The fantail darter (''Etheostoma flabellare'') is a species of freshwater

ray-finned fish Actinopterygii (; ), members of which are known as ray-finned fish or actinopterygians, is a class of bony fish that comprise over 50% of living vertebrate species. They are so called because of their lightly built fins made of webbings of sk ...

, a darter from the

subfamily In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus. Standard nomenclature rules end botanical subfamily names with "-oideae", and zo ...

Etheostomatinae Etheostomatinae is a species-rich subfamily of freshwater ray-finned fish, the members of which are commonly known as the darters. The subfamily is part of the family Percidae which also includes the perches, ruffes and pikeperches. The family ...

, part of the

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Percidae The Percidae are a family of ray-finned fish, part of the order Perciformes, which are found in fresh and brackish waters of the Northern Hemisphere. The majority are Nearctic, but there are also Palearctic species. The family contains nearly 250 ...

, which also contains the

perch Perch is a common name for freshwater fish from the genus ''Perca'', which belongs to the family Percidae of the large order Perciformes. The name comes from , meaning the type species of this genus, the European perch (''P. fluviatilis'') ...

es, ruffes and pikeperches. It is widely distributed across streams in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

Distribution and habitat

The fantail darter is distributed across much of eastern North America, from the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River basins to South Carolina and northern Alabama, in small streams. They can be found as far west as northeastern Oklahoma. These darters, like many others, live in smaller streams. Due to their breeding habits, they are found in areas of the stream with cobbles and flat stones. These fish are especially abundant near large slabs of limestone or shale. Partly because of their wide range of habitats, fantail darters have not been labelled as endangered. It is well-adapted for

stream A stream is a continuous body of water, body of surface water Current (stream), flowing within the stream bed, bed and bank (geography), banks of a channel (geography), channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a strea ...

life, and the

environmental Environment most often refers to: __NOTOC__ * Natural environment, referring respectively to all living and non-living things occurring naturally and the physical and biological factors along with their chemical interactions that affect an organism ...

changes that occur in streams as the

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

s change. Changes can include the loss of

microhabitat In ecology, habitat refers to the array of resources, biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species' habitat can be seen as the physical manifestation of its ...

s, when the fish must drift downstream to find another, and also include changes in oxygen levels due to pollution or weather.

Ecology

Similar to other darters, fantail darters have several predators. They are also well-colored for their habitats, and they blend in easily with the surrounding stream bed and rocks. Depending on the size of the specific darter, they can eat anything from tiny insects to larger insects and larve. Their food sources can include

mayflies Mayflies (also known as shadflies or fishflies in Canada and the upper Midwestern United States, as Canadian soldiers in the American Great Lakes region, and as up-winged flies in the United Kingdom) are aquatic insects belonging to the order ...

caddisflies The caddisflies (order Trichoptera) are a group of insects with aquatic larvae and terrestrial adults. There are approximately 14,500 described species, most of which can be divided into the suborders Integripalpia and Annulipalpia on the basis ...

dipterans Flies are insects of the order Diptera, the name being derived from the Greek δι- ''di-'' "two", and πτερόν ''pteron'' "wing". Insects of this order use only a single pair of wings to fly, the hindwings having evolved into advanced ...

copepods Copepods (; meaning 'oar-feet') are a group of small crustaceans found in nearly every freshwater and saltwater habitat. Some species are planktonic (living in the water column), some are benthic (living on the sediments), several species have ...

cladocerans The Diplostraca or Cladocera, commonly known as water fleas, is a superorder (biology), superorder of small, mostly freshwater crustaceans, most of which feed on microscopic chunks of organic matter, though some forms are predatory. Over 1000 sp ...

amphipods Amphipoda () is an order (biology), order of malacostracan crustaceans with no carapace and generally with laterally compressed bodies. Amphipods () range in size from and are mostly detritivores or scavengers. There are more than 10,700 amphip ...

isopods Isopoda is an Order (biology), order of crustaceans. Members of this group are called isopods and include both Aquatic animal, aquatic species and Terrestrial animal, terrestrial species such as woodlice. All have rigid, segmented exoskeletons ...

, and

gastropods Gastropods (), commonly known as slugs and snails, belong to a large taxonomic class of invertebrates within the phylum Mollusca called Gastropoda (). This class comprises snails and slugs from saltwater, freshwater, and from the land. Ther ...

. Food for the larger fantail darters can include the larger type of insects, including mayfly and midge

larvae A larva (; : larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into their next life stage. Animals with indirect developmental biology, development such as insects, some arachnids, amphibians, or cnidarians typical ...

