Image source: Daniel Folds | inaturalist.org
North America: known only from the middle Cumberland River drainages (Rockcastle River in Kentucky to Caney Fork in Tennessee) in Kentucky and Tennessee, USA. The range of the species is small and patchy and the effects of human expansion are not fully known at this time. Currently, the bloodfin darter occurs in the same streams and river that it has historically. Human expansion may pose a problem for this species, but the effects are not yet known. The bloodfin darter is an invertivore (feeds on invertebrates) in both the adult and juvenile forms and prefers high gradient, medium river, moderate gradient, riffle. The bloodfin darter prefers high to moderate gradient streams that are in the higher elevations of the Cumberland Plateau. The bloodfin dater also needs rocky/gravel bottoms to spawn where the eggs are deposited in between crevices in the rocks. The bloodfin darter reaches a maximum length of 9 centimeters (3.5 in) and the species breeds in rocky shoals.
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