Fish of the Day
Today's fish of the day is the redside shiner!
The redside shiner, scientific name Richardsonius balteatus, is a common minnow fish in the Western North America! Also called the Bonneville redside shiner, red-sided bream, Richardson's minnow, and silver shiner. Found in schools based around species, this fish has two currently named subspecies, those being R. b. hydrophylox and R. b. bealeatus, although recent data implies that this may not be the case, showing there may be three subspecies instead. However there isn't enough current knowledge to say for certain. These fish can be found across the Western North America, in Southern British Columbia, Alberta, and then across Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and Western Montana and Wyoming. Primarily found in the Columbia and Colorado river systems, in slow or still moving waters. These fish are native in Washington, Oregon, and Utah, but are invasive species harming salmonid populations in other locations. Common in lakes, mid-small sized rivers, ponds, ditches, and creeks, preferably found over gravel, sand, and vegetation. In the colder nights and winters, this fish is known to temporarily migrate to deeper waters, where they are more protected from the freeze.
These fish are small, only three inches in length as juveniles, and only up to 5-7inches (18cm) as adults. As fry these fish start a silver color, very similar to spawning salmon and trout, but as they age they can turn silver, brown, olive, and of course, in the breeding seasons red and gold. The fry feed on zooplankton, algae, crustaceans, and, the trait of which makes them a concern in nonnative areas, trout and salmon fry. These fish at all ages are opportunistic, eating anything they can, including their own fish eggs. Adults tend to eat: insects, aquatic or terrestrial, mollusks, plankton, small fish, and eggs. Due to their small size they're predated on by larger fish in their environments, along with loons, and minks.
During spawning season, which runs from May to July, males will turn a brassy color, and gain a red stripe running behind the eye and along the lateral line, signifying that they are of breeding age. Spawning occurs in the afternoon and evening when adults move to spawning streams (or lake fish will move to inlet streams), where females and males will pick one another to thrash side by side, variously releasing eggs and sperm. These eggs then are abandoned to stick to the bottom of the stream on rocks and vegetation. Eggs will then hatch in 14-15 days after fertilization, forming schools with the other various redside shiners hatching. This is the time in which some subspecies prey upon trout fry, and others simply compete with trout for food. These fish will then sexually mature around 2-3 years of age, and will live for around 5 in total.
That's the redside shiner, everybody! Thank you for being lenient well I've been on fish hiatus briefly as I got a feel for my school term. However, fish of the day should return for at least a few days a week, but I will be attempting to get these out all five days, so keep an eye out! Have a wonderful day!
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