Understanding how fish respond to drought and streamflow intermittency is important for designing effective conservation actions. Fish could move to refuge areas prior to intermittency, or be trapped in nearby habitats at the onset. We used mechanical pumps to simulate streamflow intermittency in the Rio Grande, New Mexico. We conducted a 5‐week before–after impact‐only experiment. We seined at 10 sites each week to observe changes in Red Shiner Cyprinella lutrensis abundance and distribution in a 35‐km reach. We conducted two surveys prior to any flow reduction. Next, we reduced flows each week to simulate streamflow intermittency and repeated surveys to identify changes in distribution that would suggest large‐scale movement of Red Shiner to refuge areas. During the first survey, we marked Red Shiner with elastomeric tags to observe movement. In a separate effort, we surveyed all isolated pools that formed after flow reductions for tagged Red Shiner. We observed no patterns that suggested large‐scale movement to refuge areas. Instead, numbers remained steady or increased at all sites in surveys 1 through 4 and declined sharply when sites dried. Tagged fish also supported this conclusion: dispersal models estimated 56% remained within ~0.5 km of the tagging location. We suggest Red Shiner is resilient to drought because of their opportunistic life history and potential for rapid recolonisation, rather than resistant to drought through population‐scale movements to refuge areas. Conservation actions to benefit species threatened by drought must consider the mechanisms of persistence, including both behaviour and life‐history strategy, to be effective.

1. Flow intermittence is a major disturbance for riverine fishes. Many species of fishes that evolved in naturally intermittent streams have specialized adaptations to survive drought such as movement to refuge habitats. Conservation of fishes in river systems with highly altered flow regimes requires understanding of how individuals and populations respond to flow intermittence.2. Here, flow was manipulated in two 16-km segments of the Rio Grande, New Mexico, to determine whether managed flow recession could reduce stranding imperilled Rio Grande silvery minnow in isolated pools.3. Slower flow recessions did not decrease stranding in isolated pools over the range tested. Flow recession rate appeared to have an adverse impact on stranding; fewer fish were stranded under faster recession rates, but complex interactions were evident. Fish were stranded throughout both segments regardless of flow recession rate.4. No evidence of a synchronized movement response was observed. Instead, many Rio Grande silvery minnows were probably trapped within proximal habitats, which dry completely and function as evolutionary traps, rather than moving to areas of perennial flow. Use of proximal habitats during streamflow intermittence has implications for management of the species and mitigation of mortality, including managed flow recession rates, and position and function of refuge habitats.5. Effective mitigation for flow intermittence and stranding in streams with highly modified flow regimes will depend on the life history and behavioural response of the species. For Rio Grande silvery minnow, facilitating adaptive behaviour would require creating refuge areas that increase fish survival for weeks to months, as reducing the attractiveness of the traps is likely to be impossible given lack of a synchronized movement response to declining flows. Mismatching life-history strategies, behaviour, and scale of conservation actions may result in ineffective