Darter ID

Hi everybody,

I was wondering if anyone knew what type of darter this was or if it even is a darter? I'm a little confused on their range, too. This video was taken in Japan and I thought darters were a New World fish endemic to the American continents? If so, then what type of fish is this?

Goby. I have no clue what kind though. Various related species seem to be becoming popular aquarium fish.

Don't quote me on the science but I seem to remember gobies were colonizers of offshore islands via their ability to move from marine to fresh environments and eventually evolve freshwater species. In fact, I seem to remember there are endemic gobies scattered around various isolated portions of the world.

Oooh, that makes sense. Yeah, their heads have kind of a goby-ish shape, now that I'm looking at them again. Thank you

Are darters only found in the Americas?

Mike, I haven't heard that but it makes sense to me.

Erica, darters are in the family Percidae, which includes Sauger, Walleye and Yellow Perch, which have eurasian counterparts, Zander, European Perch (maybe another species or 2) but also a smaller group of fish in the genus Zingel, which for all intents and purposes look a bit like some of our larger, less colorful darters. Although, I would say darters as we know them are American.

There are numerous freshwater or amphidromous gobies in Japan, many in the genera Sicyopterus, Stiphodon, and Rhinogobius. There is a Japanese fellow on the loaches.com forum who often posts video of them; this may well be one of his vids.

Yes, the darters (tribe Etheostomatini) are endemic to the Nearctic. They are almost endemic to the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico drainages, but a few Mexican species are found in Pacific or endorrheic drainages formerly connected to the Rio Grande, and a few are in drainages of Hudson Bay, which sort of splits the difference between the Atlantic and Arctic basins.

So these are probably gobies, too, then?



It's odd that they look so much more similar to darters than those Zingel fish. Maybe that's because they both occupy the same habitat? (fast moving cold water). I dunno.

As a side note, how many of you who go out in the field have underwater cameras? Now that I'm seeing all of these samples videos on youtube, I'm starting to think that they are really cool.

Yeah, those are probably gobies too. That is a common bauplan- the "small, benthic, micro/mesophagous, often high-energy environment" fish. Blennies, some catfishes, and some cypriniforms also fall into that group. There's also the cryptic, macrophagous version of same, which includes most scorpaeniforms (sculpins and their ilk), sleepers, and so on. Other common bauplane spread across many unrelated fish groups include the "eel", "pike", "butterfly", "surface-feeder", "benthic hoover", and "pelagic predator" archetypes.

*edit* I've got one of the waterproof Olympus digitals, which takes pretty nice underwater shots. The video is not great, but that is probably more an operator issue than a camera issue. I need to get one of those gorilla pods for underwater stability. If you're out in the field a lot, it's definitely a good investment.

Darters and freshwater gobies occupy the same niche, I would say it's a case of "form follows function." I have some gobies in my tropical tanks, they are almost as much fun as darters! I've been breeding desert gobies for a couple of years. They are short lived, so I keep a small colony going.

A bunch of us have the Olympus waterproof cameras. They are a great entry level waterproof camera. I have one and a gorilla pod that I had tons of fun snorkeling with last spring. I paid around $300 for my Olympus, and the gorilla pods are $20.