Etheostoma ramseyi
Percidae · freshwater water fish
2 minute read · Species guide
The Alabama darter (Etheostoma ramseyi) 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. The species is endemic to the eastern United States, where it occurs mostly below the fall line of the Alabama River drainage. It is also relatively common in headwater tributaries to the Cahaba River above the fall line.
The Tombigbee darter was first formally described in 1994 by Royal Dallas Suttkus and Reeve Maclaren Bailey with the type locality given as Beaver Creek, a tributary of the Alabama River in Wilcox County, Alabama. The specific name honors the American ichthyologist John S. Ramsey.
Article text: Wikipedia contributors, Alabama darter (source revision). Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Retrieved 2026-10-11.
The FishTraits compilation records these diet categories for this species: invertebrates or larval fish. These are broad categories, not a claim that every individual consumes every example in a category.
Reported feeding positions include bottom feeding. The compilation combines published observations; diets can vary with age, locality, and available food.
Reported habitat associations include streams and small rivers.
The source records associations with clay or silt, sand, gravel, bedrock. An association indicates reported use, rather than an exclusive requirement.
The compilation reports a representative maturity age of 1 years. Its maturity field summarizes mean, median, or modal estimates, usually for females; male estimates can be used when female data are unavailable. It is not a fixed age at which every fish first breeds.
Recorded spawning months are Mar, Apr, May for the source’s reporting region (AL). This is a regional calendar, not a range-wide schedule.
The reproductive-guild classification includes hiding a brood without subsequent guarding.
FishTraits reports a maximum total length of 6.5 centimetres. Some entries use an estimated asymptotic length; this value should not be treated as a certified record catch.
Recorded longevity in the compilation is 3.5 years. Wild observations were preferred, but captive records were accepted where wild records were unavailable, and unspecified records were assumed wild. The value is not a guaranteed wild lifespan or an aquarium life expectancy.
Range
A blank area on the dot layer usually means nobody sampled there, not that the fish is absent. Turn on “every survey site” to see where the survey looked.
The USGS stream survey caught it at 34 of its sites, in 1 state. That survey and the GBIF records are two different counts of two different things, so the site keeps them apart.
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Closest relatives
Same family
