Blacktail redhorse
species of fish
The blacktail redhorse (Moxostoma poecilurum) is a species of ray-finned fish in the genus Moxostoma. The blacktail redhorse occupies North America, being located throughout Mississippi River tributaries on the former Mississippi Embayment, ranging from Southern Kentucky to Galveston Bay in Texas.
Description
Like other Moxostoma, the blacktail redhorse has a long and cylindrical body. It is gold to bronze on the upper half with a silver-green iridescence, and is a silver yellow to white on the lower half. The caudal and lower fins are red, with a black stripe on the lower half of the forked caudal fin, which is normally larger than the upper half. The edge of the dorsal fin is usually concave, and the fin is a dusky grey on the lower half and more red on the upper half.
There are normally 41 to 44 lateral scales, and 12 to 13 dorsal rays.
The fish has a maximum total length of 51 cm (20 in), but is normally has a total length of 25 cm (10 in) to 41 cm (16 in).
Distribution and habitat
Moxostoma poecilurum is found throughout Mississippi River tributaries on the former Mississippi Embayment running from Southern Kentucky to Southern Arkansas, south to Louisiana. It can also be found in gulf slope drainages from the Choctawhatchee River in Alabama and Florida to Galveston Bay in Texas.
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This entry incorporates text from “Blacktail redhorse” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.