UPDATE: native fish

[krap101]

in my other thread i was talking asking how to take care of the fish. after a week and around 15 losses i believe the ones left will live for a pretty long time. one species is nibbling on the algae on the sides of my tank, the stickblacks are staying in the wadd of plants i found, and the last ones are schooling around the filter, and 3-4 are staying on the other side..

i see some poop on the ground so thats good. it might be from the snails, tadpoles, or the fish themselves, but i see them pecking at some flakes and sucking on the bioblend so thats good.

im trying to keep this tank as natural as possible without being dangerous. its a 10 gallon, been cycled since last fall. i brought home some bugs with the fish, and they are those boatmen? and i have some other ones as well. i found some clams in a breeder trap but im not ready to let them go yet.

finally i caught a blue crayfish. hes actually kind of greenish, and i didnt know crayfish came in blue. but hes a baby and he moulted today. about 7 hours ago i was wondering why he was out because he is usually hiding. while i was trying to take some pictures i saw something that looked like a dead brine shrimp. i guess (s)he was out to moult.

tomorrow i will try for some brine shrimp and some krill

 

[krap101]

oh yeah the colors on the sticklebacks are amazing. i never thought fish could have such color in a non tropical region. im sure they'll color up some more but their getting shiny green patches and a bright yellow on their tail.

 

[xander]

hooray for native tanks

I plan on having a few more native tanks myself

just have one 55 now with a lone sunfish in it
I miss my bullhead, will get another

 

[id10t]

I'm wanting to do natives as well. Ideally a nice warmouth from a local lake where they are *so* pretty, but I'm considering others as well.... maybe some nice bluegill from the local springs? (I'm a few minutes from ginnny springs).

 

[Andos99]

The only thing local around here are freaky catfish and nasty carp. I was reading up on Warmouth Sunfish that you were mentioning id10t the other night. Very pretty fish, I would love to get my hands on one if you knew anyone that was selling...

 

[Rinaldo]

Go Gainesville. !
Uf Grad here.

 

[Lepomis]

Natives can make wonderful tanks. Many natives have brillant colors, especially during spawning. Longears, dollars, and orange-spotted sunfish can be breath taking and IMHO opinion rival any discus in beauty. Increasing water flow rates to mimic riffle areas (and addition of a chiller) make many darters amazing native displays. Take a look at cherry, redband, speckeled, splendid, slackwater, greenside, rainbow, coosa, black, greenfin, etc... Topminnows and several of the madtoms make nice additions to tanks also. The list gos on and on.

Just remember to check local regulations.

I really never thought of warmouths being a pretty fish when compared to the other sunfishes. Can't count the number of those little buggers I have caught over the years.

 

[krap101]

well.. they look like the wild oscar

 

[Skyrmir]

Does anyone know of a good site for looking up native fish? Specifically Florida. I've found a bunch of sites that will list game fish and fish your likely to find. But becuase just about anything can survive in south florida it's hard to tell if it's a native fish or just one that's moved in. About the only ornamental/aquarium fish I'm sure is native is a type of oscar.

Looking for freshwater fish of course. With the Atlantic sitting here there's just WAY to many salt water fish to think about.

 

[Lepomis]

http://floridafisheries.com/Fishes/index.html

Most states DNR or equivalent will have this information.

 

[id10t]

Andos99 - Jonah's Aquarium has them occasionally according to their website. There's also an outfit in St. Augustine that has them. I plan on catching mine - either from my mom's pond or the creek that runs thru the back of her property - I've caught them in both places before.

Skyrmir - check out nativefish.org

 

[krap101]

did your mom make the pond or is it natural>

 

[id10t]

Natural pond. Stocked once with bass and crappie in the early 50s, since then all natural. Only big problem has been lack of rainfall but the water level is back to the way it used to be now. That, and mom put in some water lettuce about 10 years ago... finally got rid of it all last summer. Had to poision it. Didn't cause a fish kill though. Pond is about 4 acres, record fish is a 14lb bass a friend pulled out in '77. I pull one out pushing 10lbs every couple of years, lots of healthy fish in the 2-3lb range.

 

[FMJnaX]

Can I come fishin'? 8)

 

[id10t]

Sure thing. Gainesville, Florida, about 1 mile north of the football stadium. You can hear the band and crowd on game days Heck, I've got about 10 fishing spots here in town that are completely overlooked by most sane people...