Some Newbie Pictures

Hey all,

This is the best freakin site for fish tanks ever! It's like being reunited with family! I never found people into the native fish tanks until now. Well here are a few of my fish in a 20 and 30 tall that I'm breaking down to set up a 90! Woo-Hoo!!! The largie in the pics is now about 10" and is going back to the lake in the spring. He's waiting his time out in a shinner holding tank. The pumpkin sunny became lunch for the largie, DOH, and I still have all my yllw-cats. There are 3 in the picture, but theres seven all together. O yes on question for everyone who can relate,,, do you often get weird looks from people when you out collecting fish,( I call it scoopin). Being 26 and looking like a 4 yr old searching thru my net for tiny fish tends to get me these odd reactions at the lake, pond, or stream I'm at. But its so cool to learn about the biology and fish spcies and sub-spcies. lol

Also sorry for the quality of the pics, I did say I was a newbie
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Nice collection of fish. I must tell you though, do not release that bass...ever! It's very important that once fish come home with us they never are placed back into the wild. There is a chance that if you let him go he could take some disease/parasite or anything else present in your tank but not in the wild with him.


Oh yeah, I get the strange looks as well.

Welcome joia2181,

Sandtiger brings up a good point about release of captive fish. Please take the time to read below links.
NANFA code of ethics
Releasing fish into the wild thread

BTW....Nice pics and nice fish!

S.O.B.!!!!! It never came across me like that before, putting diseases back into nature. You know as sad it sounds; I'll probably never take another bass Lg/Sm mouth again. Of even a chain pickerel for that matter. Anything that has a chance to outgrow the tank.. Dam,,, I’ve had everything too: Large mouth, small mouth bass. Chain, redfin and emerald pickerel. Brown and yellow bullhead, baby channel and white cats too. Man every type of sunnie, calicos, yellow perch. I've only release the bass, chain, and channel cat though. I still have or they became food for another creature has been the fate for the rest.

I do have some issues though. If im out fishing and catch a huge fish and want to weight it in, I always return the fish!!!! Massachusetts does have the same rule about taking fish out of the water: don’t put it back! But common, I'm not gonna kill a 8-9lb large mouth, I just want the freakin pin from the state!(if u fish u’ll get the reference) I keep it in an aerated cooler , fly back to the bait shop, weight it, measure it, and bring it back- and yet this is technically illegal???? B.S. What about the shiners that are being introduced as food in the ecosystem? You know they aint too healthy either! I'm surprised live bait isn’t prohibited in all areas. There are so many ways of contaminating what we touch. We probably shouldn't be taking anything from the wild at all.

Anyhow, thank you for reading my frustration and the advice is highly regarded. I’ll be arguing ur points with a couple buddies now, lol. O yea, I have a baby snaper named earl, he almost two and I’ve had him since he was a quarter size, do I have to keep him forever too??Dang!!!

If you keep aquarium water out of the cooler or bleach it after exposure to the aquarium water, you're good to go, there's no contamination issues. The problem comes from them being in a tight system, where stress can be abundant, and those goldfish feeders are bring in gosh-knows-what kind of satan spawn parasites, where they lie in wait for compromised immunity.

Yes, you might see why I collect all my bait at the waterbody as a mater of ethics

There is always the approach of euthenizing the fish once too large, you just have to accept and be comfortable with that up front. This can be done in a peaceful and inexpensive way using clove oil and a couple drops of alcohol, which you can get any most any health food store. It basically anethesitizes the fish into the great beyond. Smells good too

Todd

Hey joia2181 welcome...you mentioned Emerald Pickerel?? I've seen photos of them on the net before...really nice coloring...Do you have pics of it? How often does one see an emerald Pike?

Never heard of emerald pickerel. Is that another way of saying grass pickerel?

I think emerald pike is a color mutation of the grass pickerel? the only pics I have seen is from Jonah's:
http://www.jonahsaqu...mericanusem.htm
Such a beauty!

I think emerald pike is a color mutation of the grass pickerel? the only pics I have seen is from Jonah's:
http://www.jonahsaqu...mericanusem.htm
Such a beauty!

Such a beauty indeed! Looks like a particularly pale green grass pickerel to me.

I know there were only two of these "emerald" pickerel at jonah's aquarium. I should know they were fish I produced on accident. I breed grass pickerel every year in a small pond, I collect breeders in the fall and then sell the offspring the following spring. A couple years back when collecting young we found 2 of these fish in my pond which are the fish you see pictured at jonahsaquarium.com. I sell 95% of my fish through jonah's. These fish are just a color morph of grass pickerel, they are a very interesting one though. I'm curious are you saying you have found these in the wild some where? if so have they been found frequently?

I know there were only two of these "emerald" pickerel at jonah's aquarium. I should know they were fish I produced on accident. I breed grass pickerel every year in a small pond, I collect breeders in the fall and then sell the offspring the following spring. A couple years back when collecting young we found 2 of these fish in my pond which are the fish you see pictured at jonahsaquarium.com. I sell 95% of my fish through jonah's. These fish are just a color morph of grass pickerel, they are a very interesting one though. I'm curious are you saying you have found these in the wild some where? if so have they been found frequently?

If you get any more of those color morphs and you're willing to sell them, put me on the list, I'd like to buy one!

Small world, Jonah's was the reason I thought they were emerald! I've only scooped one in my life. Its was in a small slow current brook pond in Brook Heaven Estates in attleboro Ma. It was were I usually scoop redfin, grass and yllw cats. All of a sudden there was this bright green pick compared to the grass. I was confused at fisrt becuase I couldn't find info on them till I saw it on Jonahs. It's the same place I once scooped a blue crayfish too. But no, I do not have a picture

Wow thats great...put me on the waiting list too ...for the emerald Pike...and the bluecrayfish! Color morphs are hard to come by...lol.
I thought once I saw a pic of an albino pike too...pretty cool looking.

Like I said Mark (owner of jonah's) and I only ever found 2 of those out of my pond. I gave them both too him and he grew them up and photographed them. I have not seen any more since then and that was a couple years ago. This appears to be a naturually occuring color morph though since you found one in a very seperate location. By the way in that area they should all be redfin or chain pickerel. Redfins do not always have bright red fins though and those are probably what you are thinking are grass pickerel, unless they have been introduced you are well outside the natural range for grass pickerel. That makes your "emerald" colored one that much more interesting though since it apparently shows they can occur in both subspecies (redfin (yours) and my two (grass). Speaking of odd color morps check out the photo's my wife took of these "gold" redbreast sunfish at the tennessee aquarium... http://nomy.org/nanf...pomis/Lauritus/ I've seen this color morph in a lot of species including rainbow trout, channel catfish, many commercially produced tropicals, and of course what we all know as "rosey reds" at pet shops which are fathead minnows.