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Hello from Fort Worth, TX

Started by Guest_pam916_* , Apr 07 2012 12:16 AM

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14 replies to this topic

#1 Guest_pam916_*

Guests

Posted 07 April 2012 - 12:16 AM

I belonged to NANFA so long ago that most of you were probably not born yet, lol. I currently keep discus, freshwater shrimp (crs, rcs, oebt, fire reds, green), dwarf orange crayfish, odessa barbs and assortment of others. I have kept gar and sunfish in the past. I am very interested in setting up a pygmy sunfish tank. I belong to the DFW Fishbox, DFW Planted Tank Club and the Texas Cichlid Assn. which are in my local area. I look forward to learning from all of you and thanks for letting me become a member.

#2 Michael Wolfe

Board of Directors

North Georgia, Oconee River Drainage

Posted 07 April 2012 - 06:33 AM

Welcome back to native fish. Its great to have experienced fish people here on the forum.

Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. - Benjamin Franklin

#3 Guest_bbrown_*

Guests

Posted 07 April 2012 - 08:36 AM

Hi Pam,

I'm just across the river from you on the OK side of Lake Texoma. Glad to hear about your interest in native fish, if you need any help collecting banded pygmy sunfish please don't hesitate to ask.

#4 Guest_pam916_*

Guests

Posted 15 April 2012 - 04:00 AM

I would love to have some help collecting banded pygmy sunfish. Can you give me some information on where and how to collect them.

#5 Guest_Usil_*

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Posted 15 April 2012 - 11:25 PM

Pam916 - When you collect in the DFW area do you know where to collect some orange spotted sunfish?

Also, are there any 'small' sunfish species in the DFW area?

Usil

Edited by Usil, 15 April 2012 - 11:26 PM.

#6 Guest_bbrown_*

Guests

Posted 16 April 2012 - 09:32 PM

I do my collecting on the north side of the Red River, so I can't name a specific place in Texas but I don't think they should be too hard to find in the heavily vegetated sloughs and ditches of far NE Texas. In Oklahoma they're common in the ditches and sloughs along the Red River in McCurtain and Choctaw counties.

The best way to catch them is to wade into shallow heavy vegetated water and quickly scoop a sturdy dipnet through the vegetation. Scoop up veg, mud, leaf litter and all and then carefully pick the little guys out of the trash. They'll probably be about 1" long and jet black, when you find the right spot they can be very abundant. You know your in the right spot and doing it right if your getting things like grass shrimp, golden or western starheaded topminnows, grass pickerel, fliers or bowfin.

I was near Idabel Ok earlier today and tried to collect some for you, but my usual banded pygmy hotspot only produced crayfish today.

#7 Guest_Usil_*

Guests

Posted 17 April 2012 - 02:30 AM

Thanks for this information. I reset my 55 gallon last month. I had longear and redear in it but they got too big and I let the algae get completely out of hand so I cleaned it out. Now I want to try some smaller species sunfish and black banded and banded pygmy sunfish are also on my list. That was why I asked what kind of small sunfish live around the DFW area. I am still looking for locations to try but have no idea where to start.

Usil

#8 Guest_bbrown_*

Guests

Posted 17 April 2012 - 09:40 AM

Usil - Dollar and bantam sunfish are also found in the same places as banded pygmies. Spotted sunfish can be found in the Mountain Fork River near Broken Bow, OK and usually don't get much bigger than 4 or five inches (Pic attached).

For orangespots try seining around boat ramps in turbid reserviors.

#9 Guest_Usil_*

Guests

Posted 17 April 2012 - 06:09 PM

Nice looking Orange Spot.

Usil

#10 Guest_bbrown_*

Guests

Posted 17 April 2012 - 07:08 PM

It's actually a redspotted sunfish (Lepomis miniatus), sometimes called spotted sunfish.

#11 Guest_Usil_*

Guests

Posted 17 April 2012 - 08:47 PM

I thought it looked a little big for an orange spot but I had orange spot on the brain.

Usil

#12 Guest_pam916_*

Guests

Posted 24 April 2012 - 05:18 AM

Thanks bbrown for trying to catch some pygmy sunfish! If you have any luck in the future please let me know. I would love to see if I can get them to breed.

Usil, it is cool that you live in my area. We should see if we can get a group together to go collecting. I am thinking the Fort Worth Nature Center. I will post a thread on the DFW Fishbox to see if I can generate some interest. The DFW Planted Tank Club is planning a collecting trip to San Marcos in June. I went last year, we collected plants but I bet you can collect fish as well

#13 Guest_davidjh2_*

Guests

Posted 02 May 2012 - 03:12 PM

I was near Idabel Ok earlier today and tried to collect some for you, but my usual banded pygmy hotspot only produced crayfish today.

You do realize that since you're in Texas the crayfish are probably a species not available here in NJ so the "only produced crayfish" part of your post is making me cry lol.

Edited by davidjh2, 02 May 2012 - 03:26 PM.