More Local Fish Store Finds

i work at the local petco, i've found dozens of green sunfish in our feeder tanks, a couple of sacramento suckers, 3 darters, and a bluefin killie, and of course hundreds of gambusia. i've seen swamp darters and dace in another LFS ghost shrimp tanks.

I would be interested in a fue Sacramento Suckers if you see them again.

I would be happy to reimburse you for all costs.

Thank you

Mike

PS I just noticed that this thread is a year old, but I would still be interested.

Edited by Mike, 02 February 2010 - 12:16 AM.

I believe a lot of the feeder shrimp and guppy producers in Florida were set back by the recent cold snap.

I thought that was likely what was happening.

I went to a petstore on the far side of town that I almost never go to. They apparently get their shrimp from a different supplier than my usual stop does, as they had two wild-type mollies and some river shrimp as hitchhikers among the ghost shrimp! I bought the mollies and two of the shrimp; one shrimp has died already but everyone else seems to be in good shape. I haven't keyed out the shrimp yet.

I also got some odd livebearers from the shrimp tank at a pet store in Nashville. They are a bit more robust than guppies, but don't look like platies or mollies. They are tan with black specks and have yellow or orange at the bases of the dorsal and caudal fins. I'll try to get some pictures.

I'm curious to see a photo of your odd livebearers.

It's frustrating. Over the weekend I went to my usual local pet shops (a petco and one stop). Plus I picked out a few pet stores in the Nashua region to visit today. 2 petcos, 2 pet smarts, and 3 small independant pet stores.

Ok, one pet store I didn't visit because it was past closing by the time I saw the others, but NONE of them had native stowaways. One even said "selling native fish is illegal in NH". (not sure the real rules on this). I decided NOT to point out the irony of their tank of rosey reds though, which apparently fail to fall under the pet stores definition of natives.

So all and all I have a fishless weekend (ok, I got my fish some feeder guppies and broke down and got a pair of rosey barbs as the females looked like shiners but other than that fishless), winter with all that ice and no fish is driving me nuts.

Many states require special permits to sell fishes native to that state. I feel fairly safe in claiming that New Hampshire law probably says nothing about Florida natives, but your typical LFS employee likely doesn't know that; he's just heard "selling natives is illegal" and so that's what he tells you.

I think rosy reds are usually excepted because they are clearly not wild-caught. Other US natives, such as Rio Grande cichlids, violet gobies, and channel cats are also ignored- probably in part because most petstore employees have no idea that they are natives.

A heads up to all of you near new england. One Stop Country Pet Supply in Keene New Hampshire has a small 3 inch alligator gar in stock. it's expensive (about 38 dollars) but it was very active (which suprised me, i always heard gar were sluggish), they warned me it was voracious and ate a good sized molly earlier that week. I wish I had the money and a tank it wouldn't outgrow. I decided to let you guys know in case someone was interested.

If you're not familiar with gar characteristics, read up on them before you buy. Gars are notorious for being mislabeled in the pet trade.

If you're not familiar with gar characteristics, read up on them before you buy. Gars are notorious for being mislabeled in the pet trade.

I am not familiar on them as they are not in my local waters. I just called it what the store labeled it. I hope the label is right.

I have gotten plenty of swamp darters from the ghost shrimp tank at my local fish store, and I also got a few bluegills there too. I wonder why that is? Do these LFS suppliers also bred natives?

Ghost shrimp generally are wild caught, or farmed, rather than tank raised. It's just bycatch.

Sadly I never seen a swamp darter in a live fish store or in a wild. Likely due to no fish store locally having shrimp tanks (petco gets shrimp on occasion, but other than that not much). As for in the wild, i think my issue with the lowland species (swamp darter, redfin pickerel) is they are stillwater species, but the only info I can find on them is for rivers.