Native Fish Aquariums

[DTro]

I know there has been a few posts in the past about keeping native fish in an aquarium, in fact I used to have a couple of bass and sunfish in a 55 gallon.

I just picked up a 72 gallon bowed front with stand and canopy in perfect shape. My wallet is a Benjamin leaner, but what a deal!

Anyways, just looking for some ideas. I have my basement totally done in fishing decor. As I sit and look at this empty tank I'm thinking "gosh, there's a whole lot of room in there."

I was thinking it might be kind of neat doing it like one of Les Kouba's paintings, with a small old junk and a log or two with some small jigs stuck to it with a couple of beer cans scattered about

Or maybe something dedicated to the kittys. I could put a fairly large channel in there

Any other ideas.

Also, I believe the place I bought the last native fish was in crystal or new hope anyone know if the place is still there, or who carries natives.

I know it's illegal to catch my own

[Valv]

Actually if you have children, nephews, cousins, any in-law, or just borrow a friend's kid for a couple of hours, you can catch them yourself.

My past experience, the smaller the better, they'll grow in your tank.

Get a good variety, and you'll have fun watching them.

[efgh]

I was told by the D.N.R.in waerville , you can have Game fish in your aquarium, they count against your limit. if you have 5 croppies in your aq. you can only caych 5 more, ect.

[NE angler]

They grow very quickly so I would not get too large of cat. Cool idea with the Kouba concept - post some pics when you get done with her.

[river rat316]

Watch out for large cats there tank busters, they get aggressive and rip up your tank and create waves that send water over the top! I tried keeping a small pike that my son caught, within the first day he killed every fish in there and a week later died himself, native fish are not as hardy as you would think!

[Ralph Wiggum]

I'm pretty sure that if you buy them legally and have a sales reciept, they won't count against your limit. The place you're thinking of is in Crystal and it is still open, but I have no idea if they have native fish or not. I know that a store called Fish 'n Pets in Rochester carries a supply of them. I've seen sunnies, crappies, bass, rock bass, and pike for sale. I know they have a web site if you feel like doing a search.

[Bubbadust]

A World Of Fish in Richfield sells them.

[hydro]

Crayfish are fun to watch in a tank. They will eat small minnows and are easy to keep. Small bullheads (3"-5") can be amusing as well. Neither will count against your limit either;)

[Slyster]

I bought (Har Mar pet store a few years back) a 2" Northern Pike (They had bass as well).. fed him minnows in a 55gal tank.. and he did SO well.. and was amazing to watch.. he grew so fast though.. and in less than a year or so I had to eat him.. he was longer than the width of the tank so was having trouble turning around... (j/k... I let him go in a local lake)

Was a great fish. Also have kept bass. Bass were easier since they ate pellet food.. pike had to have live food.

[DTro]

slyster, I just have to ask....is your signature derived from a video game?

[ironman]

If you plan on mixing fish...dont add any smallies. They will dominate the tank and stress the other fish out or outright kill them. I'm speaking from experience. Very territorial! However, largemouth are easy and they tame up real fast I used to feed one sandwich meat by hand and could even pet it. I still prefer pumkins and green sunfish..there pretty cool to watch as they jockey for the best structure.

[Slyster]

dtro.. yeah.. "All your base are belong to us"... from an old vintage Japanese video game with poor translation. The joke carried on into the Quake3 community.. which I was heavily involved with for years! (still am)

[DTro]

hehe I thought so. There's a good chance, at any given time you can find me in 3 places. In the boat fishing, posting here, or in front of my 50" RPLCD playing XBOX.

Believe it or not I was part of an online fishing league via XBOX and Pro Fishing Challenge

[Slyster]

I LOVE online gaming.. and have been in many leagues and tourneys.. for the last 6 years I have been the leader of the "Fightclub" [F|C] Q3 clan.. great fun! I'd LOVE to be on a fishing team.. sounds awesome!

[LEECH21]

I have an empty 75 gallon at home here and am debating what I should fill it with when I get time. I was thinking also native fish or a school of piranhas. I've kept piranhas before and they are pretty cool to watch. Once I fed one a small carp. It was amazing because the piranha was very smart and only took chunks out of the carp each day from areas that wouldn't kill it. That way the carp lived for about a week with chunks missing all over and the piranha had fresh fish every day. But, on the other hand watching the huge bluegill that they have at the BobberShop in Mankato is pretty cool too. I wonder how hard it would be to raise a bluegill to that size in captivity?

[hanson]

A relative of mine has a pretty large tank. Its about 3 1/2 feet wide, 3 feet tall, and about 2 feet deep. I'm not sure what that equals in gallons but it is a pretty nice set-up.

Last time I was there, he had 3 crappies & 2 bluegills in the tank. The 2 bluegills are absolute bulls!! I know he's had the gills for over 1-1/2 years now. The bluegills have to be pushing 1-1/2 pounds pretty easily.

He keeps a cooler with a small aerator full of minnows and feeds them a few minnows every day.

Seams like its a pretty maintenance free set-up and the fish get along with each other pretty well.

[Scarecrow22]

I have a 55 gal bowfront set up with a river theme. Driftwood, gravel, rocks, clamshells, and a couple of grolsch beer bottles.

