The Cape Fear shiner is small, rarely exceeding 2 inches in length. The fins are yellowish and somewhat pointed. The upper lip is black, and the lower lip bears a thin black bar along its margin. The Cape Fear shiner, unlike most other members of the large genus Notropis , feeds extensively on plant material, and its digestive tract is modified for this diet by having an elongated, convoluted intestine.
Plant material forms the primary part of the shiner's diet.
No information is presently available on the species' breeding behavior, fecundity, or longevity. The Cape Fear shiner is known from four small populations in the Cape Fear drainage in Randolph, Moore, Lee, Harnett, and Chatham Counties, North Carolina. Total numbers are unknown, but all populations appear to be small. Surveys conducted in 1984 and 1985 yielded 1O1 individuals from the population located around the junction of the Rocky River and Deer River in Chatham and Lee Counties, one specimen from the Rocky River near State Highway Bridge 9O2 in Chatham County, and six specimens from the Deep River system in Randolph and Moore Counties. A few individuals have been collected just downstream of the Locksville Dam, but because of the limited extent of Cape Fear shiner habitat at this site, it is not believed this is a separate population.