Rio Grande Silvery Minnow Research Paper

The Rio Grande Silvery Minnow is a “small herbivorous North American fish” with “small eyes and mouth”. The diet of the fish is believed to consist of “river plants and benthic macroinvertebrates”, which consists of “small living animals among stones, logs, sediment, and aquatic plants on the bottom of rivers and lakes.” Due to the small size of the fish and difficulty accessing their stomachs, there is “little research into their diet”.
Historically, the minnow was found from Espanola, New Mexico to the Gulf of Mexico in Texas. Now they “found in less than 5% of their natural environment” between Cochiti Dam and Elephant Butte Lake, a mere 192 miles.
In 1994, the Rio Grande Silvery Minnow made the endangered species list in the United