Arkansas Darter
The Arkansas darter is a three-inch cousin of the walleye and yellow perch. Its back has many fine, black specks and a dark, vertical wedge-shaped spot beneath its eye. Its body has 12 to 14 dusky stripes along the sides. In April and May, breeding males are bright orange underneath.
About This Species
Arkansas darters appear on several lists of concern: Federal candidate species (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service), sensitive (Bureau of Land Management), threatened and Tier 1 Species of Greatest Conservation Need (CPW 2015), and near threatened (International Union for Conservation of Nature). Flows on a landscape or segment scale are needed for the fish to move between or among pools and to disperse. Large-scale withdrawals of ground water and dewatering streams are thought to have caused extirpations.
Saving the Arkansas Darter
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Physical Characteristics
Arkansas darters are 2½- to 3-inch fish belonging to the perch family. During April and May, the belly of breeding males changes from white to bright orange.
Range
Arkansas darters occur only in parts of Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma. In Colorado, they are known from eight drainages within the Arkansas River Basin: Upper Arkansas, Fountain, Chico, Upper Arkansas-Lake Meredith, Horse, Upper Arkansas-John Martin, Big Sandy, and Rush.
Habitat
Arkansas darters inhabit spring-fed streams, stream channels, and pools near shorelines, often with undercut banks.
Diet
A large portion of the Arkansas darter’s diet consists of snails, but they consume many other aquatic animals, including insects, crustaceans, other invertebrates, and fish eggs.
Reproduction
Arkansas darters may spawn throughout spring and summer. Spawning takes place in shallow water over a bottom of coarse gravel. Darters are sexually mature in one year or less. Eggs are usually deposited in open areas, on organic material that covers a sandy streambed.