Hey there NANFA, figured I'd post after lurking for a few days. I'm from Oklahoma (already in my discription, ha!), born and raised. I've been fasinated by native fish my whole life, always prefered them to 'exotic' or forein fish (though fish and aquatic stuff in general fasinate me, my first word was "fish" :P). Been keeping aquariums since I can remember, and native fish whenever I can. When I was around 13, I kept a largemouth in my bathtub for alittle over a year. :P

Currently, I have no tank setup of my own, just stewarding over one of my roommate's many 10 gal fantail tanks (I was jonesin' for some fish to take care of, and he obliged :P). I have a 30 gallon long stashed away back home that I'm currently trying to get back, and I plan on making it a native tank, maybe some South American tetras thrown in there if I get lazy.

Anyways, I'm enjoying hanging out on these forums already, even though this is my first post, heh. It's nice to see there's so many other like-minded folks out there in the aquarist hobby, and reading over your posts are really helping me plan out my next tank. Also, double thanks for finally getting a few online stores that sell natives!! That I somehow missed after years of searching Google :P (instead of searching *sunfish* and *pickerel*, turns out all I needed to do is put in the scientific name of an obscure darter, who knew)

Since nobody else said it, welcome to the forums! I'm sure I speak for all when I say I'm glad you found this forum. I find it better, and much more interesting than any other fish forum. People here actually care about taking care of their fish, and helping to protect their habitat. Tropical fish forums tend to not know much about natives (trust me, I've looked around before I found this site.) It also gets annoying with the questions of "Can I keep an oscar with two goldfish, a molly and a neon tetra in a 10?" Hope you enjoy looking around. I actually like to read the posts more than start them, but it's all fun. The members are better here than any other site I've seen.

On a side note, kind of like you, the first word I was ever able to spell was 'fish', and I've been fishing since I was 4.

I feel bad too that no one else has welcomed you we as a group are usually pretty good at that, So Welcome to the site!

Oops! Don't feel as though we think of you any differently sine there was a slow response. My welcomes are pretty lame so I let this one go. Now I know why some forums have a dedicated greeter

Welcome to the site and thanks for joining. Hopefully the forum will inspire you to join NANFA and meet your local members. Maybe you'll even get in water with them.

Heh, thanks for the welcome guys ^.^ I took a couple days to respond myself, but I'm still here, ever the lurker I probably won't be that chatty until I can start setting up my next tank (which may be awhile, just got a new job and currently trying to save back up money), but I'll definately be around.

I know I saw at least one other person on here from the Oklahoma area, and I'd love to eventually go on a collection trip someday. (might not have a doctorate, or be in school, but I love sciencey stuff. Even if it's purely from the hobbist respect )

Heh, thanks for the welcome guys ^.^ I took a couple days to respond myself, but I'm still here, ever the lurker I probably won't be that chatty until I can start setting up my next tank (which may be awhile, just got a new job and currently trying to save back up money), but I'll definately be around.

I know I saw at least one other person on here from the Oklahoma area, and I'd love to eventually go on a collection trip someday. (might not have a doctorate, or be in school, but I love sciencey stuff. Even if it's purely from the hobbist respect )

I'm from Oklahoma (Blanchard to be precise), but I'm not around much except during breaks and stuff since I'm at school in NJ. When I am at home my father and I try to go collecting as much as possible all over the state, so I'll send you a PM the next time I'm around to see if you'd like to hit up some creeks.

Hey - I was just reading a few more posts before posting my "intro" here, but couldn't resist replying to this first - I'm from Oklahoma too.

Look forward to reading and learning more from this group.

Tiffany