Riverine Fish

Ohio is blessed with an abundance of water, but like all developing areas, past and present land use practices affect our water resources.

Land uses that allow soil to runoff into our waterways cause silting of streams and increased turbidity, which can result in a lower quality of water and thus a loss in the diversity of aquatic organisms.

Fish have specific habitat requirements, thus the health of a fish community can tell us a great deal about the quality of the waterway where they reside.

Riverine Fish of Ohio's Scenic Rivers

Banded Darter (Etheostoma zonale)

This species inhabits streams of all sizes in the Ohio River Basin in Ohio. The largest populations are found in those streams having moderate to high gradients with riffles composed of gravels, cobbles, and boulders. Trautman reported a positive correlation between the presence of algae and other aquatic growths on these riffles with the numbers of banded darters present. Banded darters appear to be more tolerant of some types of organic pollution than other darter species such as the variegate and bluebreast darters.