In 2009, Steve Layman and Richard Mayden published a paper describing a new species of darter—the endangered Bluemask Darter—which is the closest geographic and genetic relative to the Blueside Darter. The Bluemask Darter is found only in five small rivers and large creeks of the upper Caney Fork River system in Tennessee.

In 2014, we collected Blueside Darters and used this species to gain a deeper understanding of the Bluemask Darter without having to risk the learning process on such a rare animal. From using them as surrogates to develop spawning protocols to testing tagging methods, the Blueside Darter has been a vital part of deepening our understanding of the Bluemask Darter and other similar darters. We were excited by the success of this project, which ultimately allowed us to move on to working with the Bluemask Darter in our facility. This research demonstrated once again how using a surrogate species can help pave the way for work with their rarer close relatives.