Hi,

I really like the idea of catching and raising native fish so I did a search for fish species in my area and stumbled upon the Pacific Lamprey. I would not want to get near the mouth of that thing. http://calfish.ucdav.../?uid=61&ds=241

No luck so far in finding a relatively small fish native to Northern California. If I can't find any, I'll probably place an order for some pygmy sunfish.

Hi,

I really like the idea of catching and raising native fish so I did a search for fish species in my area and stumbled upon the Pacific Lamprey. I would not want to get near the mouth of that thing. http://calfish.ucdav.../?uid=61&ds=241

But if you go to a NANFA convention with a few of those stuck to you, you're bound to make an impression.

Yeah, lampreys are creepy things. I am still nervous about getting into the water with them. Plus I knew someone whose sister had a small one stick to her leg in their farm pond. (I was a kid when i heard of it and seen the small lamprey in preservative, now I am older I wonder how a lamprey could get into a farm pond cut off from its migration routes and how well the food their would be for it).

Agnathans are weird in general. I am seriously starting to think that they are nearly as different from teleost fish as reptiles are from amphibians and birds are from therapods. At times I wonder if they should still be called fish.

But if you go to a NANFA convention with a few of those stuck to you, you're bound to make an impression.

Yeah, lampreys are creepy things. I am still nervous about getting into the water with them. Plus I knew someone whose sister had a small one stick to her leg in their farm pond. (I was a kid when i heard of it and seen the small lamprey in preservative, now I am older I wonder how a lamprey could get into a farm pond cut off from its migration routes and how well the food their would be for it).

Agnathans are weird in general. I am seriously starting to think that they are nearly as different from teleost fish as reptiles are from amphibians and birds are from therapods. At times I wonder if they should still be called fish.

It sure is no ordinary fish. I wouldn't call it cute but it is actually a pretty interesting fish species. The site states that they remain in freshwater environment for 5-7 years before migrating to an estuary or saltwater. I used to swim in that river where it was caught. The River Lamprey also resides there too. Um...yeah...don't think I would want to go back there now.

I've seen a couple of dead lampreys in the Delaware river. They were large ones around 2 feet long so either they came upriver to spawn and died or they were stuck to big Striped Bass when they came up to spawn. Either way I wouldn't want one stuck to me.

Does anyone have any info on the Petromyzon marinus life cycle? I get conflicting data, some tell me it's potamodromous and some say anadromous; All I know is that they stack up under the dams around here in April and May and I don't like them. I'll occasionally accidentally foul hook one, it's the only fish I don't want to catch.

If you're having trouble finding small fish, try using a fish trap. There are many postings on this forum on what to use, how to use them, etc. There are many species of small fishes in your region, and trapping will likely be your best bet for many of them. Half of the fun (at least) of keeping native fishes is fishing and mucking about in your local stream. It's much for fun, in my experience, to get a little dirty and some mosquito bites than to sit back and click "buy now". Go to the place where the fish live and catch 'em, I say.

And I agree, those lampreys are nasty.

I've mostly caught Least Brook Lampreys, which are small inoffensive creatures. They are very cool fish.

Agnathans are weird in general. I am seriously starting to think that they are nearly as different from teleost fish as reptiles are from amphibians and birds are from therapods. At times I wonder if they should still be called fish.

Depending on who you ask they probably shouldn't be called vertebrates. They're just as different from teleosts as they are from all the other gnathostomes (jawed vertebrates). Its still a bit up in the air how they should be classified, but it looks like hagfish and lampreys are more closely related to each other than they are to the gnathostomes. It used to be thought that lampreys were closer to them than hagfish, but the DNA isn't bearing this out, and I think some of the morphology is agreeing with it. Birds aren't that different from theropods really- and they're closer to some than they are to others.

With amphibians and reptiles (or indeed all amniotes, including mammals) it depends on whether you mean the living ones or if you include the fossil species, which get you right back to things that are barely tetrapods.

/palaeogeekery

kept Pacific Lamprey and loved em' great fish really...

kept Pacific Lamprey and loved em' great fish really...

Do they give love bites?

Do they give love bites?

They suck from time to time but no they do not bite or swallow.

Thanks - that's more information than I require

But if you go to a NANFA convention with a few of those stuck to you, you're bound to make an impression.

Yeah, lampreys are creepy things. I am still nervous about getting into the water with them. Plus I knew someone whose sister had a small one stick to her leg in their farm pond. (I was a kid when i heard of it and seen the small lamprey in preservative, now I am older I wonder how a lamprey could get into a farm pond cut off from its migration routes and how well the food their would be for it).

Agnathans are weird in general. I am seriously starting to think that they are nearly as different from teleost fish as reptiles are from amphibians and birds are from therapods. At times I wonder if they should still be called fish.

But birds really aren't much different from theropods, but I suppose that is a discussion for another forum. My professor once said in class that human beings are more closely related to salamanders than lamprey are to walleye. That statement stuck with me, many of the animals we call fish really aren't closely related to each other. Pretty much anything that looks like a fish is classified as a fish. All the animals classified as fish are as diverse as all the animals classified as tetrapods and even some fish are tetrapods as well.