Life History
Darters have a wide range of life histories, but size correlates with most life history characteristics. For example, larger darters grow faster, live longer, produce bigger clutches, and have longer reproductive spans. Furthermore, mate selection by female darters is assumed to be common. When examining the rainbow darter, life history traits were: average size 45 mm, growth 32 mm, maximum age four years, and clutch size 82. E. caeruleum mates during the spring, typically when water temperature is between 17 and 18°C, and they will leave their normal microhabitat in the rapids to congregate on pebbles, where the stream leaves a pool, to mate. Once mates are selected, the fish mate repeatedly for several days until the female lays about 800 eggs. This darter also displays group spawning, and the males tend to exhibit territorial behavior during the breeding season.
Read more about this topic: Rainbow Darter
Famous quotes containing the words life and/or history:
“What if it should turn out eternity
Was but the steeple on our house of life
That made our house of life a house of worship?”
—Robert Frost (18741963)
“I am ashamed to see what a shallow village tale our so-called History is. How many times must we say Rome, and Paris, and Constantinople! What does Rome know of rat and lizard? What are Olympiads and Consulates to these neighboring systems of being? Nay, what food or experience or succor have they for the Esquimaux seal-hunter, or the Kanaka in his canoe, for the fisherman, the stevedore, the porter?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (18031882)