Hey y'all! I'm a student at East Carolina University in Greenville, NC which lies right on the Tar River. I have a 75 gallon tank at the moment and am wondering what kind of natives would be available to me around here? I'm particularly interested in bullhead catfish, shiners, and sunfish. Thanks in advance for this help y'all!
Tar River - Greenville, NC
Started by
Guest_stellyj11_*
, May 25 2013 08:44 PM
8 replies to this topic
#3
Guest_EricaWieser_*
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Posted 26 May 2013 - 07:58 PM
The 'freshwater species by river basin' link will open a pdf file: http://portal.ncdenr.../bau/nativefish
#5
Guest_EricaWieser_*
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Posted 26 May 2013 - 10:26 PM
You have mountain redbelly dace in your river drainage. They are very beautiful when spawning. Here are some pictures Justin Lawson (username bumpylemon) posted:
http://www.fishbase....es/Phore_u1.jpg
http://farm1.static....325ac2a.jpg?v=0
Source: http://forum.nanfa.o...-redbelly-dace/
They really color up when they're spawning, but don't look like that the rest of the year. That's a fish that begs for a spawning-friendly setup. Thankfully it's relatively simple to get them in the breeding mood. James Sternburg kindly wrote up this spawning guide for redbelly dace: http://www.nanfa.org...credbelly.shtml
Also Drew wrote about the mountain redbelly dace in particular: http://forum.nanfa.o...phoxinus-oreas/
There are several other spawning guides if you do a search.
Powerheads, I recently learned, are very inexpensive on ebay. I bought two 1300 GPH (each) powerheads for $25 total including shipping. I have two 75 gallon tanks and adding one to each tank was a great power rating to make the water move a lot, like a stream.
http://www.fishbase....es/Phore_u1.jpg
http://farm1.static....325ac2a.jpg?v=0
Source: http://forum.nanfa.o...-redbelly-dace/
They really color up when they're spawning, but don't look like that the rest of the year. That's a fish that begs for a spawning-friendly setup. Thankfully it's relatively simple to get them in the breeding mood. James Sternburg kindly wrote up this spawning guide for redbelly dace: http://www.nanfa.org...credbelly.shtml
Also Drew wrote about the mountain redbelly dace in particular: http://forum.nanfa.o...phoxinus-oreas/
There are several other spawning guides if you do a search.
Powerheads, I recently learned, are very inexpensive on ebay. I bought two 1300 GPH (each) powerheads for $25 total including shipping. I have two 75 gallon tanks and adding one to each tank was a great power rating to make the water move a lot, like a stream.
Edited by EricaWieser, 26 May 2013 - 10:28 PM.
#7
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Posted 27 May 2013 - 11:13 AM
A minnow trap is one way to do it, yeah. There's also seineing, dipnetting, and microfishing. Here's an article on microfishing. http://forum.nanfa.o...-micro-fishing/Oh wow thanks a lot. What a gorgeous fish. And I think I inherited one that i can probably set up sometime this week. I'm guessing I can just go out with a minnow trap after those guys?
Please buy a fishing license and familiarize yourself with the state's endangered species before going out. When they're not in spawning colors, mountain redbelly dace are easy to confuse with other species. You might want to make a photo tank and make a few trips taking pictures, posting them here, and learning how to identify the different minnows before being confident enough in the species ID to take fish home. Here's one way to build a photo tank: http://forum.nanfa.o...-instructional/
And another: http://forum.nanfa.o...231-photo-tank/
Edited by EricaWieser, 27 May 2013 - 11:17 AM.
#8
Guest_gerald_*
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Posted 27 May 2013 - 11:53 AM
Redbelly dace are in rocky Piedmont streams in the upper Tar River, west of Louisburg. In sandy or swampy freshwater streams down east near Tarboro and Greenville you can find:
shiners /minnows: golden, satinfin, highfin, ironcolor, spottail, swallowtail, white, pinewoods, comely, silvery minnow, bluehead chub,
catfish: channel, white, yellow bullhead, brown bullhead, margined madtom, tadpole madtom,
sunfish: bluespotted, banded pygmy, mud, flier, redbreast, bluegill, warmouth, pumpkinseed, dollar, black crappie,
other small fish: mudminnow, pirate perch, swampfish, redfin pickerel, creek chubsucker, mosquitofish, lined killifish,
Edward Menhinick's Freshwater Fishes of North Carolina has dot-distribution maps for each species. Your ECU library should have it.
The pinewoods shiner is included under rosefin shiner in that book.
Then of course there's lots of cool brackish-water fish just east of Greenville.
shiners /minnows: golden, satinfin, highfin, ironcolor, spottail, swallowtail, white, pinewoods, comely, silvery minnow, bluehead chub,
catfish: channel, white, yellow bullhead, brown bullhead, margined madtom, tadpole madtom,
sunfish: bluespotted, banded pygmy, mud, flier, redbreast, bluegill, warmouth, pumpkinseed, dollar, black crappie,
other small fish: mudminnow, pirate perch, swampfish, redfin pickerel, creek chubsucker, mosquitofish, lined killifish,
Edward Menhinick's Freshwater Fishes of North Carolina has dot-distribution maps for each species. Your ECU library should have it.
The pinewoods shiner is included under rosefin shiner in that book.
Then of course there's lots of cool brackish-water fish just east of Greenville.
#9
Guest_stellyj11_*
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Posted 27 May 2013 - 01:36 PM
I do have a fishing license and I have familiarized myself with the Carolina Madtom - such a beautiful fish. So I know not to bother with those at all. I would like to collect Pinewoods shiners here and MRBD if I can get up river sometime. I also plan on collecting Bluespotted, Mud, Warmouth, and Black Crappie sunfish. For catfish probably either a few margined or tadpole madtoms or a yellow bullhead. I cant imagine having much trouble misidentifying those fish on my own but I submit photos here for confirmation. If in doubt, just put em back 
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