This is a short, slender-bodied fish generally less than 2.5 inches in length. The throats of breeding males are blue in color. The amber darter feeds primarily on snails and insects.
Little information is available on life history.
Limited data indicate that spawning may occur from late fall to early spring. Maximum life span may be around 3 years. No quantitative estimates of the amber darter's population are available. However, from the relative abundance standpoint, in a 1983 survey 1O to 2O minutes of sampling within good habitat areas would yield 3 to 1O amber darters. One amber darter was taken in 1980 from a site on the Etowah River in Cherokee County, Georgia, but subsequent surveys in the area made in 1982 and 1983 failed to yield additional specimens.