I want to set up a nice 20 gallon long tank that is heavily planted with some beautiful shiners/minnows and maybe some darters. I want to catch them myself however. So I live in the Chicagoland area. Des Plaines to be more specific, but I don't mind traveling a little (no more than an 45-1 hour away preferably). So where would I be able to find a nice variety of shiners or minnows and darters? One in particular that I believe is near me that I would like is the redfin shiner. If anyone has any other suggestions too that would be GREAT!

Hi juhason, welcome to the site! Right now in IL the only fish you can legally collect for "bait" are minnows. You can read the IL fishing regulations to get the details (personal aquariums are not mentioned unfortunately). I've been told by a DNR employee that you won't get in trouble for taking a few darters or other small non-game fish home for your personal aquarium, but that's just one person's opinion and certainly not good enough for NANFA to endorse collecting anything but minnows. It would be nice if we could get more specific regulations allowing us to collect any non-game, non-threatened/endangered fish. I'll reach out to the DNR about it, but don't expect anything to change in the near future.

My red shiners and spotfin shiners are showing off their spawning colors now. The males show off by "battling" each other - more of a dance than an actual fight. They probably need more than a 20 gallon to really be happy though. Southern redbelly dace are what I'd recommend most. If you can keep the water relatively cool (in an air conditioned room in the summer) and clean, they'll have bright red bellies pretty much year round.

A small school of carmine shiners would probably be ok in a 20 gallon, but I can't speak from experience. If you had a larger tank (55+ gallons), then a lot of other species could work (stonerollers, striped/common shiners, emerald shiners, etc).

Hi juhason, welcome to the site! Right now in IL the only fish you can legally collect for "bait" are minnows. You can read the IL fishing regulations to get the details (personal aquariums are not mentioned unfortunately). I've been told by a DNR employee that you won't get in trouble for taking a few darters or other small non-game fish home for your personal aquarium, but that's just one person's opinion and certainly not good enough for NANFA to endorse collecting anything but minnows. It would be nice if we could get more specific regulations allowing us to collect any non-game, non-threatened/endangered fish. I'll reach out to the DNR about it, but don't expect anything to change in the near future.

My red shiners and spotfin shiners are showing off their spawning colors now. The males show off by "battling" each other - more of a dance than an actual fight. They probably need more than a 20 gallon to really be happy though. Southern redbelly dace are what I'd recommend most. If you can keep the water relatively cool (in an air conditioned room in the summer) and clean, they'll have bright red bellies pretty much year round.

A small school of carmine shiners would probably be ok in a 20 gallon, but I can't speak from experience. If you had a larger tank (55+ gallons), then a lot of other species could work (stonerollers, striped/common shiners, emerald shiners, etc).

Thank you so much for the information! It really is a shame they aren't more specific. I have had cops stop me and look in my bucket before (I didn't know collecting game fish was not exactly legal at the time) and they didn't really care...maybe I was lucky. Both species you mentioned are beautiful! I always loved the southern redbelly dace,but didn't know it was living in Illinois. Where would I be able to find these species?

I agree with Ben about Southern Redbelly Dace (SRBD). Tough little fish and very attractive when kept in aquariums with very dark substrate.
They are found primarily in the northern third of the state in tributaries of the Rock, Fox and Kankakee Rivers. They prefer small streams and when found are usually abundant.
If you're in the northern third of the state, send me a PM with your general location and I'll put you on a stream with them. With any luck you're near a place with both SRBD and Red Shiner.