# Native Fishkeeping...how cool!



## AshleytheGreat (Jul 24, 2005)

Apparently Native fishkeeping has been getting popular over the years. Im def interested in this. Set up a nice 55 gallon tank and put in some sunfish, blue gills, and shiners. Live plants, gravel beds. Anyone do this?! Or have experience with it.


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

As a card-carrying member of both NANFA & the NFC, yes, I have experience with this. It may surprise you to know that american fishes are highly prized in other countries, even though they are virtually unknown here at home. Nanfa.org or nativefish.org are both good places to learn vast amounts about our native fish and their care.


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## euRasian32 (May 19, 2005)

I looked into this mildly, stopped short because I wouldn't want to make a half cocked attempt in a 10 gallon. I'm going to wait until I have my own home and such.

I'm curious about, when you're successful in breeding and have a good batch of native fish, how do you go about releasing the fish back into the wild? I assume that it has to be authorized...


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## blixem (Jun 13, 2005)

euRasian32 said:


> I looked into this mildly, stopped short because I wouldn't want to make a half cocked attempt in a 10 gallon. I'm going to wait until I have my own home and such.
> 
> I'm curious about, when you're successful in breeding and have a good batch of native fish, how do you go about releasing the fish back into the wild? I assume that it has to be authorized...


Maybe contact your local fish and game station, or possibly one of your states fish hatcheries.


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## malawi4me2 (Jan 18, 2005)

I would love to have the space to dedicate to another tank, and only keep native species of fish and plants in that tank! ...Must...Get...More...Tanks...


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## AshleytheGreat (Jul 24, 2005)

Ill def check out those sites...

Thats a good point about realeasing them tho. I mean they are native and they would probally school till they get bigger but what if they have some kind of disease that they spread to all the clean fish...woo not good.


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

How do you release them?
You DON'T!
There are some strict regulations which must be followed for breeding fish for release, designed to prevent the serious dangers which releasing can cause. To get a permit for release, you have to run your breeding program the proper way from the very start in order to get the required permits. To dump fish without such a permit is a very serious violation which carries stiff penalties.

So what do you do with the fry? 
1- you study them and document their growth and feeding & such
2- you ship them off to other native fishkeepers, or trade/sell them to local shops or fishclubs. There is usually no difficulty involved in getting rid of them

Don't worry about being stuck with a bunch of fry. If you think you're a hotshot breeder of tropicals, then trying to breed natives will give you quite a lesson in humility. It's hard. When rare fry are available, many hobbyists would love to have them, and there is even a big store which buys them.

Most of the native fish fans I know are uber-aquarists who make me look like a piker. We study native fish for the sake of studying them, since very little is known about them. We share our discoveries online and in printed journals. The fact that many of these fish possess beauty surpassing the fanciest tropicals is only a side benefit; we breed ugly fish too, just to figure out how to do it. Most of us have a specialty group of fish which we work with the most, and this arrangement works well for learning the most we can. I specialize in the nine species of shiners in the genus Pteronotropis, while others like madtoms, or suckers, or darters, or chubs, or primitives, or sunfishes, or whatever. We tend to keep what's handy to us. There aren't a lot of casual native hobbyists, it seems, with most of them being very serious types, but many native fishes make fine aquarium inhabitants for anyone. One of our goals is to disseminate information about these fish so that everyone can enjoy them. Since the florida fishfarms can't mass-produce them due to the heat, they don't tend to wind up in petshops. However, more & more of them are becoming sporadically available due to the efforts of those who study them, and one day I'm sure that many of them will be able to take their rightful place as common hobbyist favorites worldwide.

It's kinda funny; several decades ago most hobbyists were mainly native fish keepers simply because those were what were available, and those early pioneers made great strides. As developments in transportation made tropical exotics easily attainable, interest in native fish waned almost to nonexistence, and most of the information about them was lost. Now are once again looking at the natives with the same wonder & pioneering spirit of 100 years ago, pretty much starting all over again.


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## AshleytheGreat (Jul 24, 2005)

Wow, never knew that.


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## Pareeeee (Jan 22, 2005)

I wish that i had another tank so i could have some Brook Trout, those are beautiful fish.


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## Pareeeee (Jan 22, 2005)

what if they grew really big and my parents decided to do a fish fry? Laughing....just kidding too


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## euRasian32 (May 19, 2005)

TheOldSalt said:


> How do you release them?
> You DON'T!
> There are some strict regulations which must be followed for breeding fish for release, designed to prevent the serious dangers which releasing can cause. To get a permit for release, you have to run your breeding program the proper way from the very start in order to get the required permits. To dump fish without such a permit is a very serious violation which carries stiff penalties.


I figured there were serious stipulations.

