The Arkansas darter's back is colored with six to eight indistinct dark cross-bars. Its head and body are thickly sprinkled with fine black specks. A narrow dark vertical bar is visible beneath the eye. Adults are commonly 1.6 to 2.2 inches long, to a maximum of about 2.5 inches. Breeding males show bright orange color along the belly surface and the gills.
Females are dark tan with brown-black on the back.
Both sexes have 12 to 14 dark bars along the midside, a dark wedge-shaped spot below the eye and the underside is covered with very tiny dark spots. The Fishes of Missouri. Missouri Department of Conservation. Jefferson City, Missouri. Robison, H.W. and T.M. Buchanan.