New England Natives

I'm just now starting to fool around with my wife's digital P&S. Believe it or not, at one time I was a passable film photographer. Unfortunately, due the expense of film/development and the fact that my film cameras were all manual focus only and my eye sight suddenly went south, I'm out of the film biz.
Having a little trouble making the switch to digital. A better camera would help.
So anyway, here are my first attempts at shooting fish with digital. These are from current tanks. All fish were collected somewhere in New England, although not all are New England natives [ie saltwater tropical strays].
My appologies to the academic types, but I generally stick with common names. I'm too sore and stiff to get up and walk over to the bookcase to check spelling on a latin name.
If you like these, check back again later. I'll add more as I go. I may also upload some prints I have of past tanks. Enjoy!
I love darters [like most of us] but we only have two species here. Both make awesome captives but the tesselated are my favorite because they are big and bold and come close to having color.

This recent addition to my stream tank is one of my favorite fish of any kind and a classic New England native. Although he is too small to eat his tank mates, he is making a nuisence of himself because he is terratorial and chases the darters out of the best spots in the flow. Only the big male tessie stands up to him. If he doesn't mellow out after I move everybody to a bigger tank, he's gone.


All my fish including the trout are tame as goldfish and beg for food as if I starved them.

One of my favorite forms of collecting takes place in September and October when I hit the Rhode Island coast for striper fishing. While I'm there I always make time to grab my dipnets and mask and snorkle and hunt for tropical strays. Over the years I've discovered that the strays are not just freak occurences, but actually certain species show up year after year like clockwork. Bicolored damsals are one of those species which is almost always found if I look in the right place. This one is two years old. I believe it is a male. Normally they are quite scrappy and tough on other fish so he had a tank to himself. Last year I tried an experiment and added a second specimen to his 30 gallon kingdom. Being a YOY, at first the new addition was too small to attract aggression. As it grew I noticed it getting chased once and awhile but it seemed healthy, all fins intact and getting plenty of food. Eventually I noticed the larger one would occasionally go through dramatic color change and do a strange shimmy dance. Next thing you know, I started finding eggs stuck to the tank wall! I have never attmepted to raise them as the larvae are pelagic and almost microscopic. Still pretty cool though and I guess it helps those two get along [sort of]. Here's a shot of him guarding the eggs from my hand outside the tank. He bites if I put my hand inside the tank and it hurts!

Hope you liked my first attempt. If there's an interest, I'll start shooting some of my other fish. I still haven't figured out how I'm gonna shoot the really small stuff. Might have to get a new camera.

Hey Mike,

Nice photos - your previous experience shows through.

More! More!

cheers,
Dave

Yes very nice pictures! I am not a salt water guy but I do find it interesting that there is someone who collects his own native (more or less) coastal species. Coastal North American fish aren't really discussed on here much but I see no reason not too.

Nice pictures. What water temp is the trout in?

Nice pictures. What water temp is the trout in?

The temps fluctuate bewtween 60 F to rarely as high as 68 F. Low 60s most of the time. Tank is in my unfinished basement with an open window right above it.
This trout has only been with me for about 3 weeks now but in the past I have kept similar sized brookies healthy even through the summer. The only cooling I did was a big fan blowing on the tank. Temps still got into low 70s.
Temps, while obviously important, are less critical than DO level. Of course DO is temperature dependent, but if additional aeration can be added without imparting more heat to the water [ie submerged powerheads], the trout do well even in 70 +.
At times when temps creep up [summer hot spells] I beef up aeration with the wooden air diffusers normally used in saltwater protien skimmers. They create an intense bubble screen of superfine bubbles. Between the bubbles and fan, evaporation is rapid and I use a slow drip of distilled water to keep up.
Reduced feedings and low stocking levels help keep DO up.
Having said all that, I don't recomend keeping trout unless you have a large tank, plenty of experience and preferably a chiller. Also very small trout, 2 or 3 inches, do much better than larger ones.

Oh I have no intention of keeping trout, I was just curious about the water temps.
Did you notice a difference in activity in the trout as the water warmed in summer months?

No I really didn't notice much reduced activity. I never saw food refused or ignored. If anything maybe less aggresion toward tank mates. The trout are real good at conserving energy. When not feeding or chasing tank mates they hold station in the current with seemingly no effort.

BTW, since you asked, I brought home my DO meter from work and took a reading in the tank. Even with the furnace running and the upstairs nice and warm, the tank water was 58.6 F and DO was 10.10 mg/L. Pretty much perfect for trout though admittedly much cooler than it'll be in summer.
Anyway if he doesn't leave my darters alone he's gonna have to be sent to live on that nice farm in the country.

If I had a trout that looked that good, I would never give it away. Why don't you try a different tank for your darters only?
I just cannot get over how good that trout is. In case you haven't noticed, I like trout a lot, but I can never keep them since my only two tanks that are big enough are brackish, and warm. The one that is native is the warm water, but it has a pike cichlid with some others, so I couldn't get it cold enough.

Yes very nice pictures! I am not a salt water guy but I do find it interesting that there is someone who collects his own native (more or less) coastal species. Coastal North American fish aren't really discussed on here much but I see no reason not too.

Great pics! And I agree, it would be interesting to hear from more people here who keep N. American coastal species.

What type is the trout?

Brook

That's what I thought from the markings on it's back, but I wasn't sure. Very pretty, I love the neon blue on the bottom fins.

Very pretty, I love the neon blue on the bottom fins.

Huh? Unless you're talking about the damsel I think it's a lighting artifact...

Cave

Huh? Unless you're talking about the damsel I think it's a lighting artifact...

Cave

Yah I had to go back and look to see what he meant.
If it was the brookie he was talking about, it is lighting and/or monitor related. The fin edges are clean white in real life. Either the tank light or flash gave it a blue tint. I noticed the blue is more pronounced on my monitor at work than it is at home.
The damsal really does have that neon color, best seen in sunlight.

I've never seen a small brookie, so I wouldn't know.