With regard to Snipe's red shiners, please keep in mind that he lives right in the heart of red shiner country. They are ubiquitous where he lives. Red shiners have a very broad native range so they are appropriate a lot of pondboss members. A good rule of thumb? Does your water drain to the Mississippi River? If it empties in the Gulf east of the Mississippi, the Pacific or Atlantic, you can rest assured that the powers that be fear this minnow, don't want you to bring it in, and probably have laws prohibiting them.
The good news is that there are closely related shiners in those watersheds that have shown promise ponds also. Satinfins and blacktails for example. What about the many miniature versions of sunfish that the Atlantic drainages are so blessed with? There is so much opportunity to learn and perhaps exploit locally collected specimens.
