Best Starter Darter....Hehe!

Here is a pair of iowas. The color of the male is not showing up well, the lower fish. Imagine red and blue blocks, and a dorsal fin with deep blue and red.

My camera at that time did not pick up blues worth a lick.You can almost make out the navy blue marks between the faint red marks in the picture as a gray. The dorsal fin doesn't look too bad, a good reference for the color on the sides. Females are highly variable in pattern, often looking like swamp darters.

I have little experience with darters, but thought I would post a photo I had. These guys do do well in aquariums, since not being a darter keeper, I did well with these. Rainbows are also really good choices. They usually have awesome color and adapt well. They can both get pretty "tame" and usually adapt to prepared foods and do pretty good on a diet like that.

I've kept Banded darters in a 20 gallon long with about 200 GPH. This tank had high flow areas and low flow areas. The darters showed no preference to the high flow areas. They accepted Hikari cichlid pellets very quickly and also ate flake foods of all kinds. Once they converted to dry food, I never offered frozen with regularity again. Maybe I just got lucky with this group of fish but they had no problems with the flow rate or food offered in the tank. I'm not trying to tell you this is the ideal tank arrangement for E. zonale but I saw no reason to move them once I discovered how well they fed and behaved with these conditions.

I've not kept Rainbow darters in these conditions but have had trouble with Orangethroats in low flow conditions. IMHO E. zonale are the easiest darter I've kept in the home aquaria. Please also understand that I'm talking about darters local to my area only. Just my 2 cents.

Down here I have found both blackbanded darter and brighteye darters are very easy to keep. I think they would do fine in low flow. I kept both species in a 45 tall with little flow. In no time they would take flakes and pellets from the surface. Some of the brighteyes always hung out on the ledge of a floating peice of driftwood about 1-2 inches under the water. So, I guess it depends where you are if you are gonna collect them yourself.

I am not going to collect them myself... I do not have any good places to collect around me. So basically what you are saying I should inquire with the current owners first and see what kind of conditions they are under now and replicate it?

Chad

Get a trio of rainbow darters, 1 male and 2 females. Setup the tank with an external power filter, Whisper 20 or something similar. Fill it with dark natural gravel, a couple of fist-sized rocks, and some java fern and java moss for plants and you'll be good to go.

Get a trio of rainbow darters, 1 male and 2 females. Setup the tank with an external power filter, Whisper 20 or something similar. Fill it with dark natural gravel, a couple of fist-sized rocks, and some java fern and java moss for plants and you'll be good to go.

Thank you for clearing that up! That is exactly what I needed. Haha. I think that is exactly what I am going to do. Already got everything I need except the tank and fish! Thank you

Chad

I do not know much about this current in a tank thing. But I have kept both Tennessee snubnose and Rainbows with no problems at all in a twenty long with a power filter and bio-wheel setup. They ate frozen brine shrimp like they were starving. They love brine shrimp. I do not think it would be hard at all to keep rainbows in a ten gallon tank. I caught one yesterday here in Collegedale Tennessee along with a black sided and "my favorite" Tennessee Snubnose. I keep those and cold water darters in the same tank. They are all thriving very well. I think just clean water is all that is needed and a good flow. I guess a powerhead with undergravel filter would be a good setup. Come to think of it maybe that is what I had and not the power filter with bio-wheel. At any rate I think you would do fine with either setup. And the rainbow, blacksided, and tennessee snubnose I caught yesterday were colored up nicely. I was suprised because I thought at this time of year the colors would be more faded. Have fun with your darters. I think they are really neat how they scoot along on the bottom. AWESOME