25 replies to this topic

[shaft6977]

I'm fairly new to natives (been in the game a little less than a year) and I was wondering...what's everyone's favorite native that they've ever kept, and / or what is the one that you've never had but always dreamed of keeping?

[mattknepley]

My favorite is the Christmas Darter, Etheostoma hopkinsi. One I'd love to keep but never will, I'm sure, is the Alaska Blackfish, Dallia pectoralis.

[Sean Phillips]

Very difficult question. But probably one of three fish: the channel, blue, or flathead catfish. After those, probably the Greenside Darter.

[shaft6977]

Man I wish we had Christmas darters here. My birthday is December 25, so it's practically mandatory that I get ahold of some at some point in my life.

[shaft6977]

Flathead catfish is one of my top 5 favorite foods!

[mattknepley]

They're great little aquarium fish. PM me if you're ever ready for some.

[shaft6977]

Sounds great! Thanks! I've really been pondering a darter-only tank lately and those would be perfect.

[Michael Wolfe]

Bluehead chub. Big. Bold. Brassy. Beau-ti-ful. Adapts well to the aquarium. And darter and shiner safe. What more can you want from a fish.

[shaft6977]

Just looked it up. Neat fish! How big do they get?

[smbass]

Longear Sunfish is # one for me but everyone probably knows that already about me. For more peaceful fish I like the action and interactions of the whole Cyprinella genus, hard to pick one species. Right now I have a very large C. galactura, C. callistia, and a equally large C. whipplei that have epic battles over the best position for food in the swift current right behind the 3 koralia powerheads in my stream tank on a daily basis for my viewing pleasure. I have had a tun of fish so really hard to pick something I haven't had but would love to try... maybe shovelnose sturgeon, have always thought one would be interesting underneath a bunch of sunfish in a big tank. Another idea I have had would be a large chilled tank with all the different Char species like brook trout, dolly varden, arctic char, and bull trout. Maybe add in a few grayling with them.

[Michael Wolfe]

In my 75 gallon tank I have had them get to pretty much their full size at about 10 inches. But I have also seen males in the wild (like my avatar) that were in full color at only 5-6 inches.

[Dustin]

Pygmy sunfish. I like them all.

[Sean Phillips]

Longear Sunfish is # one for me but everyone probably knows that already about me. For more peaceful fish I like the action and interactions of the whole Cyprinella genus, hard to pick one species. Right now I have a very large C. galactura, C. callistia, and a equally large C. whipplei that have epic battles over the best position for food in the swift current right behind the 3 koralia powerheads in my stream tank on a daily basis for my viewing pleasure. I have had a tun of fish so really hard to pick something I haven't had but would love to try... maybe shovelnose sturgeon, have always thought one would be interesting underneath a bunch of sunfish in a big tank. Another idea I have had would be a large chilled tank with all the different Char species like brook trout, dolly varden, arctic char, and bull trout. Maybe add in a few grayling with them.

Char would make for an amazing tank. It's a dream of mine to have a tank full of west coast Salmonids that I'd actually collect as smolts myself such as Bull Trout (if they weren't endangered) and Dolly Varden. I'm also planning for someday to do a wild brook trout stream Biotope and collect some small ones from north central PA, add a few larger Cyprinids, a nice sucker, and maybe a smaller filter feeding lamprey and I'm set.

[sunny17]

I agree with Brian...Longears!

[shaft6977]

Man I love my longears as well. About 25 years ago, my dad and I went over to a friend of his' house and he had set up a native tank with some little smallmouth & largemouth bass, a couple of small bluegill, and a crawdad that was too big to be eaten by them. I was mesmerized. I had never thought about keeping fish at that point in my life, much less natives. I told myself that day that I would someday, somehow have a native tank. Smallmouth have always been my favorite to catch on rod & reel and to see them in someone's house was unreal to me. To this day, my dream is to someday have a tank big enough to keep them in. Probably not feasible, but a guy can dream, right?

[Duckman77]

My favorite native in my tank right now would have to be my blackside darters.  They show lots of personality and don't stay on the bottom like other darters I've kept.  They swim up and down the front glass begging for food whenever I approach their tank.  I love their walleye/sauger like appearance. 

[Matt DeLaVega]

Oh, you need to keep a couple of frecklebelly darters Jeremy. You think blacksides stay off the bottom a lot, frecklebelly darters hardly ever touch it.  Now that I have joined this conversation, I would have to say that they are probably my favorite aquarium fish. Not sure that they are my favorite native fish though. Probably brook trout, followed by mudminnows and way too many darters to list. Oh, and bowfin. And grass pickerel, and i could just keep going through a couple dozen more species.

[shaft6977]

This may sound strange, but before I joined NANFA, I had no idea that darters even existed. And now I'm convinced that I need to keep just about every species there is. I've looked up every type mentioned in this thread and I now want them all. Thanks a lot, guys!

[Duckman77]

Oh, you need to keep a couple of frecklebelly darters Jeremy. You think blacksides stay off the bottom a lot, frecklebelly darters hardly ever touch it.  Now that I have joined this conversation, I would have to say that they are probably my favorite aquarium fish. Not sure that they are my favorite native fish though. Probably brook trout, followed by mudminnows and way too many darters to list. Oh, and bowfin. And grass pickerel, and i could just keep going through a couple dozen more species.

 

Interesting that you mentioned the frecklebelly.  I was just google searching for pics again earlier tonight.  I tried to acquire some of those a short time back with no luck.  I might have to make the trip down to Kentucky and try to get some for myself. 

 

Brook trout would qualify as the native that I have dreamed of keeping, but will probably never happen due to its need for cold water. 

 

You and i seem to have the same taste in fish.  Bowfin and pickerel would make my short list also.  My first thought when I saw this thread was that picking a favorite native was like picking my favorite kid.  Can't do it.

[Matt DeLaVega]

Let me know when you head to Ky.