a map to darters

I have been trying to do research to narrow down the ranges of fish in my area with little sucess, new hampshire fish and game seems to have poor records of non-game species compared to other states and if your lucky they will list a drainage (giving you an entire river system to search). Though I was not thinking darters (the idea of a fish that needs live food not found in local stores is intimidating), I found a way to get maps to narrow down the places to search for darters in a river system. Sadly this method maybe should not be tried (unless your very very careful) as it risks both careless trampling on endangered species and removing their larval host species.

Many freshwater mussels use darters as hosts, many are threatened or even endangered, and some web sites show maps of their ranges so developers can avoid harming them. Where darter dependant species are their should be darters. I am not sure if their is a safe way to use this info without harming the endangered species though, but i have found maps to things like dwarfwedge mussels (which use tesselated darters) in new england. But i am not sure if this info can be used for darter collecting without harming an endangered species.

Edited by FirstChAoS, 03 May 2009 - 09:50 PM.

New Hampshire is easy for darters. There are two species, the swamp and tessellated darters, found near the coast. Having said that I couldn't tell you exactly where but I'd guess not too far from Portsmouth in ponds or streams. The tessellated is rated by NatureServe as Apparently Secure in NH, and the swamp as Vulnerable (an edge-of-range effect). I don't know that the few local species of Unionid mussels depend on darters as glochidia hosts, that's an interesting question. Northern New England is still recovering from the most recent glaciation.

Presence of a species in a watershed does not mean you have to search the entire watershed. With even basic information about the species ecology you can drastically narrow down the areas to search. I don't think anyone would say, especially for tessellated darter, that they absolutely require live foods. A decent frozen food will suffice. While this will likely work for tessellated darter since they are ubiquitus, the method assumming mussel records dictates host presence will not work in every situation. Fish dispersal, home range, and especially juvenille mussel dispersal must be taken into account. Something else to note is there may be instream restrictions on fish collection or activities in general during the spring because that is the dwarf wedgemussels spawning period. Your worries of collecting a fish that potentially is infested with mussel glochidia could be solved by not collecting fish from January to May. You always have the personal choice of leaving the water if you happen to see mussels and are concerned about trampling or removing too many potential hosts. There will certainly be near by locations where mussels are absent and tessellated darters likely abundant. The maps you probably find depict an up and downstream extent, but the populations of mussels are typically very spotty within that stream segment.

I would love to see a map of darters around where we live. I just got into this and don't know very much. I caught some swamp darters by accident. I didn't even know we had them around here. Now I'm interested in meeting up with some people and doin some collecting.

I would love to see a map of darters around where we live. I just got into this and don't know very much. I caught some swamp darters by accident. I didn't even know we had them around here. Now I'm interested in meeting up with some people and doin some collecting.

This isn't a map to darters directly, it is a set of maps to an endangered mussel that needs the tesselated darter for its larval development. I have no idea how to sample that area without harmibng mussels though. the maops are here. http://www.fws.gov/n...ject_Review.htm

I'd love to get together and sample too, i have no tank yet and am a novice at it, but would love to learn the basics of dip netting.

I'd love to get together and sample too, i have no tank yet and am a novice at it, but would love to learn the basics of dip netting.

FirstChAoS
One of the first things most of us look for when talking fish is where you're from. We don't need an address to your house or anything. Most of us like to post what state we're in and maybe the nearest city or what water basin we're in (looking at my profile on the left, you can see I've got both listed). You can set that from the My Controls link above, and from there you can click on Edit Profile Information.

thanks, I just added the info now. I hope it worked.

thanks, I just added the info now. I hope it worked.

Thanks