A female accompanied by one or more males darts from one algal mass to another with a spawning embrace of 2 to 4 seconds at each one. The eggs hatch in 8 to 10 days at 70 to 80 F. Maturity is reached in the second or third summer, and the fish live at least 3 years. The diet of the redbelly dace includes much plant material, including diatoms and filamentous algae, as well as zooplankton, insects, and occasionally fish. Distribution of northnern redbelly dace in NY state. Dark dots represent where actual samples of redbelly dace were taken.
White dots represent historic distributions.
A137 KB image of the redbelly dace is also available for download .