Banded Darter

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.