ROSYSIDE DACE
SCIENTIFIC NAME: Clinostomus funduloides
CHARACTERISTICS: The rosyside dace has a deep, compressed body; a large, oblique mouth; and 5-5 or 5-4 principal teeth on the pharyngeal arches. Breeding individuals are quite colorful, with both sexes ranging from olive to light brown or golden yellow. Breeding males also develop a rose red streak that is broad (4 to 6 scale rows wide) and extends from the gill covers to the caudal fin. Females have a golden brown to tan lateral band with black mottling along the sides.
ADULT SIZE: 2 to 3 in (50 to 75 mm)
DISTRIBUTION: Clinostomus funduloides occurs in upland Atlantic slope drainages from the Chesapeake Bay south to the Savannah, Tennessee, and Cumberland rivers. It also occurs infrequently in tributaries to the Ohio River in West Virginia and Ohio. In Alabama the rosyside dace is restricted to the Tennessee River drainage and is most frequent in the Bear Creek system and in stream systems north of the Tennessee River.
HABITAT AND BIOLOGY: This species frequents both pools and riffles of clear, cool, medium-sized upland streams flowing over gravel, cobble, or bedrock. It is found most often in runs and chutes below riffles or in pools below small waterfalls. Because of its large mouth, it can consume a variety or prey, including terrestrial insects. A typical life span is four years. Individuals in nuptial condition and color have been collected from late February through May, and as Etnier and Starnes (1993) report, rosyside dace will spawn over the nests of some other species, such as stonerollers.
ORIGINAL DESCRIPTION: Girard described the rosyside dace in 1856.
ETYMOLOGY:
Clinostomus means inclined mouth.
Funduloides means like a fundulus, or any fish of the genus Fundulus.
The copyrighted information above is from Fishes of Alabama and the Mobile Basin.
