North American Natives

[Erbo]

I do love the darters. Got our 265 redone yesterday and ready for some of the cool lil dudes!

[John_Nicholson]

Some cool fish.

I have kept the plains killie before.  It is a great little fish and adapts to an aquarium very quickly.

-john

[bill63sg]

As a kid my Dad would take me dip netting,and I've always had a fodnest for natives.For the last couple of summers I would keep a large mouth bass in my upper pond.My son at the time had an albino corn snake,and I would buy a mouse for the snake and one for the bass.Come September I would let him go and do it again in the spring.

[TURQ64]

We're eating more natives tonight..(walleyes)...Gar and many more similar species are regarded as 'rough fish' and we destroy any we find...anything that predates on the game fish.(other than other game fish) You can't even return one to the water in most states around me...fishing and hunting are our primary tourist dollar draw..no one comes here for the corn, soybeans, and wheat. I used to keep sticklebacks and darters, but since they show up every time I seine for minnows, they became rather obscure in my tanks..

[Disgirl]

I don't keep them myself but in the public aquarium (coast of NC) where I work as a vol. there is a huge tank of long nosed gar, bowfin and snapping turtles.  It is a fascinating tank to watch especially at feeding time.  The gar is fed small fish and is lightening fast as it catches it with needle like teeth.  These fish are prehistoric and look like they lived with dinosaurs!
Barb

[Tropical-Fish-Forums.com]

How about any native fish keepers lurking around in here??  These are one of the many different kind of fishes i keep and probably the most overlooked in the fish keeping hobby.

currently if have a long nosed gar


a bowfin



a central longeared sunfish



and a few more, ive kept several species from around the country, some of the most colorful are the darters which stay small.
one such is the rainbow darter
  these little beauties are small enough for about any fish keepers tank.
photo courtesy: BT Darters