This species inhabits rocky or sandy pools in flowing waters up to the size of medium rivers with fast currents.

In a paper published in the Bulletin of the Alabama Museum of Natural History, Mayden and Layman described five new species, all named after former U S presidents and one vice president, based on their "leadership in conservation policies": Speckled darters, Etheostoma stigmaeum, are a member of the family Percidae.

They have both spines and rays, their lateral line is incomplete, and their gill covers are slightly connected by a membrane across their throat.

Mating males have turquoise colored bands on their sides and in their fins, as opposed to the typical dark blue.

The speckled darter is found in eastern Oklahoma, southeastern Kansas, western Louisiana, Virginia, northwestern Georgia, western Florida, and in the Gulf drainages from the Sabine River to the Pensacola Bay.