Confusing shiner

A buddy and I hit the Eno River in north Durham yesterday, just above Falls Lake. We stayed in the shallow riffles and got lots of Roanoke Darters (including two or three that were the largest I've seen), several juvenile Fantail Darters, one Chainback Darter, one Johnny Darter, one Pinewoods Shiner, three juvenile Nocomis sp. chubs, several Swallowtail Shiners, several Satinfin Shiners, and several Spottail Shiners.

One of the shiners has me stuck, though. It looks like another Spottail, but the eye is huge. It looks significantly larger compared to other Spottails from the site. Does the middle fish look weird to anyone else?

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Is that normal pea gravel and/or how big is this fish roughly? It looks to me sorta like a small spottail, or maybe a unusual looking swallowtail. I will agree though...that is a pretty big eye. Also I'm not entirely familiar with all your shiners down there, but being on the atlantic slope myself, I would most liken it to one of those species.

I vote spottail. Small spottails and swallowtails look pretty darn close. (And so does Cape Fear shiner, when you're in the Haw River). Viewed from above on a sunny day, swallowtails have more distinct gold dashes down the mid-line between dorsal and tail, than do spottails. The swallowtail's body is a bit more translucent than spottails, which may also be why the gold dashes show up more. (This difference applies only to live fish).

Comely shiners are in Eno River too, easy to overlook as pinewoods shiners at first glance, but scales are larger and they lack the black spot at dorsal fin base.