Hello all! I have kept tropical fish for about a year now in a very heavily planted 20 gallon aquarium. Recently I have aquired a 55 gallon tank and want to stock it with fish native to my area (NH/VT). Ideally I would like to have 1 or two larger showpiece fish (like some sort of sunfish) as well as a smaller school of minnows/shiners and maybe some unique solo fish. Could anyone give me some suggestions?

Welcome to the forum.  We have a few members up your way that will hopefully chime in with the best local suggestions.  I want to encourage you to try to get out in your local creeks and streams and really find out what is there and what the habitat is like.  I think a local tank is a great idea and I have one for my area.  You can definitely do what you are talking about with a few limitations on who might eat who.

 

Personally, I like minnows and chubs.  We had our convention up that way and I know there are some threads here on the forum regarding that convention and the fishes that we saw in the area around Portsmouth, NH and snorkeled the Lamprey River in Epping, NH.  Definitely you need a fallfish! 

Thank you Michael! The internet is a wonderful place. Great to find a forum that is so niche yet so active! As for getting in streams and such, I have no fishing license and don't know anyone with a fishing license. I planned to purchase the fish from a vendor or try to buy from members on here. Was your suggestion aimed at simply observing the fish? I fear if I just look at them I'll have no idea what they are.

It’s a lot of fun to mess around in a creek.

Thank you Michael! The internet is a wonderful place. Great to find a forum that is so niche yet so active! As for getting in streams and such, I have no fishing license and don't know anyone with a fishing license. I planned to purchase the fish from a vendor or try to buy from members on here. Was your suggestion aimed at simply observing the fish? I fear if I just look at them I'll have no idea what they are.

 

Yes, my idea was for you observe your local fish and maybe buy a field guide (Peterson's is my go to) to start learning about what is out there local to you.  I dont remember or know what the NH or VT laws are, but in many states, you can collect some fish species as bait.  And for sun fish you can catch them on hook and like and they recover very quickly and still do well in aquariums (younger individuals at least).  This is how I learned, followed by joining NANFA (not just the forum, we are much more than just this discussion area... check out the main NANFA website www.nanfa.org and find out more).

NH laws seem quite restrictive from what I've read. Legally I can not take a live sunfish out of a lake and bring one home. Additionally I cannot import any native fish into NH including bait fish. However, I believe I can just buy baitfish from a baitfish vendor in state. Currently I am leaning towards 5-6 lake chub as my school of fish. I've read on another forum that they need 60 degree water and I don't think that is very feasible given my current aquarium setup. Would they be ok in water that could reach temperatures of 80 degrees? Or would I need to invest in a chiller?

Edit #3 - a lot of the sources I am looking at do not seem to be making any distinctions between lake and creek chubs. Is their care/maximum size similar?

Edited by Apwinger, 08 July 2018 - 05:52 PM.