The cutlips minnow uses small pebbles to build nests about 10 to 18 inches in diameter. The stoneroller minnow, the creek chub, and the common shiner build this type of nest. Two to five male stonerollers work together on a single pit at the downstream end of a pool. They remove material by thrusting their snouts into the gravel and jerking their heads sideways. Stones are occasionally picked up in the mouth and carried upstream.
Depressions are up to a foot in diameter.
Males fight continually during the operation, even to the point of blinding one another with their breeding tubercles. The creek chub chooses a spot over a sand and gravel bottom just above a riffle, then digs by forcing his head into the bottom and shaking vigorously. Sand and pebbles are placed upstream in a long ridge parallel to the course of the stream and varying from 1 to 18 feet in length. Subsequent digging covers the eggs. The bluntnose minnow and fathead minnow fasten their eggs under stones in depressions they have dug.