4 replies to this topic

[LepomisAuritus]

Hi all, 

I was doing some diving in the central Delaware River on the PA/NJ border a few weeks ago, and I was surprised to find both shield and tessellated darters on the bottom in 5-7 feet of water. I typically think of darters as shallow water riffle fish, so this was unexpected. Is this common to find them in deeper water like this?

[Michael Wolfe]

Its not "common" but certainly I have seen a ton in water that was only 6 feet deep.  Lots of Mobile Logperch in water that is over my head in the Conasauga... and lots of Tangerines in deeper holes in the Hiawasee... I think mostly we just dont sample or even snorkel as often in deeper water for a variety of reasons.

[Matt DeLaVega]

I have never sampled a tangerine, but have heard from several people that they tend to be in deep riffles like Michael mentions. Logperch are a bit more familiar to me, and they do tend to be in slow riffles two feet and deeper. How deep do darters go? Not sure, a seine in a riffle is hard to handle in water much deeper than 3 feet. In Ohio, I have found most of our darter species in riffles up to 3 feet. Some species, spotted, bluebreast and tippecanoe seem to like the deepest and fastest riffles that a seining crew can handle. I believe that Brian Zimmerman was getting lot's of darters of various species with his benthic trawls of the Ohio river. So darters 10-30 feet deep.

[JasonL]

They can be found deeper than you would think, especially Percina species.  As Matt mentioned, they will catch them in deep water trawls on the Ohio River not infrequently.   I have caught many a logperch incidentally in cast nets over 10 feet of water directly out of the Ohio.   

 

They are hard to sample/catch in deeper waters so we don’t think of darters as being there.  But they can be deeper if there is suitable habitat.

[centrarchid]

Snorkeling streams in southern Missouri, I have encountered Etheostoma blennoides newmanii in greater than 12 feet of water. I have also seen while shorkeling, Logperch at almost the same depth in the Ohio River near Troy, Indiana. Visibility and water current prevented me from going deeper. Current was too much got deeper even though I am strong swimmer. I think they were deeper.