Swamp darter

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Swamp darter
Conservation status
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Perciformes
Family: Percidae
Genus: Etheostoma
Species: E. fusiforme
Binomial name
Etheostoma fusiforme
(Girard, 1854)

The swamp darter (Etheostoma fusiforme) is perch-like (Percidae family) fish, one of the 324 species of fish found in Tennessee. The specific name fusiforme means long and cylindrical. It is a rather large member of its subgenus, reaching 50 mm in standard length. It is typical of the subgenus Hololepis in having a small head and mouth and a highly arched, incomplete lateral line. Neither breeding males nor females develop bright colors. The upper body is typically light green, yellow, or tan, while the venter is white or yellow and many have a few scattered melanophores or may have large black spots. The midside has a band of 10-12 dark brown rectangles. Some individuals have small dark dorsal saddles. Their fins are lightly banded or have scattered melanophores. Orbital bars are present and usually prominent. Their current population trend is unknown, but as with many fish species, their habitats are probably being influenced negatively by poor human practices. It is a small, hardy, freshwater fish, which enables it to tolerate a variety of water conditions. E. fusiforme occurs throughout the Eastern and Southeastern United States in small streams, ponds, and swamps, as the common name implies. They feed on small invertebrates, which they usually capture on or among aquatic plants.[2] Breeding tends to occur in early to mid-spring. Individuals typically only live for one year, and rarely two .[3] Their eggs are laid on aquatic vegetation and other debris in the water and hatch within the first two weeks after being fertilized.[4] No management plan is currently in place in Tennessee, although several management recommendations are universal in preserving freshwater habitats. Before a specific plan of management recommendations can be made, the population needs to be monitored to gain an estimate of the abundance of the species.

Distribution

E. fusiforme ranges from southern Maine along the Atlantic Coast and Gulf Coast to about the Texas-Louisiana border and north in the former Mississippi Embayment to Kentucky. Records exist for Long Island. Almost all localities are below the Fall Line or, in the northeast, along the Seaboard Lowlands. The species is generally common along the Atlantic Coast, and sporadic along the Gulf Coast and in the Mississippi River tributaries. An introduced population exists in the French Broad system in North Carolina. Only two subspecies are found:[5] E. f. fusiforme on the Atlantic Coast from the Waccamaw River, North Carolina[6] north to Maine, and E. f. barratti from the Pee Dee River, South Carolina, south and west throughout the rest of the species' range. It also extends up the Red River drainage as far as northeastern Texas and southeastern Oklahoma, where it is rare.[7] No other darter is found as far south as E. fusiforme.[8]

Ecology

The swamp darter is found in stagnant swamps, bogs, and man-made ponds or slow-flowing, sluggish streams, especially where detritus or aquatic vegetation occurs over mud. Fish color is related to water color; the darkest individuals are in dark-water coastal streams and ponds.[9] It lives in water in which the lower pH values are not typically tolerated by all but a few freshwater species of fish. It also tends to thrive in alkaline waters of northern Florida. The range of water temperature tolerated between Maine and Florida is also impressive. Swamp darters feed on fly larvae, amphipods, and other small crustaceans and insects.[10][11][12] Swamp darters tend to be an important element in the diets of young chain pickerel and young largemouth bass, where the species coexist.[13] Human-induced problems for this hardy, widespread, and locally abundant darter do not seem to exist. It thrives under a variety of conditions, including warm water, extreme murkiness or brown coloration, low or high pH, and low oxygen content.

Lifecycle

Spawning is thought to occur in May in New Jersey; elsewhere, breeding individuals have been collected in the months of March, April, and May.[14] Swamp darters are not bashful about spawning.[15] They typically spawn in the same habitats where they are found. The male approaches a female from the rear, mounts her, and beats her with his pelvic fins. The female then leads the male into aquatic plants, where the eggs are deposited singly on leaves. No parental care of the eggs has been observed, and no information regarding the number of males with which females spawn and vice versa. No fighting or display of territoriality is typically observed.[16][17] For many populations of the swamp darter, maximum longevity is only one year, with very few individuals surviving two years.

Management

Boschung and Mayden[18] (2004) recommended special concern status for Etheostoma fusiforme in Alabama. In Oklahoma, E. fusiforme is apparently one of the rarest fishes.[19] Populations are currently stable in the southern United States.[20] Currently, no management plans for E. fusiforme are recorded, probably because it is not federal- or state-listed as endangered or threatened. Currently, no agencies or nongovernmental groups are actively protecting this species because of its abundance and hardiness, and no current conservation easements are providing effective areas for the conservation of the fish.