The residents for the past three years are a longnose gar and a shovelhead cat. A XL pleicostamous (sp?) keeps the algae down. I drop in a dozen feeder goldfish every week and they usually last about a day.

The gar is fun to watch eat because it will slowly drift next to the fish and snap its head sideways. It will usually catch it by the tail or belly so it must quickly release and re-catch the goldfish until it can swallow it headfirst. The cat just blasts out of the driftwood.

Aside from being fun to watch, it is also educational for my kids and anyone else who might come over. It still surprises me how few people understand that fish (other than pirhanas) eat other fish. At least my progeny will have a good understanding of the food chain

[Moose-Hunter]

I've been keeping natives for quite some time now. It's amazing how they react to weather/light changes as if the were in the wild. In my big tank (110gal) I have four crappies and a walleye. In my smaller tank (55gal) swims a nice little school of about a dozen small (3" or less) red ear sunnies.

A small warning about bait store minnows.... DON'T USE THEM FOR FEEDERS!!! UNLESS... You have a bait tank treated with either coppersafe of dimilin. Keep your feeder stock in the treated water for at least 4 weeks prior to dropping them in with your natives. Bait shop minnows do carry parasites and will infest your tank in a heartbeat! I've been through two rounds of anchor worms and let me tell ya, them little buggers are tough to get rid of. And they came from pet store feeders!

I always (in the past anyway) have tried to use live plants in my tanks. However, these past few months have been tough to get them to survive. I've been told it's due to "weak stock" coming out of Florida.... I'll keep trying though. Nothing beats a nice planted tank!!

Native tanks are a lot of fun!! Enjoy!!

[DTro]

well, I got it all set up. For now I went with a mix of pond rock with some larger ones thrown in and a few real big driftwood/tree root pieces. I have a couple of large shiners 3 small bullies and a crayfish. I need to go out and get some more species.

Strange thing though is that after a couple of nights I cannot locate the bullies. I've rattled the wood around, threw in some crawlers pieces, and nothing. Very wierd that I can't find them

[hydro]

Is your crayfish looking fat???

[smmurphy]

Crayfish "love" bullies.....

[TurnUpTheFishing]

Whats the maintenance like on a native aquarium?

[Scarecrow22]

As you might expect, more fish=more work. With 3 fish (see above) I vaccuum the droppings off the bottom about once a month and let the pliecostomus take care of any algae. Replace the water I removed and that is about it. Pretty balanced tank after all these years.

By the way, you can really impact the growth of the native fish by how often you change the water. The way I understand it, the fish give off a chemical that inhibits growth when it reaches a certain concentration. If you are changing the water regularly, the levels never really hit the critical point and the fish keeps growing (assuming food and other conditions are good). A good way to manage the size and also keep fish from outgrowing their tank.

[DTro]

Quote:

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Crayfish "love" bullies.....

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You're not serious are you?

I turned on the light this morning and spotted one bullhead (no idead where they are going) and noticed a shiner half eaten

[hanson]

You sure those bullies didn't end up back in your bait tank?

[DTro]

yeah,... I knew that was coming

[Aquaman01]

Some cool sounding set-ups in here! I'll have to consider the empty beer bottle idea for a crawdad hidey-hole.

I have had a 55 gal native tank for about two years. We've had rock bass, a crappie and big stuff from the minnow trap and have now settled upon two channel cats. One is 12" or so and the other is 15". I've been really busy lately and the tank is kinda foul, but the cats aren't fazed at all.

We feed 'em whatever is around; leftover bait, fish entrails, a nip or two from a fillet. We've had 'em almost two years now.

Legally you can get fish with a kid in the house, purchase from a licensed dealer or keep anything you can buy from a baitshop. Game fish DO count against your limit and are also counted as in or out of season fish. If you are gonna have a fish with a season (bass, walleye, pike, trout, etc.) then they should be store-purchased and keep the reciept.

Aquarium fish & plants cannot be legally re-introduced back into a body of water.

Mussels are great at keeping a tank clean, but they have to be store-bought unless you have a special harvest permit. I bought two Common Muckets last year and they do a pretty good job of keeping the sand clean. I gather snails, too, but they end up eaten by the cats eventually.

This winter when I'm bored I might set it up with an end-mount pump and give it some current.

Good luck!

[smmurphy]

When I was a kid - yeah I know ancient history - I had a tank that I kept with some sunnies, bullheads, crayfish and a small snapping turtle. At first I thought it was the snapper that was attacking the bullies, but I was up late one night, with no lights on except for the lava lamp (does this date it?) and saw one of the large crayfish go after the bullies. I'm sure the snapper was also going after them, but I saw the crayfish go after them. They also went after some tadpoles and each other.

[mnsnowdaboy]

what pet shops sell Native fish as for right now. I know the fish shop in Forest Lake sells a lot but they get shipments only in the spring. They still got some smallies, bluegills, and crappies.

I'm trying to find largemouths or walleyes to keep.

[Valv]

I tried walleyes twice but they didn't last, you might want to think twice before getting some.

I think they are too timid of fish, and cannot stand the pressure of people around.

The opposite are bass, which will come and eat from your hands after few weeks.