Animal Diversity Web

Ge­o­graphic Range

The blunt­nose min­now is widely dis­trib­uted in small and medium-sized streams in North Amer­ica. They occur from south­ern Que­bec and Man­i­toba south to Louisiana, west to the Mis­sis­sipi River drainage (but not the Mis­sis­sippi River it­self).(Froese and Pauly, 2002; State of Iowa DNR, 2001)

• Biogeographic Regions
• nearctic
  • native

Habi­tat

Blunt­nose min­nows pre­fer clear, rocky streams and creeks that are small to medium in size. They also occur in nat­ural and man-made lakes.

• Habitat Regions
• temperate
• freshwater

• Aquatic Biomes
• lakes and ponds
• rivers and streams

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

This is a very small sil­ver fish, long and slen­der with a dark stripe from snout to tail. At the base of the tail the stripe be­comes a dot. Up­per­parts are slightly olive while sides are bluish. The name "blunt­nose" refers to the rather flat snout. Dur­ing the breed­ing sea­son, males be­come darker, with a sil­ver bar be­hind the gill cover (op­er­cle), and grow 16 bumps in three rows on their head. (Page and Burr 1991; State of Iowa DNR, 2001)

• Other Physical Features
• bilateral symmetry

• Sexual Dimorphism
• male more colorful

• Range length

  11.0 (high) cm

  4.33 (high) in

Lifes­pan/Longevity

The max­im­i­mum recorded age for a blunt­nose min­now is five years. It is un­clear whether this was a cap­tive or wild in­di­vid­ual. (Froese and Pauly, 2002)

• Range lifespan
  Status: captivity

  5.0 (high) years

• Typical lifespan
  Status: wild

  2.0 (high) years

• Average lifespan
  Status: captivity

  5 years

  AnAge

Be­hav­ior

• Key Behaviors
• natatorial
• motile

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

Dur­ing breed­ing sea­son the males use at least two meth­ods of com­mu­ni­ca­tion. First, their phys­i­cal ap­pear­ance changes (as de­scribed in the re­pro­duc­tive sec­tion). Sec­ond, males make a va­ri­ety of pulsed sounds when act­ing ag­gre­sively with other males. It is not known if these sounds are also used in courtship or spawn­ing.

Blunt­nose min­nows prob­a­bly re­lease chem­i­cals called pheromones when they are alarmed.

• Perception Channels
• tactile
• chemical

Food Habits

Blunt­nose min­nows eat algae, aquatic in­sect lar­vae, di­atoms, and small crus­taceans called en­to­mostra­cans. Oc­ca­sion­ally they will eat fish eggs or small fish. (State of Iowa DNR, 2001)

• Primary Diet
• carnivore
  • eats eggs
  • eats non-insect arthropods
• omnivore

Pre­da­tion

This small fish is prey to many larger fish as well as many birds and rep­tiles. To avoid them, min­nows move fast, travel in schools, and hide.

A close rel­a­tive, the fat­head min­now (Pimephales no­ta­tus) gives off a chem­i­cal called "alarm sub­stance" when under at­tack. Sci­en­tists think the sub­stance may be a dis­tress sig­nal that at­tracts other preda­tory fish who in­ter­rupt the first preda­tor, al­low­ing the min­now to es­cape (Chivers et al., 1996)

The list below is only a sam­ple of the species that eat min­nows.

• Known Predators

  • black-crowned night herons (Nycticorax nycticorax)
  • great blue herons (Ardea herodias)
  • belted kingfishers (Megaceryle alcyon)
  • ring-billed gulls (Larus delawarensis)
  • common grackles (Quiscalus quiscula)
  • northern pike (Esox lucius)
  • largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides)
  • snapping turtles (Chelydra serpentina)
  • painted turtles (Chrysemys picta)
  • northern water snakes (Nerodia sipedon)

Ecosys­tem Roles

Blunt­nose min­nows serve an im­por­tant role as prey for larger an­i­mals and as a preda­tor on in­sect lar­vae.

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

This fish is com­monly used for bait in the fish­ing in­dus­try.

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

This is a very com­mon fish. In fact, blunt­nose min­nows are prob­a­bly the most abun­dant fresh­wa­ter fish in the east­ern United States. (Page and Burr, 1991)

• IUCN Red List

  Not Evaluated

• US Federal List

  No special status

• CITES

  No special status

• State of Michigan List

  No special status

Con­trib­u­tors

Cyn­thia Sims Parr (au­thor), Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor.

Ref­er­ences

Chivers, D., G. Brown, R. Smith. 1996. Evo­lu­tion of chem­i­cal alarm sig­nals: at­tract­ing preda­tors ben­e­fits alarm sig­nal senders. Amer­i­can Nat­u­ral­ist, 148: 649-659.

Froese, R., D. Pauly, eds.. 2002. "Fish­base: Pimephales no­ta­tus" (On-line). Ac­cessed 27 March 2002 at http://​www.​fishbase.​org.

John­son, C., D. John­son. 2000. Sound Pro­duc­tion in Pimephales no­ta­tus (Rafinesque) (Cyprinidae). Copeia, 2000(2): 567-571.

Page, L., B. Burr. 1991. A field guide to fresh­wa­ter fishes. Boston: Houghton Mif­flin.

State of Iowa DNR, 2001. "Blunt­nose min­now card" (On-line). Ac­cessed 27 March 2002 at http://​www.​state.​ia.​us/​government/​dnr/​organiza/​fwb/​fish/​iafish/​minnow/​card/​bnm-card.​htm.

USGS Great Lakes Sci­ence Cen­ter, 1982. "Atlas of the Spawn­ing and Nurs­ery Areas of Great Lakes Fishes" (On-line). Ac­cessed 28 March 2002 at http://​www.​glsc.​usgs.​gov/​information/​atlas/​volumes/​volume13.​pdf.