Field Guide

The brook silverside is a little fish that is very active in the daytime and on bright, moonlit nights.

The southern redbelly dace has two dusky stripes separated by a broad golden stripe along the side. The bellies of males turn brilliant red in spring. It lives in small creeks and spring branches of the Ozarks with permanent flow of cool, clear water and a gravel or sand bottom.

The Ozark minnow is small and slender, with a prominent dusky stripe along the midline that extends forward past the eye. It is one of the most common minnows in the Ozark uplands.

Found in only a few Missouri streams, the Topeka shiner is an endangered native minnow that has declined dramatically because of environmental pollution, siltation, and loss or alteration of habitat.

In Missouri, the Sabine shiner is known only from a short stretch of the Black River in Butler County. This slender, silvery minnow has a bluntly rounded snout that projects slightly beyond the upper lip.

The hornyhead chub is a moderately large, slender minnow with a rather large, nearly horizontal mouth. Males commonly have bony projections on top of the head. Occurs in clear Ozark streams with permanent flow and clean gravel.

One of the rarest Missouri minnows, the taillight shiner is known only from a few localities in southeast Missouri, in habitats representing the last remnants of low-gradient streams and swamps once common in that region.

The chestnut lamprey is an eel-like fish that many people find interesting because it's a vampire to other fish. Adults have a well-developed, rasplike oral disc, seven porelike gill openings, no paired fins, and a single nostril.

The American eel is considered an uncommon catch by Missouri sport anglers. This species is known to take natural baits and rarely takes artificial baits.

The striped shiner is a rather large, deep-bodied minnow that inhabits clean, rocky streams, mostly south of the Missouri River.