Cypress Darter

The cypress darter can be found across the Gulf Coastal plain of southern North America, in regions from the Colorado River of eastern Texas through the Choctawhatchee River of eastern Alabama, north to the Fall Line, and upstream along the Arkansas River valley in eastern Oklahoma. They prefer living in vegetated margins of swamps and lakes and slow-moving streams with silt or sand bottoms and leaf-laden water. It inhabits backwater habitats during the summer; in winter, flooded riffles and backwater bayous, and lowland lakes are ideal microhabitats for the cypress darter. For example, in Texas, it can be found in streams limited to the extreme east, including the Red River, Sabine Lake, Galveston Bay, and the Colorado River. No current information points to the decrease in any population of the cypress darter across the southeast.

The diet of the cypress darter includes many food sources; it feeds more heavily on small crustaceans and less heavily on insects other than chironomids, probably a function of its small body and mouth, which makes ingestion of large insects (e.g., caddisflies and stoneflies) difficult, and the habitat where it lives. Since the cypress darter lives in slow-moving, leaf-laden, shallow water, crustaceans will be more common and are a viable food source. Insects such as stoneflies prefer faster-moving water with rocky substrates, so are not often found in the cypress darters' habitats. E. proeliare will also feed on midge larvae, isopods, amphipods, and may fly nymphs. Concerning the cypress darter's leaf laden habitat and slow moving water, the pH of the water it lives in will be lower due to the process of decomposition of the leaves and vegetation present, and the water temperature will be warmer from the natural insulation caused by the vegetation and lack of fast-moving water which carries the heat out. In addition to the cypress darter's habitat, the interactions with its community are quite competitive and dangerous. For example, in Max Creek, Illinois, the competition observed with E. proeliare was with E. chlorosomum and E. gracile. Apparently, these three species all lay their eggs on vegetation and are found in the same swampy, silt- or sand-bottom, leaf-laden waters. …