17 replies to this topic

[Robert Lamb]

Not sure if anyone's interested but I figured this would be a good place to document my attempt at this. I have made myself a goal to photograph all of the species of Nothonotus in-situ before the year is up. Not the easiest but fortunately my home in Chattanooga puts me within three hours of every species except juliae, moorei, and rubrum. As of right now I've only gotten 2 species (rufilineatus and jordani) out of a total of 21. Tomorrow I will (hopefully) be heading to the Tellico and Citico creek to add chlorobranchium and vulneratus to the list. If anyone knows a spot in the Hiwassee river where I can stop and find camurum relatively easy it would be greatly appreciated. 
 

Small redline male from the Wilkerson branch of Wolftever creek just a few minutes from home. Not the greatest picture but I hope to be able to snag some better ones in clearer waters tomorrow.

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My second species is the greenbreast darter from the famous Conasauga river snorkel hole a few weeks ago. Had a great time meeting up with Derek Wheaton and Andrew Zimmerman and saw a few lifers.

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[Isaac Szabo]

Cool project, and nice shots! I can confirm seeing vulneratum in the lower Tellico and chlorobranchium in the middle to upper Citico. I doubt you'll find camurum in the Hiwassee. I don't recall ever hearing of anyone seeing them there. You might have to go up to the Little for them.

 

Let me know if you happen to make it out to the Ozarks for juliae and moorei.

[littlen]

*Following*

Very nice pictures.  I may have a soft spot for Redlines.  Good luck on your quest.

[Robert Lamb]

Cool project, and nice shots! I can confirm seeing vulneratum in the lower Tellico and chlorobranchium in the middle to upper Citico. 

Thanks! 

With the greenfins, can they be found around where the parking is or do I need to hike upstream? If so, do you remember how far?

[L Link]

I found a greenfin somewhere around the Jake Best campground, but I assume they go farther up as well

[Robert Lamb]

I went the back route from Indian Boundary so the first campsite I came to was where I got in. Turned out to be a perfect spot, or at least as close to perfect as I was likely to find. Tons of juveniles around 1 inch or so were everywhere but the adults were much more elusive. I had originally planned for today to be a 2 spot trip but I ended up spending the "whole day" (about 5 hours actually) chasing after the greenfins. While regrettably I was not able to snag an in-situ picture of the gorgeous colored up males I did get some of one of the larger females and a younger male. I was also able to get a big male in the dipnet for an in-hand picture. Interestingly enough, besides the greenfins, greensides were the only other darter I spotted at this site. There were also large amounts of Tennessee shiners as per usual in the mountain streams and quite a few warpaints and saffrons were there as well. It was my first time seeing non-breeding saffrons and they were a lot more impressive than I had thought.

 

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[Isaac Szabo]

Nice shots! I'm glad the trip was a success. It's always feels good when finding a new species works out as planned. I didn't see any saffrons up there, so if that's really what you saw that's good to know.

[Robert Lamb]

It really does feel good! Hopefully the next expedition will pan out as well. Next target is N. etowahae for Saturday if it doesn't rain too much tonight/tomorrow. Hopefully they'll be as cooperative as the greenbreasts were in the Conasauga. 
 

 

I didn't see any saffrons up there, so if that's really what you saw that's good to know.

 

I was pretty convinced they were saffrons but after looking at some online pictures I'm not 100% sure, but the most striking trait that I noticed was they had an iridescent purple spot on the head along with the typical yellow line down the side. Shiners are not my strong suit, might have just been a large TN 

[Isaac Szabo]

Hard to say without a photo. I will note that smoky dace (rosyside dace split) are up there.

[Robert Lamb]

That's probably what is was then. Based on the pictures google pulls up it looks fairly close to what I remember

[Isaac Szabo]

OK, that makes sense. I remember being surprised to not see any saffrons up there since they're close by in a neighboring drainage.

[L Link]

Hard to say without a photo. I will note that smoky dace (rosyside dace split) are up there.

