After getting a bullhead the other day and breaking my "no big growing fish" rule I finally broke down and got a fallfish. I got a 4 or 5 inch one on hook and line. It's first two days were rough. It was caught on hook and line, put in with a buillying sunfish, removed and placed in another tank, and had a water change.

It's now scared of me, since i moved it to the larger tank it hasn't ate and hides when i open the tank to feed the fish. (in the smaller tank it ate some dried krill before I moved it).

Thankfully it has yet to eat my other fish (then again it is just slightly larger than my other dace), but when i got home today I noticed alot of my plants were ripped out. I wonder if it was trying to hunt down my cleaner shrimp or something.

I am seriously considering getting a seperate tank for darters only just in case it tries to eat them. (my femail rainbow is the smallest non guppy in the tank and is thinner than many of the guppies).

How do I get the fallfish to stop being scared of me? How big will it have to get before I have to worry about my other fish being eaten? How do I find waters with shiners I can catch on hook and line besides fallfish. (I have caught goldens before in a couple spots too (but not since i got a tank), but lately it's fallfish, fallfish, fallfish. I am tired of kicknetting only finding me longnose and blacknose dace for shiners and want a new way to catch minnows).

once he realises you = food then he wont be as afraid

Fallfish are very bold captives and big eaters. If your's is hiding, he's the worse for wear from handling. I don't give him a long time if he doesn't show himself soon.
And if he does recover, he will commence to eliminating your darters rigt away.

Fallfish are very bold captives and big eaters. If your's is hiding, he's the worse for wear from handling. I don't give him a long time if he doesn't show himself soon.
And if he does recover, he will commence to eliminating your darters rigt away.

He has recovered more or less, he still gets scared and hides when i open the aquarium hood or fix things inside the tank though. He is the new king of my minnows and they follow him often. My darters are still safe but I feel that is mainly due to his small size.