Distribution of Fishes in the Red River of the North Basin on Multivariate Environmental Gradients

Cyprinidae

Northern Redbelly Dace

Phoxinus eos (Cope), the northern redbelly dace, was reported by Scudder from the Sandhill River in 1860 (UMMZ 1994), but the species was not collected by other early investigators in the Red River basin (Figure A38). In 1955, the species was reported from the Otter Tail, Red Lake, Middle, and Tamarac Rivers (BMNH 1994). The northern redbelly dace has been collected from the middle-to-upper reaches of several streams, and it has been present at 9% of the stream sites sampled since 1962 (Table 4). It has been most common in reaches of the NLF ecoregion, occurring at 30% of sites. The species can be quite abundant in samples, as several hundred were seined from the Rush River at a site near Amenia in 1994. The species has been abundant in the northeastern portion of the basin. However, populations which once existed in the Tongue, Park, and Goose Rivers may have been extirpated, as surveys have failed to locate it in these reaches since 1964.

Figure A38. Distribution of the northern redbelly dace in streams of the Red River of the North basin.

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