I was up there a couple weeks ago and saw a ton of them, so a very plausible candidate

[Robert Lamb]

So plans were changed, instead of the Etowah I decided to take a bid on the Duck River to hopefully knock out 3 species in one day (denoncourti, aquali, and camurum). Sadly I think my good luck for the week had run a little thin after such a good experience with the greenfins. Water was very turbid and poor for snorkeling, although an attempt was made. In my haste I had also forgotten to bring my dipnet and had to resort to using a 5 inch aquarium net to attempt captures for the photo tank. Three separate spots were visited, and at the first I turned up what I believe to be a female denoncourti, but could very well also be a small redline female as they can look fairly similar. 2nd spot yielded no fish that I was able to catch, but the 3rd spot helped make the trip worth it with my lifer aqualis, even though I was unable to get an in-situ. Another interesting find at that spot was a dead lamprey, and a live one was seen too but evaded my tiny net pretty easily.

 

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[Robert Lamb]

Originally some plans had been laid to visit Citico creek again yesterday but those didn't work out. Despite that I decided I could at least make it to the Tellico to try for N. vulneratus. I was there about 2 hours and was able to get my fair share of vulneratus viewing and also saw a few species for the first time which was quite exciting. Among the new species seen were citico darters and smoky madtoms, each of which I saw three. I also managed to snap a few pictures of some redlines, which are better than the one from Wolftever Creek in my first post in this thread, but still not ideal.

N. vulneratus
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Slightly better rufilineatus pic
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E. sitikuense
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Smoky madtom
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[Robert Lamb]

Species number 5 is the Caney Fork Darter (N. starnesi). Visited the Collins River near McMinnville, TN. The crazy thing is that when I first put my head under the water there was one right in front of me. They were very abundant. Also enjoyed watching spawning studfish in the shallows.

Also after some thinking I have changed what does and does not qualify for my project. After discussion with some folks about a select few species, I have decided I will settle for in hand or photo tank pictures where in-situ may prove especially difficult, and in a case where phototank/in hand pictures turns out better than my in-situ shots I may opt for them instead (such as my male greenfin darter).

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[Robert Lamb]

Been a little late on this update. This Last week I added 2 species to the project.

On Tuesday I met up with a friend, who has been doing genetic work on darters in the Duck River, at Flat Creek near Shelbyville, TN. We started out with some snorkeling and did some seining as well. Had poor luck finding coppercheeks in the very shallow water, but finally struck gold when I tried a riffle further upstream. While the shots are by no means the best they do ok. I was able to get a picture of a battle scarred male in the photo tank that turned out quite nicely in my opinion.

Other species found at the site included redline, striated, ashy, saffron, duck, greenside, fantail, and banded darters.
Stargazing minnows (a very unique looking fish), mountain, telescope, sawfin, and an array of other shiners
Sculpins
Blackspotted topminnows and northern studfish
And lastly some impressive longnose gar. 

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The second species added last week was the Etowah darter. A federally listed endangered species only found in the Etowah river of north Georgia. Sadly these are the worst pictures I have gotten so far. They are poor enough I might make a return trip to try again later this summer. Despite that, the experience of snorkeling there was a great one, lots of activity in the stream. The Etowah darters themselves were quite abundant and I was able to find one in the first minute after submerging my face. Also seen alongside them were the ever present bronze darters and the occasional Percina freemanorum (a recently split species from the Bridled darter). Sadly it seems like I was just a little too late to witness the chub mound spawning as the mounds were still rather clean. Despite no longer spawning, the yellowfin shiners were still in vivid colors and an impressive sight. The Alabama shiners were still going at it. 

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[Robert Lamb]

After a short hiatus I am back at it again. Today I finally managed a 2 for 1. 

The first species I saw was the sharphead darter (N. acuticeps) in the Cane River of NC. Definitely the most difficult darter I have photographed so far. The current was incredibly strong and the larger adults were only in the thick of it. 

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While I was there I was able to get a picture of a greenfin that I like a lot better than my picture from Citico Creek. Many of them were still in impressive colors along with a hoard of gorgeous gilt darters. 

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After leaving the Cane River I headed back into TN to join Derek Wheaton at the Little River in Maryville and was able to get my first bluebreast darter (N. camurus). I hope to get some better pictures in the Cumberland River but for now this will do. 

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[Robert Lamb]

Made a trip out to the New River today which is part of the Big South Fork drainage. Was able to observe Bloodfin darters and some gorgeous bluebreasts that really put the TN river specimens to shame. I also had the privilege of seeing a young redlip darter and I hope to return next spring to see their spawning. 

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