Even though I've made a few posts, I thought I would introduce myself.

I recently moved back to Missouri after finishing my PhD in New York. I'm so glad to be back in a place with tons of (free!) parks and conservation areas! No offense to New Yorkers, but I was pretty disappointed in the state's outdoors offerings compared to MO.

Anyways, now that we have a house my wife has agreed to let me keep fish again. Through middle school and high school I had as many as 11 freshwater tanks running, but my parents made me sell all but my 75g when I went to college, then they made me sell that one while I was in grad school and they were moving. The closest I came to keeping native fishes was when I filled up a kiddie pool in the backyard when I was 15 and stocked it with whatever my friend and I could grab in a local creek. It did not go well.

Right now I have a 40g reef aquarium and a 10g reef aquarium. I don't currently have one set up for native fishes, but once my saltwater QT tank is taken down I'll be replacing it with a native fish tank. I'm not sure if I'll be able to bring home anything I collect this season or if I'll end up waiting until 2011, but either way I'll be out just about every chance I get trying to catch stuff and work on my ID skills.

Welcome aboard, ive only been keeping Natives for a couple of years, but have no idea why i didnt start sooner, and was so happy to learn that all sunfish are not Bluegill

Welcome to Nanfa its good to see yet another fellow Missourian on the site!