be primarily responsible for the woundfin's decline during the 1980s (Deacon 1988). Dill and Cordone (1997) called the red shiner the second greatest threat to the welfare of indigenous southwestern fishes, after the mosquitofish.
Remarks: The red shiner is a widespread and commonly used bait fish; it is also in the aquarium trade (Becker 1983; Etnier and Starnes 1993). It has been marketed in a pet shop under the name "rainbow dace" (Moore et al. 1976). Several attempts have been made to eradicate the red shiner from a portion of the Virgin River as part of the recovery plan for woundfin and Virgin River chubs. It was successfully eliminated from the river between Washington Fields Diversion and Johnson Diversion, but have re-invaded below Johnson Diversion (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 1995). Tyus et al. (1982) gave a distribution map of the this species in the upper Colorado basin. Swift et al. (1993) and Dill and Cordone (1997) detailed the history of this species in California.
Burkhead, N.M. 2003. The Case of the red shiner: what happens when a fish goes bad?
Hubbs, C.L. 1954. Establishment of a forage fish, the red shiner (Notropis lutrensis), in the lower Colorado system. California Fish and Game. 40(3): 287-294.
Miller, R.R. and C.H. Lowe. 1967. Part 2. Fishes of
Moore, R.H., R.A. Garrett, and P.J. Wingate. 1976. Occurrence of the red shiner, Notropis lutrensis, in North Carolina: a probable aquarium release. Transactions of the American Fisheries Society. 102(2): 220-221.
Sommer, T, B. Harrell, M. Nobriga, R. Brown, P. Moyle, W. Kimmerer, and L. Schemel. 2001.
Tilmant, J.T. 1999. Management of nonindigenous aquatic fish in the U.S. National Park System. National Park Service. 50 pp.
Other Resources:
The Case of the red shiner: what happens when a fish goes bad? - info on hybrid swarms in Georgia
Distribution in Illinois - ILNHS
Author: Leo Nico and Pam Fuller
Revision Date: 4/11/2006 Citation for this information:
Leo Nico and Pam Fuller. 2009. Cyprinella lutrensis. USGS Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database, Gainesville, FL.
<http://nas.er.usgs.gov/queries/FactSheet.asp?speciesID=518> Revision Date: 4/11/2006
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