A rare little fish

This is a photo of a cool little fish that I took in a riffle on the Little Miami. It's called the variegate darter and is found nowhere else on earth but in rivers that flow into the Ohio River. Male darters stake out a rock in a riffle and defend that rock against other darters. In breeding season male variegate darters are the most colorful fish in the river and even blow away most salt water aquarium fish. Darters are very sensitive to pollution so they are an indicator of good water quality. All the tiny usually unseen fish like the variegate darter are one of the most important links in the food chain. Darter feed allmost exclusively on tiny insects and immature bugs like midge larvae and are in turn themselves fed upon by larger fish like smallmouth bass and channel cats.