Minnow

Phoxinus phoxinus (known colloquially as the Eurasian minnow, minnow, Channel minnow, or common minnow) is a species of freshwater ray-finned fish belonging to the family Leuciscidae, which includes the daces, minnows and related fishes. It is the type species of genus Phoxinus. This taxon was formerly considered to be the only species in the genus Phoxinus found in Europe and to have a wide geographic range in Eurasia, however, it is now regarded as part of a species complex with new species being described across its former range and this species being restricted to Western Europe. It occurs predominantly in cool (12–20 °C (54–68 °F)) streams and well-oxygenated lakes and ponds. It is noted for being a gregarious species, shoaling in large numbers.

Habitat

The common minnow is found in a wide variety of environments that have cold, well oxygenated water, often in syntopy with salmonids. These include small streams with fast currents, and, in the more northerly parts of its range, large lowland rivers. It also lives in still waters as varied as small mountain lakes to large, oligotrophic lakes. For spawning, it requires clean gravel areas in well oxygenated flowing water or where waves wash on lake shores. It also needs deep pools with low current to overwinter in, and these must have a coarse substrate among which the fish can hide.

Distribution

Phoxinus phoxinus is indigenous to the river catchments draining into the North Sea and English Channel, from the Rhine system south to Normandy and in Great Britain. In Scotland it is regarded as an introduced non native species, and this is probably the case in Ireland. Introductions are likely to have occurred elsewhere, including Norway.