Pugnose shiner

The pugnose shiner (Notropis anogenus) is a very small freshwater minnow of the family Leuciscidae, native to the cool lakes and slow streams of northeastern North America. Adults average about 47 millimetres long and seldom live beyond three years. The common name comes from its tiny, upturned mouth, and a dark stripe runs along each side from the tail through the eye to the tip of the snout, over a yellow belly. It lives among clear, weedy water and is highly sensitive to turbidity, so biologists treat it as an indicator of a healthy lake. It feeds on filamentous algae, water fleas, insect larvae and other food under two millimetres, and spawns in shallow vegetation from May to July. Its range once ran from eastern Ontario and western New York to North Dakota, but removal of aquatic plants for beaches and boat access has shrunk it, and it is now found mostly in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan, with declining populations in Ontario.