[Hoosier Tank]

Would you keep a native species set-up?​

Have done it or currently have one	27	40.91%
Have thought about doing one.	25	37.88%
Haven't given it any thought	14	21.21%
It's blasphemy and I should be banned from forum for even thinking of this.	0	0.00%

 

[Hoosier Tank]

I live a 25 acre lake and for years have want to have a "Native" set-up tank. I have searched for information and was wondering if there are any others here who have done this. Or is it considered sacrilegious??
I will soon have access to all the juvies I will ever need when I rake the moss from the beach. Typically about this size.

My stocklist could include any of the following Centrarchidae:
Lepomis gibbosus Pumpkinseed sunfish

Lepomis cyanellus Green Sunfish

Lepomis megalotis â€" Longeared sunfish

Lepomis macrochirus Bluegill

Pomoxis nigromaculatus, Black Crappie

and as a bottom feeding substrate cleaner…
Ictalurus melas, Black Bullhead

To some of our members from "across the pond" these may seem unusal, but in my area they are common everyday fish caught by the thousands for sports / recreation.

 

[Aqua D]

Great idea! I was talking with a friend (who likes to fish), he doesn't have any tanks but said it would be cool to have a tank with local fish. I am trying to talk him into setting up a BIG tank and keep some! I will let ya know if he buys the idea. Let me know if you set something up!

 

[Number6]

none of those are cichlids... so how is this a N.A. cichlid tank? or was that tongue in cheek?

 

[BlackShark11k]

I used to have a 20 gallon tank with four juvenile bluegill, one juvenille crappie, and one mid-adult bullhead(Now they're all in a 700 gal pond with four butterfly koi and two shubunkan goldfish). But none of these are cichlids. . .The only native North American cichlid is the texas cichlid.

 

[Hoosier Tank]

none of those are cichlids... so how is this a N.A. cichlid tank? or was that tongue in cheek?

OMG now that IS embarrasing, I honestly thought and was told by my LFS they were!
Wonder if I can go back and edit the title...

 

[BlackShark11k]

I was too- only I didn't buy it due to the fact I had read yesterday they were NOT! He was the same guy that pronounced cichlids, sitchlids.

 

[redzebra24]

Bass pro shop in Gurnee Il has a HUGE indoor tank with native fish. It look Great. There is only 1 pic but you get a general idea http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/store ... =000000000

 

[Afishionado]

How big an aquarium would you need to successfully keep those species long term?

 

[Fogelhund]

How big an aquarium would you need to successfully keep those species long term?

Pretty big. They can be pretty aggressive and territorial. It largely depends on which species, and how many you plan to keep.

 

[co-photo]

Centrarchids are extremely tough and can tolerate most water parameters, thus do well in aquariums. They are similar to cichlids, particularly mbuna, in that they hover above their claimed territory to guard it. As stated above they get rather big, and are very territorial, so I’d say at least a 6 foot tank to keep just a few full sized adults.

They'll eat just about anything too.

 

[Hoosier Tank]

If they start getting too big, I can just walk out the backdoor and exchange them. 8)

 

[co-photo]

If they start getting too big, I can just walk out the backdoor and exchange them. 8)

 

[Joea]

I'd check to see how legal a tank like this would be as well.

It's illegal (at least here in Canada) to keep native fish in captivity without special licences. I once thought about setting up a Small-mouth Bass tank with a Northern Ontario Lake theme but was told by a friend who's a game warden that I wouldn't be able to afford the fines.

 

[Afishionado]

If they start getting too big, I can just walk out the backdoor and exchange them. 8)

Yep, releasing them could cost you your car, house and firstborn around here... (well maybe not quite THAT much, but you get the picture...)

 

[BlackShark11k]

In fact, i just caught two pumpkin seed with a net, which are now subsiding in an aquarium of mine. They're quite pretty, and fairly active.

 

[Fogelhund]

I'd check to see how legal a tank like this would be as well.

It's illegal (at least here in Canada) to keep native GAME fish in captivity without special licences. I once thought about setting up a Small-mouth Bass tank with a Northern Ontario Lake theme but was told by a friend who's a game warden that I wouldn't be able to afford the fines.

Fixed that for you. :wink:

 

[fishonthebrain]

I've kept several natives over the past few years. Large mouth bass, several diff sunfish, bull heads, and also lots of different top swimmers, flag fish misquito fish and others.

To say the least they larger species are very messy fish once to a decent size, but not any worse than your oscars or jags. They also seem to take well to commercial foods, flakes pellets and what not. The only problems i really ever had was initial die offs due to disease, and outgrowing tanks.

Good luck!

Jess

 

[Hoosier Tank]

I never considered the fact that it may be regulated / illegal. I will check with the fish cops before attempting this. Thanks for the heads up. I would think that if you had a fishing license you would be safe. After all with one of those, you can KILL & EAT them for crying out loud!

 

[Tanganyikaguy]

I kept a small darter tank for a while. I set up a 15 gallon with a large filter to give the water lots of oxygen. then I went down to a creek down the street from my house at night with a flashlight and caught a couple of species of madtom catfish and 2 or 3 species of darter.

they all did great in that tank on a diet of frozen mosquito larva and bloodworms, and some live blackworms every once in a while.

yes, there are regulations against keeping gamefish. but in most states, sunfish and bluegills and bullheads are not game fish. but crappie and bass are.

I talked with the Missouri and the Texas fish and game people, and as long as the gamefish is legal size and it is caught in a legal way (hook and line) it doesnt matter what you do with it. but you can get in trouble for keeping undersize or illegally caught gamefish. be sure to check your local laws.

keeping big sunfish is just like keeping big central/southern american cichlids. they are messy and agressive. the green sunfish gets pretty large. but the redear and longear sunfish dont get too big, and they have really nice coloration.