So I have Greensides, tessellateds and a banded but no shield darters. Natureserve tells me I'm smack dab in shield country but my net says otherwise. Admittedly I haven't had much luck sampling anything other than fast rocky riffles and shrimp tanks for darters. I would like to know if anyone has some suggestions for types of habitat to look for and methods for nabbing shield darters.

Bart

So I have Greensides, tessellateds and a banded but no shield darters. Natureserve tells me I'm smack dab in shield country but my net says otherwise. Admittedly I haven't had much luck sampling anything other than fast rocky riffles and shrimp tanks for darters. I would like to know if anyone has some suggestions for types of habitat to look for and methods for nabbing shield darters.

Bart

All the shield's I have collected have been in fairly rapid, deeper (~3 ft) water over cobble to fist-sized stones. They're relatively pelagic so I think the deeper water affords them more foraging area, and every time I've seen them go into my seine they've been well up in the water column. They seem to spread out a bit (and have been fairly territorial in my aquaria) and so you probably won't find high densities. Once you find a reliable spot though, you'll know they're there.

So I have Greensides, tessellateds and a banded but no shield darters. Natureserve tells me I'm smack dab in shield country but my net says otherwise. Admittedly I haven't had much luck sampling anything other than fast rocky riffles and shrimp tanks for darters. I would like to know if anyone has some suggestions for types of habitat to look for and methods for nabbing shield darters.

Bart

Here in NY I've only found shield darters in SE NY in the early spring in shallow riffles a foot or less deep. Other times of the year despite hard searching none in the same riffles. The deeper pools were too deep or I was running out time to sample so that's probably where they were.