Darters Of The Paint Rock River, Alabama

I went out on a trip to the upper Paint Rock River in NE Alabama yesterday with some out of state NANFA people and friends (but we missed Casper! or did he miss us?). As many times as I've been to these sites, yesterday was the first time we caught a Banded Darter which is at its extreme southern distribution limit in the northern tier of Alabama. This got me to thinking, how many darter species are in the Paint Rock, an interesting river for a variety of reasons? I came up with eleven species, of which I've seen ten; the Snail Darter can be found in the lower Paint Rock but I've never seen it. This is a pretty impressive number for what's a fairly small river system running south off the Cumberland plateau of southern middle Tennessee into the Tennessee River. Here's the list:

Logperch, Percina caprodes
Blotchside Logperch, P. burtoni
Snail Darter, P. tanasi
Black Snubnose Darter, Etheostoma duryi
Tennessee Snubnose Darter, E. simoterum
Banded Darter, E. zonale
Greenside Darter, E. blenniodes
Blueside Darter, E. jessiae
Johnny Darter, E. nigrum
Fantail Darter, E. flabellare
Stripetail Darter, E. kennicotti

It does have a somewhat out of place darter fauna, aka Shoal Creek. The mussel fauna is on par with being odd. It is about the southern extent of many of the Cumberlandian species and probably was really awesome at one time (pers. obs. from a midden). I can check my notes at some point, but I'm also fairly certain I collected dusky darter on a few occassions in the lower reaches.

You're right, Matt, the dusky is also present in the Paint Rock but as you say in the lower reaches where I rarely go. So that brings the darter species total to twelve in the system.

The RM 15-25 area is pretty interesting. Some not nice sections, that you can tell were, and some nice sections. I was surprised at how small it was to tell you the truth. I expected at least 20-25 m wide.

Are there records for river darter there as well? I don't have my books here.

Todd

Yes there are river darter records as well. Saddleback ALMOST make it that far upstream too. Like I said, just bizzare. You have the extreme upstream and downstream extents occuring for several species of darters and even cyprinids (e.g. sawfin shiner). Same with some Cumberlandian mussels. I also don't think Bruce mentioned rainbow or redline darter either.

Yes there are river darter records as well. Saddleback ALMOST make it that far upstream too. Like I said, just bizzare. You have the extreme upstream and downstream extents occuring for several species of darters and even cyprinids (e.g. sawfin shiner). Same with some Cumberlandian mussels. I also don't think Bruce mentioned rainbow or redline darter either.

That's embarassing, I started my list with redlines and rainbows literally in front of me and started writing others so I wouldn't forget the more obscure ones like johnnies. So with those two very common species (!) the list is up to fourteen species even without river darters. This is why you need editors and reviewers....

And everyone's right about various mussels and cyprinids being at edge of range as well. The (southern edge of range) tennessee shiners were just beginning to color up on Saturday when I was there, with males a deep red-orange over most of their body.

OK, here's the new improved list of darters of the Paint Rock River system from top to bottom. There are 15 species on the list, with very different habitat preferences. By North American standards this is amazing diversity, I hope you're impressed too.
Logperch, Percina caprodes
Blotchside Logperch, P. burtoni
Snail Darter, P. tanasi
Dusky Darter, P. sciera
River Darter, P. shumardi
Black Snubnose Darter, Etheostoma duryi
Tennessee Snubnose Darter, E. simoterum
Banded Darter, E. zonale
Rainbow Darter, E. caeruleum
Redline Darter, E. rufilineatus
Greenside Darter, E. blenniodes
Blueside Darter, E. jessiae
Johnny Darter, E. nigrum
Fantail Darter, E. flabellare
Stripetail Darter, E. kennicotti

I'm impressed! It's a beautiful area too, if you ignore the cotton fields. Then again, I'm wearing a shirt right now.