So the conservancy is more about the study, not the population? I'm sure knowing more about a species will help control the dwindling numbers, in time.
Not that I don't find research part of the process interesting, I would contribute to the conservancy solely to avoid extinction of a species.


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

NANFA is the side which does the more research, while the NFC does more of the hands-on conservation work. NANFA doesn't breed fish for release but for study. The NFC works with groups which do breed for release. NFC also does a lot of environmental & conservation work, along with raising public awareness in a big way. Between the two, a lot gets done.


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## euRasian32 (May 19, 2005)

I will most likely contribute when I can house more tanks. I currently donate a percent of my earnings to the coral reef alliance, not as active as i want to be, but its something.

C


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## Orbital (Jun 11, 2005)

We kept some Iowa Darters, a bunch of bullheads, a few crappie and blue gills for awhile in a 50 gallon. After awhile all that was alive were bullheads. There was one catfish I think that was a flathead maybe, it looked abit different from the bullheads. There was also a couple bullheads that were not the brown type, they had some white whiskers.

Other then that most of my fish are from Africa.


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## fishboy (Feb 26, 2005)

i want so badlyto keep a pumpkin seed sunfish but i don't know what size tank i'd need


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## fishfreaks (Jan 19, 2005)

fishboy, did you try the pa fishing law and regulations site? I know they have profiles there of PA native fish. go here http://sites.state.pa.us/PA_Exec/Fish_Boat/pafish/fishhtms/chap22.htm#pumpkin if you haven't. I would say atleast a 50gallon.


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

Yep. Sunfish need space.


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## fishboy (Feb 26, 2005)

now that i see that site fishfreaks provided i think i might actualy be catching endangered longear sunfish or possibly a hybrid panfish of some sort. Next time i go fish i'll take a closer look


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## fishfreaks (Jan 19, 2005)

yeah, ive spent many days at that site for fishing :-D


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## Orbital (Jun 11, 2005)

We caught a nice little pumpkin seed sunfish at a lake while we were there in July I think it was. Surprising to see that colorful of a fish come out of a local lake.


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## amelia (Aug 11, 2005)

I normally keep mosquito fish.. I haven't for the past couple of years, but they're abundant in my area and I enjoy keeping them VERY much. I've also been considering keeping other freshwater fish, especially gars (even as they are a menace here..)..


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

Gars are a menace?
heh..most folks would say the Mosquitofish is the real menace.

As for Pumkinseeds, yes, they are colorful. You ain't seen nuthin' yet, though, until you see a Longear in full spawning regalia. Not many fish on this planet have as much bright color, be they fresh or saltwater, yet most people don't give them a single thought.


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## fishboy (Feb 26, 2005)

what ever i'm catching the're the most buetiful natives i've seen around my area (closely seconded by brook trout). I'll try to classify them and get the species unless they turn out to be a hybrid


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## fish_doc (Jan 31, 2005)

Unfortunally someone caught a asian carp in our river last week. Non native.


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## amelia (Aug 11, 2005)

TheOldSalt---Gars in this area are a menace. The river rises and the ditches fill with water, where I've personally seen gars 4-5 feet long swimming about, following my every move. The fishermen here don't really appriciate the gar, either, since when you catch a gar you either risk getting cut up or lose your hook.


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## fishboy (Feb 26, 2005)

i went fishing and i think w/e type of sunfish i'm catching it is at least part pumpkinseed due to the fact that pumpkinseeds can produce hybrids with other sunfish. I caught what appeared to be be 3 pumpkinseeds but i bagged them (i keep large plastic ziplock bags in my tackle box for the purpose of classifing what i catch more accurately) after looking at them in the bags i noticed one was very brite(almost yellow) and the othe to were darker and each one had a different body shape, color, and finnage but they all showed the same pattern. I also got one brown trout but i think most of the trout left my fishing area because a storm produced alot of muddy water


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## fishboy (Feb 26, 2005)

fish_doc said:


> Unfortunally someone caught a asian carp in our river last week. Non native.


speaking of non natives i was reading a story about this guy in florida bass fishing when he caught a clown knife heres a picture
http://www.thejump.net/id/clownknifefish.jpg


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## fishfreaks (Jan 19, 2005)

Baby_Baby said:


> oh cool!!!!! I want one


Yeah, me too :-D But then again I want one of every fishy LOL


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## Guest (Sep 2, 2005)

lol same here.

except clown knifefish...they give me the creeps.


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## fishfreaks (Jan 19, 2005)

why do they give you the creeps? i think theyre awesome looking, especially when they're full grown


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## fish_doc (Jan 31, 2005)

We would have to fill the ark with water to keep the fish in it. Then we could set it on land and go scuba diveing in it.


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## fish_doc (Jan 31, 2005)

I dont think that is allowed on the ark. Anyway probably shouldnt hijack another thread. LOL 

I did see one of our local petstores selling a bluegill from their tank yesterday.


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