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Hello everyone I am new here and wanted to say hello. I have been around and have had tanks for years. My mom had tanks when I was 8 and have had up to a 125 gal. I got a div 4 yrs ago and got rid of all my tanks but a 40 gal and it has been stored 4 yrs. I am remarried a month now and I am setting my 40 back up. I need some help on some different wild species. I will give all the specfics ie; size.... 12.5x48x15.75.... Will use sand for substrate.. I have 2 maxi jet 400 106 gph powerheads I will use in a foam bio filter..

I have 2 whisper HOB I will be using. I have a UGF I will be removing when I add my sand. I have several peices of drift wood and local rocks. My rocks are from golfball size to large flat stones
. I will add air just havent decided whether to use my ph or air stones. I would like some live plants but there not a must.

I have 2 full spectrum bulbs. I will upload some pics of the species I like. I like the sunpearch and the orange throated darter and the rainbow darter. I have been doing some research online and I think I can keep 6 of any of the 3 species and maybe all found here in Arkansas.Any help and advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks BillAndKerri...

Native fish...we have a couple people around this forum that know a little about those. I would refer you to Sumpnfishy, he is probably the most local native fish guy. I think he kept sun perch one time, or something like that.

How rude of me, welcome to the forums. These guys are pretty nice and one or two of 'em know a couple things about fish.
If you are close and have the time, I would recommend you take the opportunity to attend a meeting in Rogers. It is worth it to get some of Gail's cookies.

Kevin

Well thanks for the welcome. As for a meeting will have to wait and see its 3 or so hours drive from here to Rogers but not totally out of the question. I found the darter articles online and I have kept a yellow sunperch before. Other than
that everything has been tropical.

Etheonut was too modest to list himself also as one of our native fish experts. That's his info about the cardinal shiner on our homepage right now.

But I'd agree that both sumpnfishy and etheonut are the guys to ask about local species that would be good in aquariums.

Thanks for the info Mike. I'm posting pics now of the 3 species I like and a pic of my old 40 gal with driftwood and Arkkansas river rock. The river rock and UGF is comming out and sand is going in. I will upload a pic of my tank also even
tho it's empty lol...

Bill

So, in the pictures:

1. Rainbow darter, easy to find, fairly easy to keep.
2. Longear Sunfish - Lepomis megalotis - You will want to come visit me in June for those, just take my word for it. It is worth the 3 hours. You will need more tank for longears, unless you just want to keep one.
3. Hmm, random darter that some guy on the internet thought was an orange throat (not you). Orange throat darters look much much better than that little guy that was later identified as a green throat darter. The green throat is pretty though.

Kevin

Hi Kevin, as for the darters the orange throat looks good to me. I have thought about using the bio foam tubes with my powerheads and put them both on one end aiming the same direction to give it some current. Do you know this area of fairfield bay? There are some creeks and streams on this end of the lake I wouldnt mind looking around for a fish or two to put in my tank. I would be to leary to haul them very far.

I have collected in that area, but not enough to give advice. Look for small streams for the rainbow darters. Look for small spring fed water for the orange throats. Look for "fishing holes" on the medium to large streams for the orange throats.

Hauling fish across the state is no problem. I have brought fish back in my car from Louisiana and Florida.

There are a variety of ways to imitate a stream in an aquarium. I have found though that very few fish really appreciate having that imitation. Most fish that do live in strong currents spend a lot of time and energy coming up with ways to stay out of that current. Also, most ways of imitating a stream result in raising the water temperature which is usually detrimental to the natives.

Kevin

Welcome;

I would say Rainbows or Orangethroats, I have kept both and they are wonderful fish.

I would go with a smaller sunfish species and since on that subject why not cardinal shiners and maybe some madtoms.

Hello Herpchat. This will be my first wild tank and I want to go as natural as I can. I was wanting to know if I could put more than one species in the tank. Would I still use the 1 in per gal as a refrence point with the wild caught as I would with store bought? Any suggestions will be appreciated from everyone. Thanks

Bill

If you do longear sunfish in your 40 breeder, he will fill the tank. They can be quite boisterous.
I have never noticed an issue of territorial/aggressive behaviors in darters. You should be able to keep a couple species if you like.

Darters are slightly more picky than normal fish when it comes to tank maintenance. I would stock them lightly. I stock most of my tanks lightly.

Kevin

The 1 inch per gallon rule is so old school!

With good filtration you can over that!

What is the state and any federal regs if you know or a website where I can go look it up. All I found in Arkansas game and fish is 6 per species and depending on there size and species compatibility I should have room for several darters as long as I stay with some of the smaller fish...

I don't know Arkansas or Missouri;

I know in Oklahoma you can take what you want if you have a fishing license, unless it is protected or a game fish.

You need a fishing license to collect in Arkansas and Missouri, too. They have some regulations up on the state wildlife websites. Mostly, you want to look at the regulations for bait fish, as the little guys are what we normally would collect. The long-eared sunfish is a gamefish, though. So the regulations might be a bit different for it.

I know we've all looked up the regulations many times. One of these days we'll hopefully get smart enough to post a summary after we do so.

We keep these rules on our forums as sticky notes so they are on the top of the groupings.

We also keep the rules on prohibited creatures as well.

Actually any sunfish (except bass, which are actually sunfish) under four inches is considered a baitfish. Longer than four and they become subject to gamefish regulations.
The other thing to note is that if you are keeping game fish in aquariums then you must ALWAYS have a fishing license and they count as part of your possession limit. I think that is true of baitfish as well but they don't really seem to care about that nearly as much.
Michael

Gerald, great idea on the sticky notes. Do you mind if I pull the prohibited list of Oklahoma fish from your site? It looks like it was pulled from the wildlife regs anyway.

Good Morning Everyone. From the research I have been doing I am finding most of the info,how ever I did not know or find the info on keeping a fishing liscense if you are keeping wild caught fish. That is interesting, will be looking into that. I do have my fishing liscense so no problem there. I will call AGFC in Little Rock and get the scoop... While inspecting my tank now that its home from where I had it stored, I find the top frame cracked and glued ( he used Gorilla Glue Super Glue) so I will get it cleaned up then order a top frame, in the meantime, I have to get some sand from a local area on the creek as well as some extra local rock. I will take my time and do this right. My old powerheads still run but are not pumping water so I will get new impellers for those. Dont ya just love it lol... Atleast my HOB's still work, I was hoping my tank was still in good shape but it will be as soon as I can get a new top frame. I dont trust it being glued. Ok so any thing anyone comes up with that you think I need to know, I would appreciate it being passed along. Thanks Everyone and have a Great Day!!!

I looked up Fairfield Bay. You are right in the middle of Yellowcheek Darter territory. Make sure you familiarize yourself with what they look like because they are on the federal endangered species list. Don't want to risk bringing those home!
Michael

Oh, oh, that would definitely be a life list species....ROAD TRIP!

When are we leaving Michael?

Kevin

Sure, I suggested we should go try and find them back when they were not listed but NOW you ant to go! I agree. We should go out there and meet our newest members and do some snorkeling

Hmm, can we get away with a Sunday trip? Otherwise it wil have to wait until mid-May.

Kevin

Mike;

You can use anything on our site anytime you need.

Goos evening everyone, I am going to start a thread in the native fishes forum. I look forward to hearing from everyone...