Ontogeny and description of eggs, larvae, and early juveniles of the fountain darter, Etheostoma fonticola

Fountain darters, Etheostoma fonticola, maintained in aquaria, deposited adhesive eggs on yarn strands of artificial spawning mops. Eggs were collected by hand from the mops and hatched in small plastic containers. Diameters of the eggs ranged from 1.2 to 1.4 mm. The eggs had an indented egg envelope and a wide perivitelline space. Eggs incubated at 20°C started hatching on day 4 after fertilization and continued hatching through day 7. Mean total length of larvae at hatching was 3.6 mm. Larvae had 15 preanal myomeres and between 18 and 20 postanal myomeres. Pigmentation consisted of scattered melanophores over the body and ventral yolk sac, and melanophores radiating ventrally from the oil globule along the vitelline network, and complete melanophore coverage of the optic lobe. Larval development was similar to other members of the darter subgenus Boleichthys.