Hey folks, just wanted to do an intro before I jump in and start posting in the forums. So here goes;

Hi my name is Mike and I'm a fishaholic.

As you may have guessed from the topic heading, I'm born and raised in New England. Currently I reside in north central Mass. I won't say how old I am but I will tell you my first tanks had slate bottoms and metal frames.
I usually tell people I've kept fish my entire life because my Dad had fish even before I was born. Except for a few years during my wild teens and early 20s, I have always had some sort of container full of water with some kind of critter swimming in it.
My first native was a "dace" [probably a fallfish] that I netted when I was about 10 years old. I brought it home and dropped it in my Dad's 20 gallon planted neon tetra tank. It did real well on flakes. So well in fact that it doubled in size before the end of summer. I guess neons are very fattening.

I currently keep 4 tanks, 2 fresh, 2 salt. All my fish are natives captured by me or my kids. In my salt tanks I have a mix of temperate locals and tropicals which get carried to New England on the Gulf stream. [that's a story worth a post of its own]
One fresh tank is a stream tank with tesselated darters, 4 spine sticklebacks, blacknosed dace and common shiners.
The other fresh is an all natural/low tech planted 90 gal with a colony of sailfin mollies derived from a trio I smuggled aboard an airplane in a 1 liter tonic bottle in my carry on luggage. Before the liquids ban of course.
Besides aquarium fish, I am also a fanatic fisherman, especially a flyfisherman. I am also very much into herps. If any of you frequent fishing or herp forums, I go by mikez there as well.
Although we New Englanders do not have the diversity or bright colors many of do, we still have plenty of cool stuff. Here a few examples. Enjoy.

Welcome aboard Mikez. Looks like you are right up our alley. Great pics! enjoy!

You actually caught that striper on a flyrod?

Yeah, flyfishing for stripers and bluefish is a fun thing both to do and to watch. You don't land those fish in a hurry... the one fish I miss in north 'bama is bluefish. They'll make an adrenaline junkie out of anyone.

Sweeeeeeeeeet Striper Mike!!!!!

I grew up in the Cape, that pic brings back the memories! Awesome banded sunny also. Yeah they might yell at you on here for the smugglin but its all good in my eyes! I did the same thing with live rock from the carribean. Glad to see to you on here, hope you post more pics!

Shawn

Yep I landed that striper on my 9 weight flyrod. At 37 inches he was 4 inches shorter than my best ever flyrod fish. He was released unharmed as were a couple others the same size. Although stripers are good eating, I no longer kill them. I ate my share already. I'll leave the rest for the new guys.
Shawn it's good to see another Mass guy. Are you the only one?
The Cape is a great place for fishing and collecting. I get my tesselated darters there. Obviously great for saltwater as well.
I wasn't really "smuggling" the mollies. There were obtained legally with both a fresh and saltwater license. I just didn't feel like having them shipped. I Figured the airline wouldn't mind but what they didn't know didn't hurt them. They didn't know about the half empty 5th of Jack Daniels my brother had in the seat next to me either.

They didn't know about the half empty 5th of Jack Daniels my brother had in the seat next to me either.

If you ever move down south you'll make a fine member of The Catfish Alliance!