Red Shiner (Cyprinella lutrensis)
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The Red Shiner (sometimes called Red Dace, Rainbow Dace, or Rainbow Shiner), Cyprinella lutrensis, is native to central North America. They are vey hardy and can be found in a variety of habitats, but they seem to prefer flowing water with predominantly sandy or rocky bottoms. In the warm months, the males color up with metallic blue and orange-red, and are really rather spectacular. They breed throughout the summer in schools of brightly-colored males chasing the more plainly colored females, scattering the fertilized eggs over beds of vegetation. These breeding schools are easily seen in the Hartman Prehistoric Garden ponds over the beds of Ceratophyllum. The fecundity of this species is demonstrated by the fact that the thousands of these minnows now in the ponds all originated from 30 fish introduced into the aquatic system in the spring of 2004. This population of Red Shiners feeds the Florida Gar, the Little Green Heron, at least four species of snakes, three species of turtles, fishing spiders, and a number of other garden predators!
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Very immature Red Shiners exhibit a translucent body with a glowing red stripe, very similar to the Glowlight Tetra from Guyana.
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class: Osteichthyes / order: Cypriniformes / family: Cyprinidae / genus: Cyprinella / species: lutrensis
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