darter questions

When i finally get my tank running *grumble* I plan on getting a few more tesselates. However I have a few questions on darters.

1. How terretorial are darters? do they extend their terretoriality to other species of darters? to non darters?

2. My old tesselate acted like a puppydog, whenever i entered the room it excitedly swam up to greet me and when I moved to another side of the tank it followed me. Is this a common behavior in darters? I hope my next darter acts this way too.

3. What are good tankmates for darters found in my area (new hampshire). I am particularly considering fish which serve certain roles such as cleaning the top of scenary (my old darter never went on top of logs and rocks), fedding on the mid to upper water levels, etc.

4. are darters compatible with other bottom dwellers?

When i finally get my tank running *grumble* I plan on getting a few more tesselates. However I have a few questions on darters.

1. How terretorial are darters? do they extend their terretoriality to other species of darters? to non darters?

2. My old tesselate acted like a puppydog, whenever i entered the room it excitedly swam up to greet me and when I moved to another side of the tank it followed me. Is this a common behavior in darters? I hope my next darter acts this way too.

3. What are good tankmates for darters found in my area (new hampshire). I am particularly considering fish which serve certain roles such as cleaning the top of scenary (my old darter never went on top of logs and rocks), fedding on the mid to upper water levels, etc.

4. are darters compatible with other bottom dwellers?

I can't answer all your questions, and I'm not as seasoned as some of the others on the board, but I do have a lot of darters so I'll share some thoughts.

1. I've found that each individual darter is different. Some may be territorial, some not. I had a Redline that was very territorial, and then another that wasn't. However, I have found that Bluebreast and Striped Darters are consistantly kinda-territorial in my tank. They don't guard their area or chase others away, but I do find them in the same places often.

2. This 'puppydog' feature is pretty common among most darters. Nearly all of mine get this way after about 3-5 weeks in the tank. They will usually follow me as I walk past the tank.

3. I'm know nothing about NH, but look for Minnow/Shiners/Dace for the mid section of the tank, and possibly Top Minnows/Studfish for the upper section. Again, I don't know if these are in your areas but Shiners are awesome in their own way.

4. IDK about this one...but the rule most here go by is 'if the fish is small enough to fit into another fish's mouth, it will probably end up there". I know that sculpin are a no-no for Darters, and probably Crawfish too.


Hope this helps.

I have to say that my experiences have been pretty-much the same as Josh's. I also cannot speak to NH fish as I'm located in Wisconsin. I have to say, I think you're going to love darters, though!

Brian

That pretty much mirrors my experience. A few darters have a bit of a gruff personality, most do not. The grumpiest I've had are the bluebreast. Redline can be a bit blustery at times, too. Usually, aggression is directed at members of their own species if they are aggressive at all, though the bluebreast and redline have engaged in a 'hairy eyeball' contest a few times, over a favorite rock. Two that were slightly aggressive towards other darters were a large dusky and a logperch.

As soon as they associate your appearance with food, they'll come running when they see you. Mine know that when they hear a click on the glass, it means I've set the cup with bloodworms down on top of the tank.

Good tankmates are shiners, dace, other small pretty minnows. They add motion to the center and top of the tank. No crawfish. They grow fast, get big and get aggressive. Same for sculpin, they have an unusually large mouth and love to eat other fish. Not much of a personality, either, rather dour.

If you can get it, slabs of flat creek rock work well for hiding places. Even if they don't hide, they like to have that place, just in case. Fantails like to hide even after being in the tank for a while. I stack the flat creek rocks with pebbles inbetween to create spaces, sort of a darter apartment complex.

Overall, darters are a delight to keep. They have animated and distinct personalities, you can sort of see them thinking. The very gentle and shy (speckled, emerald), the gregarious (rainbow, banded, orangethroat variants), the somewhat aloof (striped, variegate, bluebreast), and the just plain strange (frecklebelly, doesn't stay on the bottom).

