I just realized I have been using this forum for a month now and have not introduced myself formally. I am a graduate student at Bowling Green State University in Ohio currently working on my masters doing a micro-habitat study on redside dace. I should in theory graduate in may of 2007 and so far everything is looking good for that to happen. I have kept native fish as long as I can remember. It started out with me going fishing with my dad and bringing home little sunfish and bullheads and such that we caught. He would take me fishing and we would seine for bait (he has a picture of me in a stream when I was 2) and things other than minnows often got put into an aquarium (the minnows were always bait I since have learned better and have kept many minnows). So time went on I took every bio class my highschool offered and then went to college at Heidelberg college in Tiffin Ohio, got a double degree in water resources and environmental bio, and got into sunfish and studied longears there for my senior research and have moved on to BG.

So I currently have...

Sunfish first
1. N. Longear 2 male 4 female 200 jv
2. C. Longear 19 jv got rid of my breeders decided I like the northerns better and needed some space
3. E. Dollar 1 male
4. W. Dollar 1 male and I am getting more confident every day a smaller female
5. Green 1 male 2 females
6. Warmouth 1 large female (have a friend keeping a couple large males over winter for me) 20 jv
7. Spotted 1 young adult
8. Redspotted 5 young adults
9. Bantam 1 male 2 young hopefully females
10. Orange Spotted 3 male 3 female 3 jv
11. Bluespotted 2 male 8 female
12. Black Banded 2 male 2 female 15 jv
13. Spotted Bass 1 jv about 4"
14. Flier 1 adult unsexed

Catfish
15. mountain madtom 1
16. Brindled Madtom 3
17. Tadpole Madtom 9
18. Freckled madtom 1
19. Stonecat Madtom 1
20. Blue Catfish 1 jv about 3"

Suckers
21. Lake Chubsucker 2
22. Creek Chubsucker 2
23. Northern Hog Sucker 1
24. Black Redhorse 1

Darters
25. Gilt Darter 1
26. Bluebreast Darter 1
27. Blackside Darter 1
28. Least darter 1
29. Iowa darter 5
30. Swamp darter 5
31. Variegate darter 1

Minnows
32. Blackchin Shiner 6
33. Longnose Dace 2

Killies
34. Bluefin 6
35. golden topminnow 1
36. seminole killiefish 1

Live Bearers
37. spotted mosquitofish 35 aprox
38. Heterandria formosa 70 aprox
39. Sailfin Molly (wild florida fish) 20 aprox
40. delicate swordtail 5

Others
41. Chain Pickerel 1
42. Pirate perch 1
43. Banded Pygmy Sunfish 3

Just incase someone notices I have several fish that are listed in my state, the individuals I have are from other states. For example my mountain madtom is from the wabash river in indiana, my blackchin shiners and iowa darters are from a lake in michigan, the gilt darter and pirate perch are from the convention in missouri, the lake chubsuckers were purchased online, and so on...

As you can see I focus on sunfish for breeding and they are my main interest but I do have quite a few others just because they are fun to watch and care for. Once I graduate I plan to move back near Canton Ohio where both mine and my wife's parrents live and we grew up. My 9 rubber lined ponds I use for breeding sunfish are in my parrents back yard and I hope to also put in some more there or maybe in my own backyard if it comes into existance. When that happens hopefully the fish room will expand and I can start keeping and breeding more of the larger sunfish species. That also means anyone that has access to other species of sunfish i don't currently have or can't get around here I will be interested in trading with.

Other things I have that may be of interest are a photo collection of over 1000 pictures of native fish and I have records of every collection I have made since 2001 or maybe 2000 not sure.

Anyways I've gone on long enough so hopefully you all have an idea of who I am now.

Brian Zimmerman

Bout time!

Hey, looks like you will be a valuable addition to the site. I envy your centrarchid collection and would love to see some photos of the various centrarchid species you have come across (as well as other fish).

Booo...everyone knows I'm the champion fish keeper in Bowling Green, OH...!... I am kidding of course, and I do attribute a good deal of my knowledge of native fishes to Brian. He is very knowledgeable of his fishes, especially Ohio natives.