The blacknose shiner lives in a broad band from the Hudson Bay drainage across southern Canada to Nova Scotia. It ranges through the Great Lakes and Mississippi drainage south to Nebraska and Missouri with disjunct populations in several areas including northern Tennessee where it is said to occupy warm, clear, weedless streams. In New York, it has been recorded from the Allegheny, Erie, Ontario and St. Lawrence drainages and from the Finger Lakes, Upper Mohawk and Susquehanna-Chemung watersheds.

The blacknose shiner lives in small creeks and in the weedy shallows of lakes and ponds. Like some of the other blackstripe minnows, it is becoming rare in many parts of its range due to loss of habitat and deterioriating water quality.

The life history of the blacknose shiner has not been studied in detail, but the NY Biological Survey of the 1930's reported females in spawning condition from the Niagara River in late July.

The blacknose feeds primarily along the bottom, and small individuals feed on vegetation. Most feeding takes place early in the morning and late in the day.

Distribution of the blacknose shiner in NY state.

A 213 KB image of the is also available for download.

The above species description was taken out of "The Inland Fishes of New York State" by C. Lavett Smith, published by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, 1985.