The orangethroat darter (Etheostoma spectabile) is a species of freshwater ray-finned fish, a darter from the subfamily Etheostomatinae, part of the family Percidae, which also contains the perches, ruffes and pikeperches. It is endemic to the central and eastern United States where it is native to parts of the Mississippi River Basin and Lake Erie Basin. Its typical habitat includes shallow gravel riffles in cooler streams and rocky runs and pools in headwaters, creeks, and small rivers, with sand, gravel, rubble, or rock substrates. It forages on the bottom for the aquatic larvae of midges, blackfly, mayfly and caddisfly, as well as isopods and amphipods. Spawning takes place in spring, the selected sites often being the upper stretches of riffles with sandy and gravelly bottoms interspersed with larger cobble. Reproductive success is high in this species. No particular threats have been identified, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature has assessed its conservation status as being of "least concern".
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OviparousOviparous animals are female animals that lay their eggs, with little or no other embryonic development within the mother. This is the reproductive...
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Not a migrantAnimals that do not make seasonal movements and stay in their native home ranges all year round are called not migrants or residents.
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starts withThe orangethroat darter is found in portions of the Mississippi River Basin and Lake Erie Basin of North America. It is found in the eastern and western tributaries of the Mississippi River Basin from southeastern Michigan and Ohio to eastern Wyoming. Its range extends south to Tennessee and west to the northern section of Texas; Gulf drainages (Trinity River to San Antonio River) of Texas, mostly on Edwards Plateau. Locally, the orangethroat darter is found regularly throughout middle Tennessee in appropriate, high quality habitats. This species is found locally in the Cumberland drainage below Cumberland Falls, and in the lower Tennessee drainage upstream to the Pickwick Reservoir area. It is most abundant in streams of the northern and western Highland Rim, isolated populations occur in the Reelfoot Lake vicinity with stream draining bluffs.
No quantitative diet analysis has been conducted on the orangethroat darter in Tennessee. However, in other populations tested, the diet was found to mainly include midge and blackfly larvae, mayfly nymphs, isopods, amphipods, and caddisfly larvae. but the composition varied seasonally and with age. This species' habitat often includes slow to swift, shallow gravel riffles in cooler streams. Sometimes the orangethroat darter will inhabit rocky runs and pools, of headwaters, creeks, and small rivers, with sand, gravel, rubble, or bedrock substrates; spring runs or quiet backwaters in some areas. This species is most abundant in waters with a high alkalinity; it seems to avoid rivers with strong current. Eggs are laid in gravel in riffles. Young drift downstream into pools, sometimes move into smallmouth bass nests where they feed. This fish mostly competes with other darters or minnows due to its size restriction and predators may consist of larger species in the particular stream like trout or smallmouth bass. Edie Marsh mentioned in her study in Texas of the orange throat darter that offspring from larger eggs tended to be larger at hatching than those from smaller eggs although there was no effect of egg size on time to hatching. Marsh then continued to test these specimens under a starvation condition where she found offspring from larger eggs were larger at starvation and took longer to starve than those from smaller eggs.
