Hello there everybody. My name is Ben C. and I am a 4th generation born and raised right here in the beautiful high desert of Northern Nevada. I was raised to learn how to hunt and fish from a very early age, and feel exteremely lucky to have the Great Basin as my home. Over the last 2 years, my son and I have become very enthusiastic aquaria hobbyists, and over the past 18 months, our focus has been on native species of fish. We've got quite a few tanks , each with it's own fish. (1) 55 Gallon houses 4 of Brian Zimmerman's BEAUTIFUL central Longears that we purchased last summer. (1) 30 gallon (formerly the home of an over 1 pound Bluegill) houses 1 Green Sunfish, and 1 Brown Bullhead. (1) 10 Gallon houses a breeding colony of Mosquitofish. (1) 10 Gallon has 2 baby (only 2 months old) Largemouth Bass. (1) 10 Gallon houses a single Crayfish. And our last tank is a Betta Sorority housing some of our past successful female bred Bettas. We also have an empty 55 Gallon that await the Largemouth as they progress in size, and another empty 30 Gallon that HOPEFULLY await some Sacramento Perch young of year.

My son Austin and I have become very inspired by our past Fostering efforts, and hope to furthur our hobby. I has been very rewarding to see both of our interests grow side by side, to the point that my son (now a junior in high school), has taken some real steps toward a career at the Department of Fish and Game. It has also been very rewarding to take fish into our home, rid them of diseases and parasites, train them on a wide variety of high quality foods, and then re-release them as spawning adults, back to the exact same rock, in the exact same body of water from which they originally came. Ethically , I think the importance of the lesson has been that you just don't simply dump unwanted fish, where thay don't belong, but educationally the real lessons have been in the observations of these incredible fish and their behaviors. Obviously with fish like those from Brian in Ohio, they will never be released here in the Great Basin, but local quarry has been a lot of fun to care for and observe. Our recently released Bluegill was less than 3 inches and covered in Anchor Worms when he was originally captured. When released a year and a half later, he was over 9 inches long and pushing a pound and a half, and building nests daily in the 30 gallon. Needless to say, with female Bluegill on the brain, it was time for him to return to his spawning grounds, and all in all a completely successful fostering job. Now our efforts are gearing up for some hopeful Sacramento Perch Young of Year that we can foster to spawning age as well. There are a myriad of little alkaline lakes in the Great Basin that are habitat for them, but they are elusive to say the least.

Thank you to everyone here for making NAFA even a possibility. This is truly a special group of like minded folks, and the opportunity to interact with these incredible native fauna is an incredibly special one. I look forward very much to be a part of this fantastic little online community, and hopefully after figuring out how to post pics, will be posting pics of juvenile Sac. Perch soon. Best wishe to everyone.


Ben.

And welcome to the Forum, we look forward to all input.

Hello there everybody. My name is Ben C. and I am a 4th generation born and raised right here in the beautiful high desert of Northern Nevada. I was raised to learn how to hunt and fish from a very early age, and feel exteremely lucky to have the Great Basin as my home. Over the last 2 years, my son and I have become very enthusiastic aquaria hobbyists, and over the past 18 months, our focus has been on native species of fish. We've got quite a few tanks , each with it's own fish. (1) 55 Gallon houses 4 of Brian Zimmerman's BEAUTIFUL central Longears that we purchased last summer. (1) 30 gallon (formerly the home of an over 1 pound Bluegill) houses 1 Green Sunfish, and 1 Brown Bullhead. (1) 10 Gallon houses a breeding colony of Mosquitofish. (1) 10 Gallon has 2 baby (only 2 months old) Largemouth Bass. (1) 10 Gallon houses a single Crayfish. And our last tank is a Betta Sorority housing some of our past successful female bred Bettas. We also have an empty 55 Gallon that await the Largemouth as they progress in size, and another empty 30 Gallon that HOPEFULLY await some Sacramento Perch young of year.

My son Austin and I have become very inspired by our past Fostering efforts, and hope to furthur our hobby. I has been very rewarding to see both of our interests grow side by side, to the point that my son (now a junior in high school), has taken some real steps toward a career at the Department of Fish and Game. It has also been very rewarding to take fish into our home, rid them of diseases and parasites, train them on a wide variety of high quality foods, and then re-release them as spawning adults, back to the exact same rock, in the exact same body of water from which they originally came. Ethically , I think the importance of the lesson has been that you just don't simply dump unwanted fish, where thay don't belong, but educationally the real lessons have been in the observations of these incredible fish and their behaviors. Obviously with fish like those from Brian in Ohio, they will never be released here in the Great Basin, but local quarry has been a lot of fun to care for and observe. Our recently released Bluegill was less than 3 inches and covered in Anchor Worms when he was originally captured. When released a year and a half later, he was over 9 inches long and pushing a pound and a half, and building nests daily in the 30 gallon. Needless to say, with female Bluegill on the brain, it was time for him to return to his spawning grounds, and all in all a completely successful fostering job. Now our efforts are gearing up for some hopeful Sacramento Perch Young of Year that we can foster to spawning age as well. There are a myriad of little alkaline lakes in the Great Basin that are habitat for them, but they are elusive to say the least.

Thank you to everyone here for making NAFA even a possibility. This is truly a special group of like minded folks, and the opportunity to interact with these incredible native fauna is an incredibly special one. I look forward very much to be a part of this fantastic little online community, and hopefully after figuring out how to post pics, will be posting pics of juvenile Sac. Perch soon. Best wishe to everyone.


Ben.

And welcome to the Forum, we look forward to all input.

Fundulus,

Thanks for the welcome. I understand after reading some of the addition guidelines here on the forums, that "fostering" native fauna isn't really a practice that is encouraged here. I do understand some of the main concerns regarding the re-releasing of fish back into the wild, and do agree in principle with the arguments against it. I however also am inspired, especially by the Sacramento Perch, and feel that conservation efforts and studies regarding them is vital for their future survival. This is my main motivation (and hopeful Masters Degree project) for wanting to capture, treat for disease, and release as spawning adults in an attempt to furthur understand, and hopefully sustain these incredible native Sunfish. They have all but disappeared from the actual San Joaquin and Sacramento delta systems, and although they have sustained populations in introduced bodies of water outside of California, they served as a vital part of the Delta ecosystem for thousands of years.

With this said, they isn't a whole lot of interesting native fish for collection here in Northern Nevada. We've got several excellent trout species, but I am nowhere prepared for the keeping of trout. We've also got the elusive Paiute Sculpin which is high on my list of fish to collect, but for the most part there are usually just Fathead Minnows. Lake Tahoe has a good population of Lahontan Redside Shiners, as well as Speckled Daces, but the Shiners are the only ones that usually end up in the trap. The Sacramento Perch is perhaps one of the more interesting species that the Great Basin has to offer, but it is labled as a Game Fish here in Nevada, and this presents a bit of a "gray area" in their actual collection. As a game fish, they are not legally supposed to be transported, but in fact killed before transport. Although Seining is perfectly legal for "minnows" to be used as bait, it isn't clearly defined for "collection". This must be a fairly common problem with native fish collection, I'm guessing. Do most native fish enthusiasts ascribe to the theory that, "It's much easier to get forgiveness than it is to get permission"? How are all of those "Game Fish" legally transported to people's homes without them being in violation of local DFG laws and regulations? Even Sunfish are technically "Game Fish" aren't they? What are the ethics concerning this?

Again, many thanks for the welcome. I'll post some pics soon of our (6) Sacramento Perch young of year that were recently collected, by my son and I.


Take care,
Ben.