The Brassy Minnow prefers small, clear streams having sluggish current and sandy bottoms overlaid by organic sediment or weedy pools. Little is known of their reproductive habits other than they spawn in May. They probably feed on microorganisms attached to plant stems or in the bottom ooze.
Brassy Minnows are known only from the headwaters of the Smoky Hill and Republican rivers in northwestern Kansas and from the Missouri River and one of its tributaries in Atchison County in northeastern Kansas.