So since I saw the photos of bluehead shiner, bluenosed shiner and sailfin shiner and I'm interesting into them. Sadly I lived in Minnesota where these three species don't live there. So how to take care of them? Any tips will helpful. I know bluehead and bluenosed shiners are protected by laws in some states, but what about capitive bred shiners? Since I'm not interested into breeding of these fish right now. Plus I don't know where I can get them legally.

To get you started : http://www.nanfa.org...onotropis.shtml by Christopher Scharpf

But what I should feed them with? What their requirements such as tank sizes, how many fish for schooling and what's their temp?

I know where I can get sailfin shiners but what about capitive bred bluehead and bluenosed shiners? I don't want take them out of wild. Since I'm not in interested in breed these shiners right now but someday.

Nobody has been able to breed them consistently - and they are not commonly kept in the native hobby, although they are highly desired. Most collectors who know where to find them won't ship 'em either. I guess you'll just have to move south!

I would love to see captive bred specimens appear on the native market. I have seen a lot of hopefuls attempt it, but the dream soon withers and dies...

That would be great. It'd be nice overall to see our movement go in that direction trading/purchasing/whatever liek the marine movement went and for the own conservation of our resource. Lots of time, patience, and effort though...

These fish are freakishly difficult to transport and ship if they're wildcaught, and they're also freakishly difficult to spawn. That's why you'll likely never see any offered for sale anywhere, although I have seen some offered on very rare occasion for a very high price. ( the price is to help cover the costs of replacing the ones which don't make it, which is most of them, it seems. Very nervous, delicate fish these guys. ) They also live in rather inhospitable places very few and far between, and in all those places, collecting fish is a difficult chore. If I wanted to go get a batch, it would cost me about 80 bucks, take about 16 hours, and I'd be lucky to nab a dozen.

I happen to be one of the half-dozen or so people on earth to have spawned this fish, and I can tell you, it's HARD. The method is well known by now, but we still don't see a bunch of people cranking them out, do we? Irate is right, lots of folks think they're gonna churn these babies out, but they all, so far, have had less than stellar success.

Anyway, they eat lots of stuff. They love ordinary fishfood flakes, but they also need some supplemental algae, like mollies, and any other small live foods you can offer. Brineshrimp-- sometimes they'll eat them, sometimes they won't. Mine never did like or eat them, but some other people swear by them. Go figure. Considering their mucky habitat preference, I can only assume they're fond of wormy little muckdwelling insect larvae. They'll eat tubifex and blackworms, but they seem to have a bit of trouble with bloodworms.

They are pretty peaceful fish. They spend all day flaring up at each other, and occasionally at other species, but they don't actually fight, and they generally make good community tank fish if they don't get too warm.

Maybe ill stick with familar species like sailfin shiners or "florida bluefin dace" which is bluefin killifish until the bluehead shiners are enough common or the breeding tech is improving.