Field Guide

The cypress minnow, like its Bootheel swampland habitat, is in danger of vanishing from Missouri. On the forward part of this fish's side, note the distinct cross-hatched pattern made by the dark-edged scales.

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 spring cavefish is the only cavefish in our state that has eyes, however small, and whose body is yellowish brown or brown; our other cavefishes lack eyes entirely and are pale and nearly colorless.

The grotto sculpin is a rare fish adapted cave conditions. It has recently been designated an endangered species under the Federal Endangered Species Act. It's found only in Perry County, Missouri.