Wild local fish?

[Fish Lips]

Has anyone tried to keep local freshwater fish? Such as Bass, perch or sunfish? I'm not interested in doing this myself, but I am curious to find out if it can be done...I have seen in some tackle shops tanks with a few species in them, but never thought of it at someones home...

 

[Grant R]

That's a good thought and I suppose science says that it is possible.
My main worry though with that would be two things :

1 ) The fish would be too used to the wild and sudden captivity would stress it greatly, also putting other fish in danger.

2 ) A big risk of disease - it's anyones guess as to what the fish could potentially be carrying from his big wide world.


For those reasons, I wouldn't bother personally, but thats just my humble opinion.

 

[Fish Lips]

Hey Grant,

I suppose I should have also mentioned Bream, Tench, Rudd & Roach to the list for you folk cross the pond!

 

[Toomanyfish]

Even though most of the freshwater tropical fish you buy at the LFS nowadays are captive bred, they used to ALL come from the wild. Of course that was long ago.....and no, I don't remember that personally!!

Back to the subject ....yes, you can keep fish you catch yourself. I've kept in the past; longear sunfish, pumpkinseed, bluegills, various minnows (no ID), gambusia, wild swordtails, florida flags.....
After the intial shyness, they adapt just as well as any other wild caught fish. Only a couple that I've caught had parasites, the vast majority didn't.

Of course since these are cold water fish, you would not put them in the same tank with tropical fish.

 

[Guest]

Don't forget a HUGE issue: Local Laws! Every state has their own laws about what you can take from the wild, whether to eat or keep in a tank, check with your state fisheries agency before taking anything. Some places wont let you do much, and others don't give a hoot. ( I had one hell of a time trying to get a permit in MD, untill somebody at fisheries said, " If anynatural resources cops ask, just expalin and they wont care".)

I was never questioned by anyone as to what I was doing with those nets and buckets!

 

[Toomanyfish]

Good point Corvuscorax!!!

You're absolutely right about that!!!

 

[Wowzers]

Quite a few of the cichlids I've kept are/have been wild caught, though I purchased them. When I was living in Nevada, however, I caught Archocentrus nigrofasciatus (Convict cichlids) myself, and bred them.
Many of the fish you'd find at Petsmart or other chain stores have been bred in captivity for a long time, but much of the more unusual, harder to keep species that you'd find at a good LFS are only among the first few generations of wild caught fish. I try to get fish whose parents or great great great grandparents were wild caught, their behaviour is more natural.[/i][/b]