I've noticed darters that curl up and display their dorsals and tail. Is that a male display or just territorial declarations? These are small, certainly not mature. Most around 1".

What species?  Is this in a tank, or wild (not that it matters for the sake of what/why they are doing it.  Just curious).  I agree that for most, 1" is a bit small to be courtship.  So yes, likely them starting to establish a pecking order.

Banded darters. Curling up, like pointing their tails up and nose up while sitting on flat soap stones and leaves on the bottom of the creek. Both in the creek and an an individual in my tank. There were plenty of johnny darters but didn't seem to be doing the same. They all seemed pretty relaxed.

Edited by rcb, 10 October 2018 - 12:59 PM.

Sounds territorial. Can you catch it on video?

Did you notice other Bandeds close by when you saw the behavior? Any chasing?

I'll go again this weekend. There were some other banded darters, johnny darters and shiners nearby. These little ones were definitely what I would call feisty.  I can probably catch the one in my tank doing it. He has been hiding out a lot except for feeding and after lights are out but I've been working a lot so I've not seen him much during the day. I'll try my good camera down at the creek. Last time between the glare and the texture of the fast water I couldn't hardly see into it. let alone get a picture. but it's supposed to be overcast the next few days. Hopefully the cold won't send them all away.

Edited by rcb, 11 October 2018 - 08:45 AM.

This is an old video I shared 4 years ago of male rainbow darters displayong similar behavior in my tank:

https://youtu.be/qLY8pkvN2Nw

Yes, a lot like what they are doing near the end of that video, with nose and tail pointed up but still, well for a moment or two. They definitely liked to do it on top of larger flat stones on the creek bed. They didn't seem to be attacking each other but it did seem to be a display of some fashion. So perhaps some early male posturing?

Edited by rcb, 11 October 2018 - 11:59 AM.

You see?  This is part of the reason why darters are the best group of native fish....despite all of Matt K.'s wise-cracks.

 

They are definitely my favorites! I always remembered them from when I had found the brightly colored ones when I was a kid and it stuck with me. Of course we thought we had discovered a new species lol. We had never seen anything like them before and I hadn't seen them since mainly for lack of trying.

They have so much character! I am also amazed at how much and quickly they change color.

This is not the best picture, but until I get the new tank up and going this is what I've got. It was fairly dark. I need to break out better lights. Haven't make it down to creek to see what they are doing down there.

That's just one of the reasons why I like the darters. They have a lot of character, color and personality. I feed mine frozen blood worms and I use a bamboo kabob skewer to put them into the tank. The fish swim up to the skewer and take it off of the tip. The darters also swim to the front of my tank when they see me standing there. They know it's feeding time.

The only darters that are shy and reclusive from the camera happens to be my fantail darter and adult male rainbow. I get a camera around and they disappear. Once in awhile I get a photo, but not of the male rainbow. Here's one of my juveniles with a feeder fry minnow.

It is interesting. They've definitely become more familiar with us.

Those are great photos! I'm going to try and get our permanant tank going. We were interrupted mid setup. Hopefully we can get it finished shortly.

Do you raise your own fry?

Sorry for the late reply. I get sidetracked a lot.... Anyhow, no, I do not. The local river here is shallow and it's very easy for me to net out these tiny fry with a large aquarium net. Within about 10 minutes I have about 30 fry in the bucket. I then take them home and keep them in a small tank and dip out what the fish want.