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Hello everyone,
My name is Lyn Baker and I'm from a little town in north central Arkansas named Yellville (about 1,400 people). Yellville is right on the banks of the famous Crooked Creek, Buffalo River just 20 miles away to the south, Bull Shoals Lake to the north about 15 miles, and White River about 10 miles away to the east, all in Marion County. I tell everyone we are like Florida; we are surrounded by water on three sides! Anyway, I used to keep an aquarium back when I was a kid (49 now) but now find myself back in the hobby in a big way. I recently set up my wife's defunct 55 gallon aquarium that had been stored away for about 10 years. I set it up in my new office as a community tank with some of the usual fish: guppies, molies, pleco, etc. Well, the guppies had babies, of course, so I set up a nursery tank as well. The wife called from work about three weeks ago with a deal she'd come across for a larger tank. 100 gallons with boxes of everything to go with it for $200. Went and looked and bought. When I got to the place that had the tank, they laid another deal on me: one 55 gallon with hood and base, 2-20 gallon tanks, 2-15 gallon tanks, and 4-10 gallon tanks, all with hoods for $150! Heck, they were in great shape so I bought it all!

Now what do I do? https://nwaas.com/forum/posting.php?mode=post&f=4#

Anyway, I've got the 100 gallon tank cycling and am thinking seriously about hosting some African cichlids when it's ready. Never had any of these before, but I've also thought about collecting some native fish since I'm surrounded by water! I've also got a friend who used to raise angels who is getting back into it as well and he wants me to raise angels too. Lots of possibilities! Lot's of tanks!

I am very excited about being back in the hobby and am having a blast! I plan on joining the society after the first of the year. I"m looking forward to getting to know some of you as well. I've got lots of questions (hopefully not too many dumb ones) so I expect to be posting here frequently. I sure like what I've been reading on this site. Very helpful and all of you are very nice!
Thanks!
Lyn

welcome to the club!
Im a newbie to the club myself.
sounds like you got some good deals on them fish tanks, so you might as well use them.
as far as native fish, I dont think thats legal but not sure about arkansas laws.
but if you try it you have to work hard at getting them to the right water temp.
that outside water will be real cold so you cant just slap them in a tank.
you might already know that but just in case I thought I would warn you.
anyways, welcome.

Thanks for the info on the collecting of native fish. I am aware of there being a few endangered and 'watch' fish in the area. Not legal to collect I'm sure. Been thinking about the temp issues too. All that's why I'm leaning towards the a. cichlids instead. Thought it'd be cool to have a native tank though.

Lyn

I know of some people that have done it, and it worked but im to lazy to change them to warmer water! lol
africans are cool fish and with them the main thing to keep them from fighting is to give them plenty of rocks, or over crowd them.
for big tanks I like south americans, oscars, clown knifes, arrowana, parrot fish. things like that because them fish are so hardy you can just about take them out of the tank and slap them around and they would surrive to tell their grandfish about it. lol

We have several people in the club who are quite proficient at native fish collecting. We also occasionally go on field trips, so we can probably give you advise on this area as well. Denny

Actually collecting and keeping natives is very much legal in almost all states provided you don't collect endangered species and have a fishing license. Kevin will have to verify this but I believe we collected in Crooked Creek several years ago with a guy named Bill Hoppe who used to live over there. Be glad to make the trip again to help you out. Temperature adjustments aren't as scary as you would think and most of the natives easily handle indoor temps as long as you don't keep a higher temp room. For the most part if you are comfortable so are they.

welcome from this club's resident discus nut staying out in Harrison now . some one close by is nice .

Hello! If you need advise you have found the right place. Everyone is great on here. If you are thinking africans denny has aulonocara/peacocks and they are beautiful. I have just started with the peacocks myself and already have a momma fish brooding fry. Great buy on the tanks by the way!

Woohoo! It sounds like we've got a destination for some native-fish collecting trips for the club next year. And, yes, it's perfectly legal to collect natives in both Missouri and Arkansas, if you have a fishing license. (There are some limits on how you capture them, how many at a time, and so forth, too-- but our group is familiar with all that.) Our resident expert, Kevin-- whose screenname, Etheonut, is a hint that he likes native fishes-- has led us on some awesome trips in the past. On one excursion last year, we had four carloads of people!

In the meantime, there's no doubt that we can help you populate your new tanks. Club members often have overstock of fish they've bred or plants they've grown that are offered cheaply or, sometimes, free. You mentioned Africans, so you'll probably be interested in talking to Denny (dennysfishroom), our resident African cichlid breeding fool! And we occasionally make shopping trips to distant cities to find some new things to buy. (If there are any cool stores out your way-- I don't know where Yellville is-- let us know. We may come your way.)

Anyway, we're glad to have you here, where you won't have to worry about anyone mentioning a 12-step program for curing the fish addiction!

Alright! You guys are great! Already got me lined out on some things I didn't know and I'd LOVE to do some native collecting in ol' Crooked Creek with friends. I know of some of those little out-of-the-way streams real close that are bound to have some cool critters swimming around. I've done a lot of wade fishing over the years in some of the unknown backwaters of Marion County.

Very excited to get to know you all as I pursue this awesome hobby!
Lyn

Now we have the painfully long wait for weather that's warm enough to do it!

Welcome to the forum, Lyn! It is great to see a new face.

Wait for water to warm up?! WIMP!

Just let me know when you have a free weekend. My schedule just opened up with finishing this graduate class tonight.

ROAD TRIP

Kevin

I'm off Wed and Thurs. Oh, you have to teach, right. So your schedule isn't completely opened up yet.
Warm water is for the faint of heart. I do like the air temp to be at least in the high 40's though.

Yessir.... wimp...that's me. I like collecting when I don't need to worry about keeping the cell phone dry to dial 911 for hypothermia.

I have never had hypothermia....for an extended period of time....


Kevin