Tough little darter

I was heading off to meet Josh (jblaylock) for a trip down to the Red River this morning. Went to dump the water out of my catch buckets where they had been sitting covered behind my house for two weeks, since the last collection trip. I had forgotten to empty the remaining creek water out of them after that last trip.

Saw some movement in the bucket, looked closer... there was a very active emerald darter still in the bucket. Apparently it had hidden under some leaves in the water, and I hadn't seen it. Two weeks, sitting behind the house, and it's been none too cool lately, high 80's to low 90's. Little fellow is doing quite well now, in the considerably more comfortable tank.

I've had them survive overnight in a catch bucket, but two weeks? That's one tough fish.