Hi all,
Glad I found this site. I a a lifetime aquarist but very new to natives. In the past I have had following species tanks.

Cichlids
Piranha
Goldfish varieties
Angels
Tetras

And for many years a beautiful marine reef tank

Recently my family and I moved to the Missouri Ozarks near Branson. Having spent many many vacations on the lakes and streams of the Missouri Ozarks I am quite familiar with the various wildlife that inhabits this region. Since I had no other tanks going other than my daughters turtle (A Missouri Map Turtle) We decided a Ozark Native tank was in order. From a local stream that is drying up from the weather and literally there are some puddles, we caught

Orange Throat Darter
Banded Sculpin
Ozark Minnow
Southern Red Belly Dace
Rock Bass (Very Small)
Blue Gill

Some snails and crawdads

Most are quite small and will transition to a 125 in the coming months but for now are in my 56 column.

The Minnows and Dace are eating anything that floats by them, The darters are doing nicely on shrimp pellets, frozen brine shrimp and frozen worms.

The rock bass and blue gill will eat anything.

The Sculpin are making the minnow and small crawdad population decline steadily and are attacking the shrimp pellets

So it looks like all is going well with the transition to aquarium life.

Anyway, I am here to learn and share knowledge on natives and will be a NANFA member come payday

Jeff

Welcome to NANFA, Jeff. The Ozarks are a pretty neat area for native fishes. There are some interesting endemics here including Duskystripe shiners, Yoke and Saddled darters, Checkered and Ozark madtoms, Knobfin sculpins, Ozark bass (which your Rock bass may be), and Longpincered crayfish just to name a few.

Those darters, dace, and minnows of yours won't be completely safe with that Banded sculpin around (I've seen them get up to 8" long), but you are probably already aware of that.

Edited by IsaacSzabo, 26 July 2012 - 02:48 AM.

Thanks, Ya I kinda figured the sculpins would regularly deplete the minnow population but they are plentiful and easy to catch. I just love the Sculpins. I was wondering about the rock bass. I will have to research how to tell the difference. In the very quickly disappearing puddle that used to be a stream there is at least one small Mad Tom I have been trying to catch but he's the most elusive critter I've ever come across.

Jeff thats some really nice looking fish, I do believe that is a rockbass and not a Ozark bass from the markings, where did you catch the little bugger?

Caught him in a creek not far from Ozark, Mo. Don't know the name of it. Not much left of it at this point though. The weather has dried it up almost entirely. Just a few large puddle here and there. If we don't get some real rain soon, my tank inhabitants may well be the only survivors

Caught him in a creek not far from Ozark, Mo. Don't know the name of it. Not much left of it at this point though. The weather has dried it up almost entirely. Just a few large puddle here and there. If we don't get some real rain soon, my tank inhabitants may well be the only survivors

Sorry to hear that .....the Finley is really low and small itself; I do believe the only place to catch Ozark bass is the white river and its tributaries in Missouri.

Ozark Bass are endemic to the White River system in Missouri and Arkansas. A creek near Ozark, MO is most likely within the White River drainage. So, based on location, it is most likely an Ozark Bass. However, Rock Bass are a species that have likely been stocked and moved around quite a lot, so you cannot go on location alone. In my experience, the pattern on Ozark Bass can vary quite a lot, so I think it would be difficult to ID this fish with certainty without a closer picture.

Ozark Bass are endemic to the White River system in Missouri and Arkansas. A creek near Ozark, MO is most likely within the White River drainage. So, based on location, it is most likely an Ozark Bass. However, Rock Bass are a species that have likely been stocked and moved around quite a lot, so you cannot go on location alone. In my experience, the pattern on Ozark Bass can vary quite a lot, so I think it would be difficult to ID this fish with certainty without a closer picture.

Oh snap! I checked and you are correct, thank you, thats entirely possible since we dont know which creek jdbassin was talking about.