. Fantail darters are primarily benthic invertivores, so inhabit shallow, high-velocity microhabitats of the streams -

riffle A riffle is a shallow landform in a flowing channel. Colloquially, it is a shallow place in a river where water flows quickly past rocks. However, in geology a riffle has specific characteristics. Topographic, sedimentary and hydraulic indica ...

s. If the

is destroyed or all the resources are used up, the fantail darter will simply move to another, where more food can be found. During the summer months, the water temperatures of streams rise significantly, causing the water to have a lower oxygen level. Fantail darters have a good tolerance for this temperature change and low oxygen levels. With higher temperatures, water in the streams will evaporate quickly. The fantail darter has actually adapted to this, and is sometimes found to evacuate a drying riffle. Though the fantail darter has a fairly good low-oxygen tolerance, there comes a point when too little oxygen is harmful. Without oxygen in the water, the fish will die out eventually. Low oxygen levels can also be caused by pollution of the stream. Pollution can also kill off the small invertebrates the fantail darter consumes.

Life history

The fish spawn in early summer, when water temperatures reach 17–20 °C. Other darters, such as the

logperch Logperches are a group of ray-finned fish in the genus ''Percina'' of the family Percidae. There are 11 species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes ...

and rainbow darters, spawn at least a month before the fantail darter, which apparently needs warmer temperature waters before it can spawn; the eggs also tend to be larger. Fantail darters have an interesting growth period in that they do not really have a larval stage; instead, they start to feed two to three days after hatching. By then, the medial fins are differentiated. They are born large, with well-developed heads, jaws, and teeth. When first hatched, the free embryos are benthic and rarely go into the water column. Fantail darters also have extensive and well-developed vitelline

plexus In anatomy, a plexus (from the Latin term for 'braid') is a branching network of blood vessels, lymphatic vessels, or nerves. The nerves are typically axons outside the central nervous system. The standard plural form in English is plexuses. Al ...

es from the time they are very young, which allows them to feed on bigger prey quickly. This means that they have no need to drift farther down the stream to find small

plankton Plankton are the diverse collection of organisms that drift in Hydrosphere, water (or atmosphere, air) but are unable to actively propel themselves against ocean current, currents (or wind). The individual organisms constituting plankton are ca ...

ic prey as early young. As the darters grow and mature, they take on the characteristics of their sex. They mature and become of breeding age in one to two years, and usually do not live longer than four years. The males of this species have modified first dorsal fins that characteristically look like little bulbs. This is believed to be used for egg mimicry purposes. Females are proven to be more likely to spawn with a male that already has a clutch of

eggs An egg is an organic vessel in which an embryo begins to develop. Egg, EGG or eggs may also refer to: Biology * Egg cell, the female reproductive cell (gamete) in oogamous organisms Food * Eggs as food Places * Egg, Austria * Egg, Switzerland ...

. This may have led to an evolutionary change of the specialized egg-mimicking morphology in males. Since the male already looks like he has eggs, the female will come under the rock where he has cleared a space, and will lay her eggs on the underside of the top rock; usually, several females add to each male's clutch, resulting in more diversity and offspring produced. Throughout the time of egg growth, the male will take care of the eggs, but he may eat some of them to keep up his energy. These nests can be easily disturbed, and the delicate eggs can be destroyed simply by a human walking through the stream, yet another potential risk in their lives. Though the males guard the eggs, studies have shown they exhibit filial

cannibalism Cannibalism is the act of consuming another individual of the same species as food. Cannibalism is a common ecological interaction in the animal kingdom and has been recorded in more than 1,500 species. Human cannibalism is also well document ...

, meaning they eat some of the eggs in their nest. A research study collecting data on the fantail darter found all the males are, in fact, cannibals. Some males will eat the entire nest of eggs, while others will eat only part of it.

Systematics

The fantail darter was first formally described in 1819 by the

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polymath A polymath or polyhistor is an individual whose knowledge spans many different subjects, known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific problems. Polymaths often prefer a specific context in which to explain their knowledge, ...

Constantine Samuel Rafinesque (1783–1840). There are two recognised subspecies: *''Etheostoma flabellare flabellare'' Rafinesque, 1819 (Fantail darter) - the eastern part of the range as far west as lower

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

and

Indiana Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...

. *''Etheostome flabellare lineolatum'' (Agassiz, 1854) (Striped darter) -

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

and upper Michigan.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fantail Darter Freshwater fish of North America Etheostoma Fish described in 1819 Taxa named by Constantine Samuel Rafinesque