Collecting Darters?

[kahjtheundedicated]

Does anybody have any experience with collecting darters?

I recently learned that there are some beautiful native fish in my area, and am planning on putting together a darter and shiner tank, but have never gone collecting before. The streams in question are rocky with sand and gravel bottoms with moderately fast moving water with only occasional clumps of vegetation or algae in slower sections of bends.

From my research, the fish I'm interested in have stable populations, aren't protected, and can be legally collected with a standard fishing license. I plan on collecting from a creek that runs through a friends property where we have seen beautiful shiners in mind boggling numbers. So I think I'm in the clear as far as legality is concerned.

I would also appreciate any tips for keeping darters and shiners in general!

[Zzsharks]

I think a 55 gallon would be OK i have kept them in the past I recomed that you test the waters ph and temp and try to match it I did that and I had a good time with the fish.

[kahjtheundedicated]

Hmm I have a 40 breeder I was planning on using. Is that too small?

And good call, I was planning on testing the water with the ACO test strips. I doubt temps will be a problem, because outdoor temps go from regularly over 100F in the summer to winter temps below 20F. I know water temps are different, but still.

[Zzsharks]

40 will be fine.

[Fish Folk]

On 10/12/2022 at 6:09 PM, kahjtheundedicated said:

Does anybody have any experience with collecting darters?

I recently learned that there are some beautiful native fish in my area, and am planning on putting together a darter and shiner tank, but have never gone collecting before. The streams in question are rocky with sand and gravel bottoms with moderately fast moving water with only occasional clumps of vegetation or algae in slower sections of bends.

From my research, the fish I'm interested in have stable populations, aren't protected, and can be legally collected with a standard fishing license. I plan on collecting from a creek that runs through a friends property where we have seen beautiful shiners in mind boggling numbers. So I think I'm in the clear as far as legality is concerned.

I would also appreciate any tips for keeping darters and shiners in general!

Awesome! Totally doable. They'll be tuned into live foods, but can be transitioned over to eat Frozen Blood Worms. I keep Etheostoma caeruleum, and Etheostoma zonale. All of mine were wild-caught. I also catch and release Etheostoma flabellare.

I keep mine in 29 gal tanks, 20 gal tanks, but nothing smaller.

What species are you looking into?

They like it cold. You'll want to set up a spraybar. Have you ever done that?

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

40 breeder- the Swiss Army tank of the aquarist! Enjoy this will be fun. Keep updating this and journal it so we can learn from your experience. 

[kahjtheundedicated]

I believe it is the Turquoise Darter Etheostoma inscriptum, and am unsure on the specific species of shiner. Yellowfin and Saffron shiners should be native to the area, but the ones we have seen don't look exactly like either when colored up, but could be a regional color morph of either?

I have not set up a spray bar before, but was planning on using an internal filter with a spray bar, with a sponge filter for additional filtering/aeration/backup.

Terrible photo, but these are the shiners we saw last summer. There was a cluster like this every 50ft as far as we could walk.

Shame I wasn't into fish at the time. We assumed they were trout fry or something lol

Looks like there is a color morph of the yellowfin shiner that, ironically, has white fins and head when colored up. So probably those.

And this is the turquoise darter, for those interested

Edited October 13, 2022 by kahjtheundedicated