| Main Ref. | Ceas, P.A. and B.M. Burr, 2002 |
| Appearance refers to | |
| Bones in OsteoBase |
| Specialized organs | |
| Different appearance | |
| Different colors | different colors during breeding season only |
| Remarks | Non-breeding males exhibit general color patterns found in breeding males, but colors and patterns greatly subdued (Ref. 47261). |
| Striking features | |
| Body shape lateral | elongated |
| Cross section | |
| Dorsal head profile | |
| Type of eyes | |
| Type of mouth/snout | |
| Position of mouth | |
| Type of scales | |
| Diagnosis |
Differs from all members of the Etheostoma spectabile complex except E. tecumsehi in having orange belly color confluent with the anterior orange interspaces in breeding males and in having the alternating orange and blue transverse bars prominent along the entire length of the body (versus limited to posterior half) (Ref. 47261). |
| Ease of Identification |
| Lateral Lines | Interrupted: No |
| Scales on lateral line | 34 - 53 |
| Pored lateral line scales | 19 - 38 |
| Scales in lateral series | |
| Scale rows above lateral line | 5 - 7 |
| Scale rows below lateral line | 5 - 10 |
| Scales around caudal peduncle | 15 - 23 |
| Barbels | |
| Gill clefts (sharks/rays only) | |
| Gill rakers | |
| on lower limb | |
| on upper limb | |
| total | |
| Vertebrae | |
| preanal | |
| total |
| Attributes | |
| Fins number | 2 |
| Finlets No. | Dorsal |
| Ventral | |
| Spines total | 8 - 11 |
| Soft-rays total | 11 - 15 |
| Adipose fin | absent |
| Attributes | more or less truncate; more or less normal |
| Fins number | |
| Spines total | 0 - 0 |
| Soft-rays total | 6 - 9 |
| Pectoral | Attributes more or less normal |
| Spines | |
| Soft-rays 10 - 13 | |
| Pelvics | Attributes more or less normal |
| Position thoracic before origin of D1 | |
| Spines | |
| Soft-rays |