Recommendations

To monitor and potentially manage the species, good estimates of the abundance of the speciesacross their native range are needed. Sampling methods, such as electrofishing, gill netting, and trap netting, water quality, and age and growth sampling could be used to monitor the species' populations. Some watersheds and land should be set aside for future protection of the species and other species that coexist with it. If invasive species are to pose a threat to E. fusiforme in the future, they should be removed in a swift and orderly fashion to reduce the impact of their presence.

References

  1. ↑ NatureServe (2013). "Etheostoma fusiforme". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 3.1. International Union for Conservation of Nature. Retrieved November 22, 2013. 
  2. ↑ Schmidt, R.E., and W.R. Whitworth. 1979. Distribution and habitat of the swamp darter (Etheostoma fusiforme) in southern New England. American Midland Naturalist 102(2):408-413.
  3. ↑ Collette, B.B. 1962. The swamp darters of the subgenus Hololepis (Pisces, Percidae). Tulane Stud. Zool. 9(4):115-211.
  4. ↑ Fletcher, A.M. 1976. A rare darter-spawning. American Currents 4(1):20-22.
  5. ↑ Collette, B.B. 1962. The swamp darters of the subgenus Hololepis (Pisces, Percidae). Tulane Stud. Zool. 9(4):115-211.
  6. ↑ (Shute, et al., 1982) Complete ref needed
  7. ↑ Robinson, H. W., G.A. Moore, and R.J Miller. 1974. Threatened fishes of Oklahoma. Proceedings of the Oklahoma Acad. of Sciences 54:139-146.
  8. ↑ Briggs, J.C. 1958. A list of Florida fishes and their distribution, Bulletin of the Florida State Museum 2(8):223-318.
  9. ↑ Collette, B.B. 1962. The swamp darters of the subgenus Hololepis (Pisces, Percidae). Tulane Stud. Zool. 9(4):115-211.
  10. ↑ McLane, W. M. 1950. "Notes on the food of the largemouth black bass, Micropterus salmoides floridanus (Le Sueur), in a Florida lake," Q. J. Fla. Acad. Sci., 12(1949):195-201.
  11. ↑ Flemer, D. A. and W. S. Woolcott. 1966. "Food habits and distribution of the fishes of Tuckahoe Creek, Virginia, with special emphasis on the blugill, Lepomis m. macrochirus Rafinesque," Chesapeake Sci.,7:75-89.
  12. ↑ Schmidt, R.E., and W.R. Whitworth. 1979. Distribution and habitat of the swamp darter (Etheostoma fusiforme) in southern New England. American Midland Naturalist 102(2):408-413.
  13. ↑ Smith, H. M. 1907. "The fishes of North Carolina," N. C. Geological and Economic Survey, Vol. 2. Uzzell & Co., Raleigh, 453 p.
  14. ↑ Collette, B.B. 1962. The swamp darters of the subgenus Hololepis (Pisces, Percidae). Tulane Stud. Zool. 9(4):115-211.
  15. ↑ Fletcher, A.M. 1976. A rare darter-spawning. American Currents 4(1):20-22.
  16. ↑ Fletcher, A.M. 1976. A rare darter-spawning. American Currents 4(1):20-22.
  17. ↑ Collette, B.B. 1962. The swamp darters of the subgenus Hololepis (Pisces, Percidae). Tulane Stud. Zool. 9(4):115-211.
  18. ↑ Boschung, H.T., Jr., and R.L. Mayden. 2004. Fishes of Alabama. Smithsonian Books, Washington. 736 pp.
  19. ↑ Miller, R.J., and H.W. Robison. 2004. Fishes of Oklahoma. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman. 450 pp.
  20. ↑ Warren, M.L., Jr., B.M. Burr, S.J. Walsh, H.L. Bart, Jr., R.C. Cashner, D.A. Etnier, B.J. Freeman, B.R. Kuhajda, R.L. Mayden, H.W. Robison, S.T. Ross, and W.C. Starnes. 2000. Diversity, Distribution, and Conservation status of the native freshwater fishes of the southern United States. Fisheries 25(10):7-29.
  • Girard, C.F. 1854. Description of some new species of fish from the State of Massachusetts. Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist. 5:40- 43
  • Goin, C.J. 1943. The lower vertebrate fauna of the water hyacinth community in northern Florida. Proc. Florida Acad. Sci. 6(3- 4):143-153.
  • McLane, W. M. 1950. "Notes on the food of the largemouth black bass, Micropterus salmoides floridanus (Le Sueur), in a Florida lake," Q. J. Fla. Acad. Sci., 12(1949):195-201.
  • Miller, R.J., and H.W. Robison. 2004. Fishes of Oklahoma. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman. 450 pp.
  • Page, L. 1983 Handbook of darters. T.F.H. Publications, Inc. USA. 155-156 p.
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