What's In a Name?
Least darter: darters "dart" from place to place; this is one of the smallest species

Etheostoma (ee-thee-os´-toe-mah) taken from etheo, which means "to filter" and from stoma, which means "mouth" in Greek
microperca (micro-purr´-kah) means "small perch" in Greek

How Big Do They Get?
How Long Do They Live?
The least darter is one of the smallest darters in Northern America and is Minnesota's smallest fish. This species rarely get bigger than 38 mm (1.5 in) in length and 0.5 g (less than 0.02 oz). The differences are small, but females ultimately grow larger than males. Not only are least darters small, they have a short lifespan of usually 2 years. Less than 2 % of Minnesota least darters live for 3 years.

What Eats Them?
Because least darters live in areas where the vegetation is very thick, they probably miss out on being lunch a lot of the time. Two known predators in lakes are largemouth bass and black crappies.

How Do They Reproduce?
Both male and female least darters are able to reproduce the next spring after they hatch. The spawning season in Minnesota is late May through most of July. They spawn on aquatic weeds that occur at the edges of pools and slow runs in streams or in the quiet shallows of lakes. Males arrive at the spawning areas before females and establish territories around a plant or sometimes a rock. When a female enters a territory the male moves quickly to her, chasing other males who are in pursuit. When the female finds a good leaf, she swims to it with her head pointing up and her tail down (she is vertical in the water). The male holds on to her back with his pectoral fins. The female releases her eggs while the male fertilizes them. Fertilized eggs stick to the plant. When the female finishes laying her eggs, she darts away to spawn with another male. The female will lay one to three eggs for each spawning act and a total of 30 or so a day. We know that on average a female produces about 180 eggs in a clutch (a clutch is a group of eggs that become ready for spawning at about the same time). But we do not know how many clutches a female can produce in a spawning season. So, we are not sure how many total eggs a female lays. There is no parental care of the eggs or the young after they hatch.

Conservation and Management
The least darter is a species of special concern because of its unusual distribution pattern. Recent studies have shown that it is more common than we once thought. These fish make excellent aquarium fish, but as do many fish from the wild they need a special permit to be collected and kept.