Hi all,

My name's Kevin. I currently live in Northern Kenctucky, just outside of Cincinnati, OH. I've been keeping freshwater tropicals for about a year now. Just moved into a bigger house (2 weeks ago) and have a lot of basement space so plan on expanding my collection - actually have a fish room.

I currently have:

55g SA Cichlid tank
10g N. Multifaciastus
10g planted betta splendens fry
10g planted pygmy cory & croaking gourami juvy
20g planted misc: limia tigre, 3 juvy plecos, cherry red shrimp
10g planted betta edithae juvy
10g planted gambusia affinis

Have some decent cultures of Walter worms, vinegar eels, grindal worms and white worms going.

I have 2 55g, 2 30g, a 20g and a 40g empty right now, was thinking about starting up at least one native tank. Possibly a 30g. I do want to breed whatever I got (for the most part), so I've been looking into postings on spawning etc.

I am Canadian grew up in Toronto and go back to visit very often (almost monthly), so would like to get some feedback on taking live native fish across the border as well, I am trying to convince some friends up there to try native species.

If anyone has experience breeding shiners, dace or darters I would really be interested in any information .. or links, books etc.

Also, can native plants be tranplanted to an aquarium? I mean basic "weeds" that you see in streams, ponds etc. Something that could be used for "heavy cover", I guess like java moss or water sprite.

This forum is a great resource, lots of people with a ton of experience,l can't wait to get my native tank going. I have a lot more questions but I think I'll spare them for later, probably better in smaller doses

Thanks,

Kevin

Welcome Kevin. You raise a lot of questions, many of which have been kicked around before. People here have lots of experience breeding various natives, and also raising native plants in aquaria and yard ponds. The issue of moving fish across the Canadian border is one I suspect different people have had very different experiences with, that's certainly not in my area of expertise. But start a thread about it, and I'm sure we'll hear lots of experience and advice.