Southern redbelly dace

Southern redbelly dace
Adult breeding coloration
Adult non-breeding coloration
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Cypriniformes
Family: Cyprinidae
Subfamily: Leuciscinae
Clade: Laviniinae
Genus: Chrosomus
Species:
C. erythrogaster
Binomial name
Chrosomus erythrogaster
Synonyms
  • Luxilus erythrogaster Rafinesque, 1820
  • Phoxinus erythrogaster (Rafinesque, 1820)
  • Semotilus diplemia Rafinesque, 1820
  • Chrosomus pyrrhogaster Jordan, 1876

The southern redbelly dace (Chrosomus erythrogaster), is a North American species of temperate freshwater fish of the family Cyprinidae. The natural geographic range extends from Western New York to Minnesota, and south to Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Alabama.[2] This fish prefers flowing pools of creeks and streams.[2]

The extremely similar northern redbelly dace can be distinguished by a rounder, blunter head and a more upturned mouth, as well as by differences in spawning behavior.[2] Also, male southern redbelly dace show a characteristic red belly in spring while their northern counterparts keep a white belly.[3]

  1. ^ NatureServe (2013). "Chrosomus erythrogaster". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2013: e.T202067A15362857. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2013-1.RLTS.T202067A15362857.en. Retrieved 19 November 2021.
  2. ^ a b c Page, Lawrence M. and Brooks M. Burr (1991), Freshwater Fishes, p. 84, Houghton Mifflin, New York, NY. ISBN 0-395-91091-9
  3. ^ Richard H. Stasiak (2007), "Southern Redbelly Dace (Phoxinus erythrogaster): a technical conservation assessment", p. 11, USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Region. Available: http://www.fs.fed.us/r2/ projects/scp/assessments/southernredbellydace.pdf