Hey everyone, just wanted to introduce myself to the forum.

About a year ago I was making plans for a new 65G set-up (48 x 18 x ~16), bought the tank, stand, equipment, hardscape etc. This tank was to be another planted tank to replace my 46G, and I was planning on just doing the usual planted tank thing with trops, but I kept putting off setting the thing up because I couldn't decide on how to stock it. I mean, I know fairly well what I want to do for an aquascape, but I couldn't get excited about the normal fare like tetras, barbs etc.

Long story short, I've been thinking about doing a tank of NA natives, but it seems like a whole different ballgame in terms of availability and state laws etc, so I have a lot of questions that I can hopefully get answered here

I've been playing around with two options in my head:

1.) A 'community' type set up based around a shoal of blackbanded or bluespot sunfish. Not sure about compatibility with other natives like killies/ minnows/ dace etc. so I'll need to find more info about that

2.) Single species tank with one grass/ red fin pickeral. Always wanted to do something like this but still not sure if a 65 is enough space for one. I consider myself a fairly advanced hobbyist (more so with plants than fish, but WQ is vital with either), I know how to keep my water clean. But the whole 'wet pet' scene is still strange to me

Anyway, that's it so far, hopefully I can find some good info here.

Hey everyone, just wanted to introduce myself to the forum.

About a year ago I was making plans for a new 65G set-up (48 x 18 x ~16), bought the tank, stand, equipment, hardscape etc. This tank was to be another planted tank to replace my 46G, and I was planning on just doing the usual planted tank thing with trops, but I kept putting off setting the thing up because I couldn't decide on how to stock it. I mean, I know fairly well what I want to do for an aquascape, but I couldn't get excited about the normal fare like tetras, barbs etc.

Long story short, I've been thinking about doing a tank of NA natives, but it seems like a whole different ballgame in terms of availability and state laws etc, so I have a lot of questions that I can hopefully get answered here

I've been playing around with two options in my head:

1.) A 'community' type set up based around a shoal of blackbanded or bluespot sunfish. Not sure about compatibility with other natives like killies/ minnows/ dace etc. so I'll need to find more info about that

2.) Single species tank with one grass/ red fin pickeral. Always wanted to do something like this but still not sure if a 65 is enough space for one. I consider myself a fairly advanced hobbyist (more so with plants than fish, but WQ is vital with either), I know how to keep my water clean. But the whole 'wet pet' scene is still strange to me

Anyway, that's it so far, hopefully I can find some good info here.

Since you're in NJ and you have good access to blackbandeds on the pine barrens a community tank would be really neat. They are found with other things like minnows killies etc. A community tank like that would work well with your planting.

Since you're in NJ and you have good access to blackbandeds on the pine barrens a community tank would be really neat. They are found with other things like minnows killies etc. A community tank like that would work well with your planting.

Thanks. I'm actually in north east NJ, a couple hours from the pine barrens so I won't be doing any collecting on my own. Still torn between the two ideas though.

Are there any NJ members who know about the NJ state legality of bringing in native species from other areas of the country?

Thanks. I'm actually in north east NJ, a couple hours from the pine barrens so I won't be doing any collecting on my own. Still torn between the two ideas though.

Are there any NJ members who know about the NJ state legality of bringing in native species from other areas of the country?

Hi, I'm a fellow northern NJ resident and have spent a little bit of time looking at the laws. NJ has strict definitions of "bait" fish that include minnows, killies, madtoms, eels, brook lampreys, and a few coastal species. There is a 35 fish possession limit on these fish. "Sunfish" are defined as sport fish, with no differentiation between Lepomis and Enneacanthus species as far as I can tell. The problem with this is there is a 7" minimum possession size on sunfish, which is larger than any adult Enneacanthus species. I would contact NJDEP and see what they have to say about it. Normally I would recommend just keeping any receipts from purchased fish and everything would be fine, but I have found NJ wardens to be extremely strict in their interpretation of the laws. You could also look into keeping only fishes native to other parts of the country.

Good Luck!

Hi, I'm a fellow northern NJ resident and have spent a little bit of time looking at the laws. NJ has strict definitions of "bait" fish that include minnows, killies, madtoms, eels, brook lampreys, and a few coastal species. There is a 35 fish possession limit on these fish. "Sunfish" are defined as sport fish, with no differentiation between Lepomis and Enneacanthus species as far as I can tell. The problem with this is there is a 7" minimum possession size on sunfish, which is larger than any adult Enneacanthus species. I would contact NJDEP and see what they have to say about it. Normally I would recommend just keeping any receipts from purchased fish and everything would be fine, but I have found NJ wardens to be extremely strict in their interpretation of the laws. You could also look into keeping only fishes native to other parts of the country.

Good Luck!

Very helpful, thanks for that! I guess that would disqualify the blackbandeds, since they are NJ natives....

Very helpful, thanks for that! I guess that would disqualify the blackbandeds, since they are NJ natives....

He didn't say you can't keep blackbandeds. He just suggested you contact DEP to verify whether you can. That's sound advice. Since the minimum possession size on sunfish is 7 inches, I would assume they are only considering lepomis sunfish. But it would obviously be better to get it from DEP than to assume.

If you can't collect blackbandeds in New Jersey, then another question to ask would be can you possess them if you got them in another state where you can legally collect them.

Good luck!