Rainbow Darters and Hillies.

tglassburner · Post by **tglassburner** » Sun May 13, 2007 9:12 pm

On a rock hunting expedition with my cousin, something green and orange caught our eyes, went to my truck grabbed a net and a styro cooler, 1 hour later we had 6 pairs of Orangethroat darters next stop my rivertank, we split our fresh caught jewels and i cannot be happier, the darters are well settled into my RT and eating BS, Bloodworms, and tasting flake. On top of their beauty, they are the best hillstream dithers. ALL 8 of my hillies are out and about since adding the darters, there has been 0 aggression except for the rosy reds welcoming the darters.

I am now a loachaholic, darterholic.

Photos Below:

Martin Thoene · Post by **Martin Thoene** » Sun May 13, 2007 9:36 pm

Wow! Fantastic catch.

Martin.

Jim Powers · Post by **Jim Powers** » Sun May 13, 2007 9:40 pm

Very cool!!
I love those guys!
I need to go check out a local stream to see if I can watch some of these guys spawning. Its that time.
Keep us posted on their progress.

MTS · Post by **MTS** » Sun May 13, 2007 10:11 pm

Just want an update on how your new darters are doing. Thanks for sharing the pics, they are really cool fish.

tglassburner · Post by **tglassburner** » Sun May 13, 2007 10:20 pm

The males are slowly establishing territories, the females move around a lot.

worldrallynut · Post by **worldrallynut** » Sun May 13, 2007 11:07 pm

I love the darters! What kind of environment should i look for to go hunting for em? Also, are there any good sites or guides for darters?

Morbid · Post by **Morbid** » Sun May 13, 2007 11:33 pm

Beauties!
Some people have no idea what fantastic creatures lie in their own backyards. I wish i could go out and catch darters. I keep some swamp darters and that's only cause they're common stow-aways in ghost shrimp shipments.
I bet they'll spawn for you! And if they do, I've got dibs on fry

tglassburner · Post by **tglassburner** » Mon May 14, 2007 7:16 am

My cousin wants to get more QT them and sell them, BTDarters.com has them and jonahs aquarium has them. I guess there is come market for them.

Jim Powers · Post by **Jim Powers** » Mon May 14, 2007 9:38 am

tglassburner wrote:

My cousin wants to get more QT them and sell them, BTDarters.com has them and jonahs aquarium has them. I guess there is come market for them.

If you plan on doing that, you better check with your state fisheries dept. and see if a permit is needed. It often is.

By the way, aren't you in the same vicinity that Jonah's Aquarium used to operate before it moved to California?

tglassburner · Post by **tglassburner** » Mon May 14, 2007 2:54 pm

1/2 hour north of there. I won't sell them, but I'll tell him to check. I'd only sell the fry if mine were to spawn. Either way I am hooked. and i found out they are rainbow darters not orangethroat, thanks to the nice ppl on the NANFA forums.

Jim Powers · Post by **Jim Powers** » Mon May 14, 2007 3:27 pm

I have always had trouble telling the two darter species apart. Most of the time I only see them from above and they are very similar.
I'm wondering if they will have any trouble with the temps. I'm sure the NANFA people filled you in on that.
I think a great native tank would have rainbow darters with Southern Redbelly dace as the dithers.

Graeme Robson · Post by **Graeme Robson** » Mon May 14, 2007 3:29 pm

Superb find!!

tglassburner · Post by **tglassburner** » Mon May 14, 2007 5:33 pm

Yeah i know they like cooler temps, kinda like the hillies, I plan on getting a chiller to keep things cool.

The anal fin is the way they made positive ID on NANFA.

tglassburner · Post by **tglassburner** » Fri May 18, 2007 2:51 pm

After de worming/parasitizing all darters and hillies are doing great.
Just wanted to keep those who may be interested up to date.

Jim Powers · Post by **Jim Powers** » Fri May 18, 2007 3:27 pm

That's great news!!

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