Hello All...new Here :)

[KingFisher007]

Hahahahaha......now thats some funny stuff.

[Terry Beeson]

Lord knows Miz Ducky could use some help trying to get this group to at least act like gentlemen even if they have to fake it. ;o) CC

I resemble that remark!!

KingFisher - google "Amos 'n' Andy" for the "Ruby Begonia" reference...

[catman]

I'm close to you KingFisher007, email me and I'll fill you in on the areas close to us here in NW AR, creeks for smallies and the trout areas to fish not far away if you like.

[KingFisher007]

Thanks catman...you got mail..and I googled that and found nothing lol...

[Al Agnew]

Re: native fish for aquariums...

I have a 100 gallon aquarium in the front entryway to the house, that always has native Missouri creek fish in it. I've had it for many years and by now I pretty much know all the ins and outs, and the fish that work or don't work in it.

Most beautiful fish:

adult longear sunfish

rainbow darter

redbelly dace

bleeding shiner

Some of the most interesting fish:

young rock bass or shadow bass

logperch

madtoms

fingerlings bass (largemouth or smallmouth)

old standbys that are interesting in appearance and easy to maintain:

stonerollers

common or striped shiners

steelcolor shiners

blackstriped or blackspotted topminnows

bluntnose minnows

bluegill

creek chubs

hornyhead or redspot chubs

cool fish, but hard to keep alive in an aquarium--wish they weren't:

sculpins

young hogsuckers

northern studfish (beautiful, but just don't eat well)

brook silversides (others seem to keep them okay, but I have bad luck with them)

various darters

young redhorse suckers

In addition, crayfish are a lot of fun to watch in an aquarium but if you keep them you usually can't keep real aquatic plants...they eat the plants amazingly quickly. Hellgramites ought to be cool, but they disappear in the gravel and are never seen again until this big ugly dobson fly shows up buzzing through the house. Redeared slider turtles are great, but little softshell turtles are often too stupid to figure out what to eat and don't do well. Young snapping turtles are really cool until they eat all your fish.

Small bass will always eat anything they can swallow, including minnows almost as big as they are, as will baby rock bass, so if you keep those fish, don't expect to keep minnows or other small fish. I've kept a lot of bass until they were about two inches long, then released them. They are fairly easy to get acclimated to eating dried brine shrimp or other dead but real critters, but won't eat flake food. Ditto with some species of darters, but other species won't ever figure out to eat anything that doesn't move. I still haven't figured out why sculpins, hogsuckers, redhorse, or studfish won't eat well.

Right now I have bluegill, longears, a hybrid bluegill/green sunfish, steelcolor shiners, common shiners, bleeding shiners, bluntnose minnows, redbelly dace, stonerollers, and crayfish.

[Ham]

Hey Al:

Go dip up a bunch of scuds and sowbugs. Dump those in and watch the feeding frenzy that takes place.

Frozen cubes of bloodworms should work and they would "move" as the outflow from the pump broke up the cube.

Young Bullhead catfish are fun. They find very interesting places to hide.

I've had various tanks at different times and while they were lots of fun, I don't want to go there again.

[Crippled Caddis]

Al pretty much nailed my own experiences---and added a lot of good info as well. I find natives a lot more interesting than exotics and learn a lot from watching them that is readily adaptable to fishing. Frankly some of our natives are so colorful that I can't understand why more people don't keep them in lieu of imported exotics.

At one time @ 20 years ago when I had a flytying group in on Weds. nites I devoted a small aquarium to nymphs so we could have real models to try to duplicate. That was very popular with the flytyers, especially when we had a 'hatch' to watch unfold, but you really need a very understanding spouse for it to be good idea. I am abnormally fortunate in that respect. CC

[JobyKSU]

Frankly some of our natives are so colorful that I can't understand why more people don't keep them in lieu of imported exotics.

I agree wholeheartedly... ironically southern dace, pumpkinseed, and longeared sunfish are relatively popular in European aquariums, and you can often find pickerel in Asian aquariums. They haven't quite caught on here, though.

[Al Agnew]

Yeah, the exotics have never interested me at all. Native fish are really cool.

Ham, you're right, the frozen brine shrimp and bloodworms are very good for the fish that want live food. Whenever I get some darters, that's what I feed them. But if you just dump in the frozen cubes, the minnows that stay in the upper water column eat them as fast as they thaw and come off the cube, and as soon as the cube gets small enough one of the creek chubs or other minnows with larger mouths gulps the whole thing. So I thaw the cubes out in a cup of aquarium water first, then dump the whole thing in at once. Enough of the thawed, separated critters make it past the minnows to the bottom so the darters get their share.

I had a supplier from which I bought big containers of "soft" brine shrimp...looked like it was dead but not dried. That was great, but they went out of business. Wish I could find another source.

I know the scuds are great when you can get them easily. I have a creek right behind the house that is mostly dry but has some permanent pools where tiny springs enter it. At certain times, a couple of kinds of aquatic insects get thick in those tiny pools and you can scoop them up with a minnow hand net. Dump a bunch of those in the aquarium and watch the fun begin. Also, when I have sunfish and little bass, in the spring as soon as the first hatch of bluegill occurs in my pond, I'll go out with a big net and scoop up a bunch of tiny bluegill fry, about a half inch long. They don't last long in the aquarium, either...the sunfish, bass, and even the creek chubs and hornyhead chubs scarf them up.