Hi NANFA folks! I have no idea why I don't already have an account here, all things considered, but lo and behold I went to reference something on collecting laws down south the other day and realized I didn't. So I fixed that. Here I am!
Anyway, I am Amanda, and if you are in the Northeast and involved in any of the fishclubs/societies thereabouts, you probably at least know somebody who knows me. I'm the plant lady. I'm not totally sure how that happened seeing as I love fish and shrimp and whatnot just as much as I love plants, but that's what people know me for, so there you go. I guess in a hobby where everybody has fish in common, it's the flora that stands out.
I live in CT but I've snorkeled my way up and down chunks of the East Coast, and love poking around in puddles to see if some interesting plant just happens to be growing there. Every spring my family drives to somewhere in the Southeast and I spend several days poking my nose in muddy ditches in front of Chik-fil-A restaurants (Dad has a bit of an obsession with their sandwiches) and getting strange looks from the locals. This year's trip was Savannah, GA with a brief stop in Charlottesville, VA.
I keep some native fish along with the rest of my odds-and-ends aquatic menagerie, plus tons of native plants…though at the moment I'm downsizing and reorganizing the fishroom so my only native fish right now are a bunch of Gambusia and a sunfish named Slim…and I think there are still one or two old Jordanella poking about in my 120g glorified swamp. Maybe. Sometimes I have a hard time finding things in that tank what with all the driftwood and rocks and plants. Fish have gone missing in there for a month and then turned up all of a sudden.
I like smaller fish, so our native killies, livebearers, darters, dwarf sunfish, shiners, etc. are on my radar. Basically anything plant friendly. And crayfish, which are not so very plant friendly, but do a good job of disposing of my excess duckweed.
Feel free to ask me any plant-related questions if you like.