The body is silvery with several distinct vertical stripes. The orangespotted sunfish is the smallest sunfish in Minnesota, rarely exceeding three inches. Breeding males are intensely colored with blue, green, red, and orange. The male mud darter has a bright orange belly, with red, orange, and green on the sides and dorsal fin. The rainbow darter is Minnesota's most beautiful darter.
Males have bodies and fins of brilliant blue, green, and orange.
The Iowa darter is similar to the rainbow, but is not as robust, and has a row of red spots on the sides. The banded darter is another robust darter, and breeding males have several emerald vertical bands. The logperch is one of the largest darters sometimes reaching eight inches. The body is silvery and striped with several black bands. The logperch and other species in the genus, Percina, are the most active of the darters, frequently schooling with the minnows, and spending very little time on the bottom.