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Darter ID From Flint River, Alabama?

Started by Guest_fundulus_* , Apr 25 2011 07:42 PM

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8 replies to this topic

#1 Guest_fundulus_*

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Posted 25 April 2011 - 07:42 PM

We were working in the Flint River east of Huntsville, AL, today and found the fish in the two attached pictures. I think I know what she is but I'm looking for other informed IDs, too. I think her size is relatively apparent, and one photo is in a sandwich bag, one in a hand. She was released immediately afterward. Thanks!

#2 Guest_jblaylock_*

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Posted 25 April 2011 - 08:06 PM

I'm thinking Dusky Darter, but I'm kinda torn between that and something else.

#3 Guest_Newt_*

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Posted 25 April 2011 - 08:38 PM

Looks like a dusky to me. What else could it be?

#4 Guest_farmertodd_*

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Posted 25 April 2011 - 08:49 PM

Ditto on the dusky.

#5 Guest_jblaylock_*

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Posted 25 April 2011 - 08:55 PM

Looks like a dusky to me. What else could it be?

At first I thought maybe a female Gilt, but I've never actually seen one and I'm not sure if they are in that area. After looking at some other photos.. Dusky it is.

#6 Guest_fundulus_*

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Posted 25 April 2011 - 09:30 PM

Thanks for your opinions. I had thought it was a Blackside at first but it wasn't really right. I've never seen a Dusky at this site before (and at home I don't have my Alabama books), and I think it's uncommon at best in the Flint River, or for that matter the Paint Rock to the east. The online version of Mettee et al. says that they collected Duskys "at several locations in the Tennessee River drainage". The habitat is right, fast-flowing water over gravel and boulders (banded darters are the most common darter). We've been doing transects at this site since last September and never saw one, now we have. Today was also the first time we netted a Whitetail Shiner at this site.

#7 Guest_ashtonmj_*

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Posted 28 April 2011 - 06:32 AM

Dusky, but since no one said WHY they are calling it that, it is because of the tri-spot on the caudal peduncle. I had caught a few in the Paint Rock in '06, but never over boulders, always flowing water over sand.

#8 Guest_gerald_*

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Posted 28 April 2011 - 10:05 AM

It does look like a dusky, but big female gilt darters have been confused with duskys before. Bryn Tracy and Wayne Starnes just figured out a couple months ago that the dusky darter records for NC (two specimens, 1966 and 1969, both ID'd by the same guy) are in fact big momma gilts, and that there's no record of dusky in NC (which NC has listed as state protected for many years).

#9 Guest_fundulus_*

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Posted 02 May 2011 - 10:42 AM

Dusky, but since no one said WHY they are calling it that, it is because of the tri-spot on the caudal peduncle. I had caught a few in the Paint Rock in '06, but never over boulders, always flowing water over sand.

Yer right, the tri-spot on the peduncle should have clued me in immediately. We caught this one on the edge of fast current, over sand and gravel, in a tree root hole against a bank.