Is this a Darter??

[Pyramid_Party]

Hello,


I am a complete noob when it comes to natives. But I think I got myself a Darter. Story goes like this: I walk into my LFS today and I look into the Ghost shrimp feeder tank and I notice a fish. I asked the guy, "What kind of fish is this?" He said he didn't know, that it might be a goby. I had a hunch it was a native fish. I hear guys sometimes on here talking about finding sunfish and other unique fish in a batch of feeders.

I ask the guy if I can buy it, he said I can have it and gave it to me free. Here is some pics, what do you think is it a Darter?? If so, what species of Darter? Thanks!!!

 

[Noto]

Congratulations, you now own a swamp darter (Etheostoma fusiforme)! I have several, acquired the same way. They are pretty hardy and inoffensive. They will do fine at any temp up to 80 F as long as you have good aeration. They have a very small mouth and prefer live foods, but often adapt to flake. They will also eat f/t bloodworms. They do fine in a gentle community tank with shrimp, livebearers, cories, etc.

 

[muffywrx]

lol, cute!

 

[Pyramid_Party]

Right now I have it in a 10 gallon with 3 Dwarf Crayfish (CPOs), 2 ottos, and 5 ghost shrimp. I was planning on setting up a 20 gallon for some Blue Spotted Sunfish (Enneacanthus gloriosus). I was gonna go with a trio, 1 male 2 females. Think the Darter would be ok in this set up?

 

[Noto]

Yeah, I think they'll get along fine with blue-spots. They come from the same region and habitat too, so you've already got a theme. Are you going to make it a biotope?

 

[Pyramid_Party]

Not sure how to do that. I am gonna make it a native tank and hope to breed the Sunfish. That is all I am gonna keep in there. I am not going to use a heater, I got some sand and rocks and some plants. All the plants are tropical though. But I think they can handle cooler water like in the low-mid 70s.

 

[Noto]

Biotope just means that all the living things in the tank are native to the same area (you can interpret "same area" as strictly or loosely as you want). I bet a lot of your "tropical" plants are native to the southeastern seaboard; a surprisingly high percentage of aquarium trade plants are native to the US, especially the south.

 

[Pyramid_Party]

I got java moss, wisteria, a few cryptocryne wendtii plants, dwarf lily, and rotala indica in the tank. You have any experience with blue spotted sunfish? Do they breed well? How about Swamp Darters? What kind of fish would you keep in this tank? You think 3 sunfish and the darter is fine or could I add another fish or 2?

 

[Noto]

Ha, you did manage to pick all exotic plants! I have not kept bluespots, but several folks on the NANFA forum keep and breed them. My swamp darters are in a large community tank; if they have bred, no young have survived (which I expect would also be the case in your sunfish tank). If they are like other darters, they are seasonal breeders and respond to changes in water level, temperature, day-length, or something along those lines.

I personally would stop at the bluespot trio and a few swamp darters, but I like sparsely-stocked tanks. You could probably put a few more small fish in there. I would suggest some of the smaller Fundulus species, such as F. chrysotus or F. notatus, or Florida flagfish. These guys could potentially eat sunfish fry though.

 

[Pyramid_Party]

Thanks for all the help. Gonna start the tank some time later this month. Checked on the Darter this morning, seems to be adapting well to it's temporary home. I fed some live blackworm and it went crazy and ate a whole bunch.