Hello everyone. I'm new to the forum, and North American fish. I have several aquariums with rare, and exotic fish from all over the world, but nothing local. I realized a few days ago that I made a huge mistake in overlooking the native fish from my area. Not only are they much cheaper, but you also get to go through the fun of catching them.(right?) I live in the Philadelphia area and would prefer only species native to the creeks of the surrounding counties. Any advice would be appreciated. I know nothing about which ones to get, water conditions, etc. I have done some research (leading me to this site), and narrowed it down to a few species I would like. Please help with these in particular. Sorry don't know taxonomy yet

margined madtom
banded killifish
blacknose dace
swallow tail shiners
sunfish- unsure which kind to get, prefer small
darter- do darters live in my area?

Thanks guys. Please excuse the avatar as I sadly have no native fish yet.

welcome...we have another member mike (sonix) that is new and is also from philly. you do have some darters in your area. darters, blacknose dace, and the banded killifish would make a nice tank. so maybe will say the killis can be a bit boisterous and they are right. but you cant go wrong with dartesrs

this link will help you see what fish are in your watersheds and systems

The sunfish species is something you have to choose carefully. I had a dollar sunfish that was super agressive. I had to move it to its own tank. I also have a rock bass that is calm and placid and lives peacefully with my minnows. I do not have enough experience with all the sunfish species though to suggest a good one for your tank.

Hello everyone. I'm new to the forum, and North American fish. I have several aquariums with rare, and exotic fish from all over the world, but nothing local. I realized a few days ago that I made a huge mistake in overlooking the native fish from my area. Not only are they much cheaper, but you also get to go through the fun of catching them.(right?) I live in the Philadelphia area and would prefer only species native to the creeks of the surrounding counties. Any advice would be appreciated. I know nothing about which ones to get, water conditions, etc. I have done some research (leading me to this site), and narrowed it down to a few species I would like. Please help with these in particular. Sorry don't know taxonomy yet

margined madtom
banded killifish
blacknose dace
swallow tail shiners
sunfish- unsure which kind to get, prefer small
darter- do darters live in my area?

Thanks guys. Please excuse the avatar as I sadly have no native fish yet.

Hi,
My dad live in the Philly area, so I've visited that area, done some hiking and fish collecting there. I visit the Ambler area, and have been to the Pennepack Creek
watershed a lot to observe and collect fish. ( I hope I've spelled the name right). You have some neat fish in the area. Here is what I've seen and or collected:
Black nose dace, creek chubs, satin fin shiner, redbreast sunfish, quillback, northern hogsucker. There are plenty of other species as well. I just have not netted and keyed them out. It would not surprise me if johnny or tesselated darters are there.

I don't know if I'll be in that area till next spring, but if you want to do some collecting, let me know, and I'll keep in touch.

- Jan - LI, New York