Fish Folk Posted June 15, 2023 Share Posted June 15, 2023 Took a few shots this eve of some US Natives I’m keeping. Thought I’d share the photos, and misc info on them. Lots of fish live in creeks and bogs near you in US that just won’t ever show up in your LFS… Banded Sunfish (Enneacanthus obesus) — max size is ca. palm of adult hand. Peaceful. Likes “swampy” tanks with less flow… Rainbow Darters (Etheostoma caeruleum) — related to perch, but underdeveloped swim bladder. Adults same size as adult Ancistrus (Bristlenose Pleco), but completely different behavior and diet. Appreciates lots of flow. Peaceful benthic gems… Lowland Shiners (Pteronotropis stonei) — similar in appearance to tropical Emperor Tetras. Lively, and a bit rowdy if their school isn’t large enough. They do eat flake food happily, and stay reasonably small… Banded Darters (Etheostoma zonale) — very bright green in spring spawning season. Finicky eaters, but worth the trouble. Need flow and lots of oxygen… Fieryblack Shiner (Cyprinella pyrrhomelas - juv.) and Catawba Greenhead Shiners (Notropis chlorocephalus) — will eat wide variety of foods including flakes. Fireyblacks take several years to mature. I’m thrilled that this F1 is beginning to show a “rummy nose” and tail. Greenheads can fire up red-engine colors, but haven’t spawned yet in this tank… Tessellated Darter (Etheostoma olmstedi) — not a flashy fish, but very active. Care needs to be taken to ensure they get enough to eat. Frozen or live foods are key… Rainbow Shiners (Notropis chrosomus) — as beautiful as the photo makes them look, and even more. Easily my favorites. Very easy to feed and keep. These are a few tank-bred line juveniles just “graduating” now into adulthood with nice colors…. Hope you enjoyed! Keeping US Natives has been a very satisfying niche to settle into. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy's Fish Den Posted June 15, 2023 Share Posted June 15, 2023 My local club is doing a native fish collecting trip this weekend., I'm excited to go out and catch some and see what we have in our local streams. I am in Ohio, and our DNR has Father's day weekend as a free fish weekend, where you don't need a fishing license to go fishing or to collect native fish, so quite a few clubs in the state do an event like this, so maybe check in your local states and see if any others offer something similar. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fish Folk Posted June 15, 2023 Author Share Posted June 15, 2023 On 6/15/2023 at 6:28 AM, Andy's Fish Den said: My local club is doing a native fish collecting trip this weekend., I'm excited to go out and catch some and see what we have in our local streams. I am in Ohio, and our DNR has Father's day weekend as a free fish weekend, where you don't need a fishing license to go fishing or to collect native fish, so quite a few clubs in the state do an event like this, so maybe check in your local states and see if any others offer something similar. Excellent! Lots of Banded Darters in OH. They like to hang out on long patches of green algae. Rainbow Darters often group in sororities / fraternities. If you’re only catching females in one riffle, males may group a little ways away. I found this beautiful resource last week online: https://camp-joy.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Stream-Fish-Guide.pdf For smaller tanks, these 6x OH fish are ones I’d look for. You can use iNaturalist to find coordinates… I’m tagging @TeeJay about the free fishing day in OH. For what it’s worth, most of my fishroom NANF come from OH through here. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TeeJay Posted June 15, 2023 Share Posted June 15, 2023 On 6/15/2023 at 7:49 AM, Fish Folk said: Excellent! Lots of Banded Darters in OH. They like to hang out on long patches of green algae. Rainbow Darters often group in sororities / fraternities. If you’re only catching females in one riffle, males may group a little ways away. I found this beautiful resource last week online: https://camp-joy.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Stream-Fish-Guide.pdf For smaller tanks, these 6x OH fish are ones I’d look for. You can use iNaturalist to find coordinates… I’m tagging @TeeJay about the free fishing day in OH. For what it’s worth, most of my fishroom NANF come from OH through here. Yes I'm going to try and take my girls down to a local creek this weekend to see what we can find around. It will be fun to see what we can find 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fish Folk Posted June 15, 2023 Author Share Posted June 15, 2023 @Andy's Fish Den @TeeJay just saw this photo in NANFA FB page. Ohio native, Tippecannoe Darter, just caught from Alum Creek (Franklin County)… 1 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TeeJay Posted June 15, 2023 Share Posted June 15, 2023 On 6/15/2023 at 3:55 PM, Fish Folk said: @Andy's Fish Den @TeeJay just saw this photo in NANFA FB page. Ohio native, Tippecannoe Darter, just caught from Alum Creek (Franklin County)… That is an awesome fish! