How many here caught and manged to keep alive wild caught ?

[Christmasfish]

Millipededs post in the Lounge got me thinking..

I have kept until size mattered...(most others faded away in a couple weeks. If we didn't return it upon symptoms first)

Eels
Bluegill
Crayfish
Several looks of Minnows(many got over 6 inches and turned into bass, or trout or whatever)
2 dif unknown catfish
Unknown pretty and colorful minnow looking fish with a swordtail

And all of these with aged water changes about once every 7-10 days and dutch tanks.Poor things

 

[Fruitbat]

I had one 55-gallon tank years ago that was dedicated to native fish. I kept sunfish of various flavors, killifish, logperch, darters, Gambusia and Madtom catfish. I had to cycle the sunfish as they grew too large (I'd go out every year and get some youngsters...and donate the larger ones to my local aquarium where, I fear, they became Alligator Gar food. All of the fish were locally caught in the rivers, streams,lakes and ponds in the Dallas, Texas area and did very well in our local water (from the tap...dechlorinated, of course).

I found that they were no more difficult to keep alive than our tropicals. Plenty of filtration, an unheated tank, regular water changes, and a lot of frozen and freeze-dried food seemed to suit them just fine. I had a couple of Water Hyacinths floating at one end of the tank to give the smaller fish something to hide in and the Gambusia and the killifish actually spawned fairly regularly in the aquarium.

 

[kidkameleon3]

Seen a guy at the lfs today that said he has a 1 lb bass that he caught that is doing great

 

[loganj]

I kept a solitary bluegill in a 55 for about a year once. Ended up turning him loose into the pond I caught him from. That's about the only experience I've had with wild caught fish.

 

[William]

When I was real young, and before anyone knew any better, we had a very large bass and a catfish together in a tank. I think it was a 20gal long.

Its hard for me to think back that far, since I was young.

I do remember the tank was unfiltered, but they survived until being released. They were kept in the tank for a long, loong time..

 

[millipede]

fun...

this is my kind of topic... Any free time I have is spent out in the woods catching critters... Just the other day I caught a snake and three salamanders... it was only 60 out at best... anyway, in the past I succesfully kept a few orange throated darters, several minnows, too many crayfish, I think I had a dozen in a 10 gal tank. They start to eat each other in those conditions... I succesfully raised several tadpoles into frogs, I found a baby softshell turtle that I kept for quite a while before giving it to someone else, a few central newts, I think the list gets less fishy from here but I'll continue anyway...
Several black widows, one got eaten by another spider, a few fence lizards, ringneck snakes, a few other unknown species of snake, salamanders, grey tree frogs, spring peepers, cricket frogs, american toads, striped bark scorpions, raised one catapiller into a moth, dragonfly nymphs, several other water insects(those are fun), and quite a few different insects including-of course-several species of millipedes... I'm sure I'm forgetting a thing or two but you get the idea... Most of those things I've had fairly good luck with... oh yeah, I caught a catfish when it was about an inch or less and raised it til it was over six inches... then I moved from massachusetts to arkansas during august in a car with no ac... big mistake... wont to that again with fish in the car... I have traveled that far successfully with critters like that, but never during august without ac... I have to check a book real quick...here it is,,, and a few dobsonfly larvae at different times... you don't know what those are look them up... Occasionally I would catch him eating a minnow... those were fun to keep... The turtle was a lot of fun too. He would bury himself in the gravel and stick just his long neck out and try to catch a fish, it was fun to watch... oh yeah, and leeches sometimes, I like watching them swim..... can you tell I like this sort of thing... My nephew thinks I'm the crocodile hunter, that or a scientist... neither really but that stuff excites me... not much in life does...

 

[vega]

When to my friend birthday, caugh my current girlfriend. not hard to kept but not cheap too.

 

[shawmutt]

My step-father used to try and keep trout in a tank--they were excellent carpet surfers. Some day when I get a house and enough money to buy and run a chiller and large tank I'd like to set up a trout biotope in my cellar. I'm thinking stream setup in 180 gallon, with a couple brook trout and some crayfish. Have a large powerhead at one side to simulate the flow. Yeah...I've been thinking about it for a while.

When I went to check out a career in Marine Biology, I went to the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory, and they had a complete estuary tank set up, with horseshoe crabs and other fish right out of the bay. Very cool.

 

[grimlock3000]

i think it would be cool to have a 125g tank with a local biotope setup in it, but taking fish from wildstock would get me smacked down by local law enforcement

 

[AdamsZoological]

I havent actually caught anything, and kept it in a tank, but, a friend of mine did catch a fairly large Blue Freckled Cichlid Caqueita umberifera a few years ago, and has up until now kept him, with very little trouble, although it all really varies on the type of fish, some stuff seem to go through being captured, and introduced into captivity with no problem at all, and others are lucky to make the trip to the tank, alive. I know umberifera are hardly a native fish, but, I personally dont know anyone thats done it with native species, although, I've been pretty tempted several times.

 

[xander]

I have caught and kept green sunfish, crappy, bass, bluegill, bullhead and various other sunfish. The Greens don't get too big and are fine as long as filtration is working. Mine got clogged and I lost one. Bullheads could survive in toilet water and bass get too big. Crappy are cool but get too big and are real picky about what they eat. The best way to go is to keep the really small ones you catch. They acclimate to tank life better. Have a look at soem of my natives http://community.webshots.com/album/92285359XdgJJp

 

[smilla4]

Bullheads could survive in toilet water

Did you run out of tanks? 8O

 

[AdamsZoological]

lol I could think of a few things I'd like to see in toilet water

 

[cdawson]

I've got a breeding pair of pumpkin seed sunfish and a black bullhead which is going into the pond outside.

 

[AdamsZoological]

Personally, I think thats the best way to go with any WC native fish, is an outdoor pond, more likely to give them the type environment they need that way.

 

[cdawson]

They're in an unheated tank right now that's pretty much right against the window. Completely lit by the outdoor sun with native plants and driftwood to boot, water conditions are better than the pond they came from =)