The grumpiest I've had are the bluebreast. Redline can be a bit blustery at times, too. Usually, aggression is directed at members of their own species if they are aggressive at all,

I totally agree. My two male Bluebreast chase each other a lot, but don't bother any other species.

3. I'm know nothing about NH, but look for Minnow/Shiners/Dace for the mid section of the tank, and possibly Top Minnows/Studfish for the upper section. Again, I don't know if these are in your areas but Shiners are awesome in their own way.

Hope this helps.

My area has a variety of interesting shiners and dace i am considering as tankmates. my top choices are common shiner, longnose dace, creek chub, and fallfish. Have my doubts on how compatible a fallfish would be though as they can grow large and will eat smaller fish (i have caught fallfish using other dace for bait before).

My area has a variety of interesting shiners and dace i am considering as tankmates. my top choices are common shiner, longnose dace, creek chub, and fallfish. Have my doubts on how compatible a fallfish would be though as they can grow large and will eat smaller fish (i have caught fallfish using other dace for bait before).

If you have caught Fallfish with dace before, you can bet your shiners and darters will be dinner for these fish once they are big enough to do so.

Tessellated darters will scrap among themselves but only to claim good spots to feed. Not too belligerent. They will be bullied and beaten to the food by more aggressive darters.

Blacknose, longnose and common shiners are good tank mates and easy captives. The fallfish are actually cool and pretty in a shiny sort of way. They would love to eat a darter but tessellated get big for darters. A school of very small fallfish would be safe for awhile with bigger darters.

One thing to consider is the difficulty of getting sufficient food down to the darters in a tank full of the species mentioned, all aggressive feeders.
Either keep the minnows to a minimum or plan to use tons of food and get it to the bottom somehow.

Edited by mikez, 21 June 2009 - 01:02 PM.

I don't recommend creek chub. They're not very pretty, grow fast, get fairly large and turn into bullies. Right now, I have southern redbelly dace, and a couple of interesting shiners.

To keep my darters fed, I have angled the output from my reef filter downward. I pour the thawed bloodworms into that stream, and it takes them right to the bottom. Works pretty well. In fact when I walk by the tank, the darters all go running to the end of the tank that has the filter tube.

One thing to consider is the difficulty of getting sufficient food down to the darters in a tank full of the species mentioned, all aggressive feeders.
Either keep the minnows to a minimum or plan to use tons of food and get it to the bottom somehow.

I use a long turkey baister and a will squirt some food to one side for the shiners, then squirt a bunch down to the bottom.

I have a few more darter questions. (someone needs to make a book called "darters for starters").

1. How can you tell male from female in tesselated darters? unlike rainbow darters they do not have a color difference that i can see>

2. what do the different colors and patterns in tesselated mean? Here are the colors I have observed so far. Is it a mere chameleon reaction or does it reflect the fishes moods or health?

TRANSPARENT: The one time i seen a darter take this color was when it was new to the tank and landed on a white rock. I assume it means "terrified and on a white surface"

DARK SPECKLED BROWN: the default color for both of my current darters until after one of them died.

SANDY TAN: An occasional color for my first darter and the color of my second darter since its tankmate died.

SANDY TAN WITH FAINT VERTICLE BANDS: This became my first darters default color.

I have a few more darter questions. (someone needs to make a book called "darters for starters").

1. How can you tell male from female in tesselated darters? unlike rainbow darters they do not have a color difference that i can see>

2. what do the different colors and patterns in tesselated mean? Here are the colors I have observed so far. Is it a mere chameleon reaction or does it reflect the fishes moods or health?

TRANSPARENT: The one time i seen a darter take this color was when it was new to the tank and landed on a white rock. I assume it means "terrified and on a white surface"

DARK SPECKLED BROWN: the default color for both of my current darters until after one of them died.

SANDY TAN: An occasional color for my first darter and the color of my second darter since its tankmate died. All my sandy colored darters (banded or not) were also used to people when they had this color.

SANDY TAN WITH FAINT VERTICLE BANDS: This became my first darters default color.