 The ribbon shiner is located in Gulf drainages from Lake Pontchartrain (Louisiana) to the Navidad River (Texas), and they are located in all drainage systems of Lake Pontchartrain, but excluding the Tangipahoa.They are also native to the Mississippi River Basin, from the lower Mississippi drainages to the Tennessee drainages, Central Illinois, southwestern Indiana, eastern Oklahoma, western Kentucky, to northwestern Alabama, and mostly fall below Fall Line but extends above in the Arkansas River drainage.