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nabokovfan87 Posted June 15, 2023 Share Posted June 15, 2023 Someone around here has to have some Pygmy Sunfish.... Gorgeous fish. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy's Fish Den Posted June 16, 2023 Share Posted June 16, 2023 @Fish Folk one of the board members from my club has been scouting out the creek/ stream that we are going to, and said that he has found rainbow darters and shiners quite readily in it. I would like to get some darters, but I won't be bringing any home as I don't have a tank for natives and don't have room for one right now. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fish Folk Posted June 16, 2023 Author Share Posted June 16, 2023 On 6/15/2023 at 7:57 PM, nabokovfan87 said: Someone around here has to have some Pygmy Sunfish.... Gorgeous fish. I’m breeding them this summer. If you want some in the fall, let me know. They’re a bit of a bother to feed, hide all of the time, and require more of a delicate taste than you’d imagine. Gulf Coast and Okefenokee were separated into two species approximately 15 years ago. The bright blue Gulf Coast males are typically wild-caught. Mine are midnight blue — virtually black. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fish Folk Posted June 16, 2023 Author Share Posted June 16, 2023 On 6/16/2023 at 6:55 AM, Andy's Fish Den said: @Fish Folk one of the board members from my club has been scouting out the creek/ stream that we are going to, and said that he has found rainbow darters and shiners quite readily in it. I would like to get some darters, but I won't be bringing any home as I don't have a tank for natives and don't have room for one right now. It’s fun just to catch, photograph, upload to iNaturalist, and release. Here’s three species from our tiny backyard creek. We catch and release… Blue Ridge Sculpins Black Nose Dace Fantail Darters 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AquaHobbyist123 Posted June 16, 2023 Share Posted June 16, 2023 @Fish Folk Today I was out in a local creek down the road myself. Found quite a few species of fish! Used a Cast Net and Minnow trap. Bluehead Chubs Central Stoneroller Creek Chubs White Suckers (MANY) Spottail Shiner Greenhead Shiner (didn't catch any, but saw quite a few) Other species I've seen and caught before in this creek are Whitefin Shiner Rosyside Dace Tesselated Darter Carolina Fantail Darter Didn't keep most fish, but did retain a nice lookin male bluehead chub! I obviously didn't keep the white sucker, it's MASSIVE. That thing fought in my Cast net hard! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nabokovfan87 Posted June 16, 2023 Share Posted June 16, 2023 On 6/16/2023 at 4:22 AM, Fish Folk said: If you want some in the fall, let me know. They’re a bit of a bother to feed, hide all of the time, and require more of a delicate taste than you’d imagine. Gulf Coast and Okefenokee were separated into two species approximately 15 years ago. The bright blue Gulf Coast males are typically wild-caught. Mine are midnight blue — virtually black. I am definitely intrigued and interested. 🙂 I have a tank with pretty much all black on black fish and it's quite delightful. Temp is the only real concern for me. I saw one in Alyssa Bentley's tour from @Bentley Pascoe and that thing is GORGEOUS. I could only enjoy them more if the blue had some green in it! I was doing research, something like 8-9 species now? This is just a Blue odessa barb with big dough eyes. 😂 Such an unspoken gem of the NANF. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AquaHobbyist123 Posted June 16, 2023 Share Posted June 16, 2023 On 6/16/2023 at 4:16 PM, nabokovfan87 said: I am definitely intrigued and interested. 🙂 I have a tank with pretty much all black on black fish and it's quite delightful. Temp is the only real concern for me. I saw one in Alyssa Bentley's tour from @Bentley Pascoe and that thing is GORGEOUS. I could only enjoy them more if the blue had some green in it! I was doing research, something like 8-9 species now? This is just a Blue odessa barb with big dough eyes. 😂 Such an unspoken gem of the NANF. Those are on my wish list! 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fish Folk Posted June 16, 2023 Author Share Posted June 16, 2023 On 6/16/2023 at 3:53 PM, AquaHobbyist123 said: @Fish Folk Today I was out in a local creek down the road myself. Found quite a few species of fish! Used a Cast Net and Minnow trap. Bluehead Chubs Central Stoneroller Creek Chubs White Suckers (MANY) Spottail Shiner Greenhead Shiner (didn't catch any, but saw quite a few) Other species I've seen and caught before in this creek are Whitefin Shiner Rosyside Dace Tesselated Darter Carolina Fantail Darter Didn't keep most fish, but did retain a nice lookin male bluehead chub! I obviously didn't keep the white sucker, it's MASSIVE. That thing fought in my Cast net hard! That Bluehead is awesome 🤩 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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