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I was wondering if anybody here kept any North American natives. When it gets warmer out I'm going to be setting up a tank for natives around my area, such as minnows and darters and such. I was wondering if anybody had any experience with keeping any, or knows of any good information? Also, if you can get them off live food, what's best to feed them? Would goldfish flakes be better since they're designed for a cold water fish or not?

I live in Central PA if anybody is familiar with it, to give you an idea of what fish are around.

Yes, I have kept quite a few natives in my time, having spent much of my life in the northeast. The range of fish is far too variable for me, however, to make any general comments about ease of keeping and whatnot. I've never had a problem feeding prepared foods.

I have 4 darters. They closest resemble green sided darters that I have seen. They are active, peaceful members of my community set up. I have kept a hybrid bluegill in the past. They are just like cichlids. They can be bossy, territorial, large, and messy. But, they have unmistakeable personality.

i know katie:fishyhelper has kept jonny darters, and for a brfief period of time i have had flordia gars.

but if you are looking into small fishes, not like bass for panfish, darters would be the way to go.


if you are having trouble loacting any, aquabid.com has a us native section with minnows.

i have no experience myself. but on another site there was a guy who was keeping a 8-9in. black crappie. WOW, i kept a decent assortment of piranha for a good 7yrs. but man they didnt look nearly as vicious. it just screamed PREDATOR. very beautiful specimen.

A pumpkinseed is a beautiful fish also. Would be coldwater, territorial, and messy, but would top out at about 5 inches probably. They do shoal in the wild, though.

I have been keeping a Warmouth since about August. He is a way cool fish. Very new world ciclid like in behavior. Doesn't do well with other fish. I have gottem him.. or her to eat dry foods.

Here is some picture of my Warmouth

55G Planted tank thread
19G Container Pond
[IMG]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y118/Wingsdlc/Ric

Wingsdlc, that's a very nice looking warmouth you have there.

A lot of North American panfishes are neat, interesting fish to keep I've heard, and they're basically our version of cichlids.

It's sad that people overlook the beauty of fish we have in our own local streams/ditches/ponds, etc. Ever since I was little I remember going in the streams to catch fish and whatever else I could find, as I always had a stream by my house. Just in the past 2 years I've become interested in tropical fish, and then my interest just recently went to what's in my own backyard. There's a lot of interesting minnows and darters in my area, a long with several other interesting fish.

My plan is to go searching in a few local streams here to see what they have, and I was going to upgrade one of my tropical tanks and turn it into a stream tank.

I was just hoping to see if someone else has done this, or maybe if someone else wants to try it, help eachother out as we go along.

I also think since a lot of people are always looking for something different to keep in their tanks, well, this is definitly not something you see in everybody's bedroom .

Very true!

55G Planted tank thread
19G Container Pond
[IMG]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y118/Wingsdlc/Ric

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