Watercress Darter

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 and surface or water-column feeding. The compilation combines published observations; diets can vary with age, locality, and available food.

Habitat preferences

Reported habitat associations include springs or subterranean waters.

The source records associations with clay or silt, gravel, vegetation. 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.

Batch or serial spawning has been reported somewhere in the species’ range. This does not establish the same spawning pattern for every population.

Recorded spawning months are Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul for the source’s reporting region (AL). This is a regional calendar, not a range-wide schedule.

The reproductive-guild classification includes spawning on open substrates without guarding the brood.

Size and recorded longevity

FishTraits reports a maximum total length of 4.5 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 2 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.

Native range

Thomas', Roebuck, Glenn, and Seven springs in the Black Warrior drainage, Jefferson County, Alabama (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 1992, 2009; Duncan et al. 2010).

Habitat and ecology

Inhabits slow moving spring pools and associated runs; primarily associated with aquatic vegetation (e.g., watercress) where it feeds and reproduces (Boschung and Mayden 2004; Duncan et al 2010).

Introduction history

The species was originally stocked to create a second population. At the time of the original introduction, the species was known only from Glenn Springs. That site was immediately adjacent to Jefferson County Route 20, and would have been imperiled by any road expansions. In 1965, 43 specimens from Glenn Springs were stocked in Prince Springs in hope that a second population would afford the species more security (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 1980a; Howell, personal communication). The Watercress Darter was listed as a federally endangered species in 1970 (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 1980a). The species was later discovered at two other sites during a survey conducted between 1977 and 1978. During the period 1976-1977, all three native populations were at risk. Glenn Springs deteriorated because of sewage contamination; Thomas' Spring was to be dredged, the sportfish removed and then replaced with catfish; and the Roebuck Springs population contracted "gas bubble" disease (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 1980a). On 19 January 1988, 400 fish were transplanted from Roebuck Springs, 200 to Tapawingo Springs and 200 to Avondale Springs, as part of an endangered species recovery plan designed to save this species from extinction (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 1992).

Ecological impacts

The introduction of Watercress Darters to Tapawingo Springs caused the extirpation of rush darter (E. phytophilum), a Federally Endangered species of darter described in 1999, at that locality (George et al. 2009)