Slough Darter: Facts & Habitat

About Slough Darter

Etheostoma gracile, the slough darter, is a small species of ray-finned fish, a darter from the subfamily Etheostomatinae, part of the family Percidae which includes the perches, ruffs and pike-perches. It inhabits slow to moderately flowing waters and with substrates that are predominantly mud, silt, or sand. Major food sources include chironomids, copepods, and cladocerans, as well as mayflies in the spring. Adults reach 35 to 50 mm (1.4 to 2.0 in) total length. It is one of the 324 species of fish found in Tennessee.

NativeFresh13 states

At the southern end of its range in Texas, the slough darter breeds from January to March, while at the northern end of its range in Illinois, it breeds in May and June. The eggs are attached to submerged vegetation, leaves, or twigs, and the adults do not guard them as some other members of this family do.

Distribution and habitat

Etheostoma gracile is found in the Mississippi River basin from central Illinois and northeastern Missouri to Louisiana, also in the Red River drainages to southeastern Kansas and eastern Oklahoma, and the Gulf Slope drainages from the Tombigbee River in Mississippi to the Nueces River in Texas. Suitable habitats include pools of slow-flowing water in small streams, backwaters of larger rivers, turbid water over sand or mud, oxbow lakes, swamps, and among vegetation.

Status

The IUCN has listed this species as being of "Least Concern", because it has an extensive range in the Mississippi River system, has a large total population size, and numerous subpopulations. In general, the population trend seems stable and no major threats have been identified.

Article text: Wikipedia contributors, Etheostoma gracile (source revision). Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Retrieved 2026-10-11.

Diet and feeding

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.

Habitat preferences

Reported habitat associations include streams and small rivers, creeks.

The source records associations with muck, clay or silt, organic debris. An association indicates reported use, rather than an exclusive requirement.

Reproduction and parental care

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 Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun for the source’s reporting region (MS). This is a regional calendar, not a range-wide schedule.

The reproductive-guild classification includes guarding eggs or young at a spawning substrate or nest.

Size and recorded longevity

FishTraits reports a maximum total length of 6 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

Where it lives

47.5%of mapped records

Share of 4,185 GBIF observation records with a state location, across 13 states. The orange dots are USGS stream-survey sites where this species was caught.

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.

Share of records by state

The USGS stream survey caught it at 228 of its sites, in 10 states. That survey and the GBIF records are two different counts of two different things, so the site keeps them apart.

Habitat

Water and movement

Water: WoRMS records this species in fresh water.
Migration: Not migratory

Classification

Taxonomy

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Superclass: Actinopterygii
Class: Teleostei
Order: Perciformes
Family: Percidae
Genus: Etheostoma
Species: Etheostoma gracile
ITIS TSN: 168366
WoRMS AphiaID: 1419851
GBIF key: 2382325

Common questions about Slough Darter

What is the scientific name of Slough Darter?

The scientific name is Etheostoma gracile, in the family Percidae. Classification follows ITIS.

Does Slough Darter live in fresh water or salt water?

WoRMS records this species in fresh water.

Where has Slough Darter been recorded in the United States?

GBIF has observations in 13 states, with the most records in Texas, Oklahoma, Illinois. The map shows observation records, which do not establish the complete natural range.

Closest relatives