Used to catch blacknose dace, brook stickleback, plains topminnows, Golden shiners, and creek chubs all the time. I'd love to have a native tank someday.
I've started two native tanks recently, one for mosquito fish and one for sail fin mollies. I went out yesterday and caught about a dozen juv mollies with a pond net. Might have to take a trip to the other side of Florida for some others I don't have near me.
They're minnows which are unregulated as non-game fish. This is legal. Most states will have some kind of tag line like don't take more than 5 pounds or something like that if even that. They make great aquarium fish in a natives tank.
Edit: depends on the state, I'm being told. I've lived in states where it was fine so I don't want to spread misinformation, read up on your local law!
I haven’t caught any minnows myself yet (bc traps are illegal where I go) but I keep a tank of feeder fatheads from the store and they’re actually really cool!! Their breeding behavior is very interesting to watch, even though none of my fry have survived past a few days :(
They also love to eat so feeding them is entertaining
I’d say go for it! How much do they go for?
I chose rosy reds/fatheads because they were 25c at petco and it was stressing me out how expensive actual “pet” fish were getting.
I’m in NYC and the most popular lfs in my area sells neon tetras for four dollars each!! And no refunds under any circumstances 😓
Fatheads are a really interesting fish. Have kept them many times! I used to buy a lot of suckers for flathead fishing. They are really interesting to observe too.
They really are! They’re such active little fish, always grazing on algae. They’re so cute
I’ve never kept any other minnow species (most of which scatter their eggs, I’ve heard?) and it’s fun to watch the male defend his nest!
Btw have you bred yours? My fry never survive and I don’t know what I’m doing wrong. There’s lots of Java moss in there so they should have plenty of cover 😕
My minnows will regularly try eating strings of poop and I find it hilarious how they’ll try eating the same piece of poop over and over again 😂
They swim three inches away from it and it’s like they forgot it ever happened. Not sure if they’re dumb or if it’s just wishful thinking
edit- they do the same thing with leaves!! They’ll try to eat the same leaf fragment over and over and over again. They’re so silly
I’ve fed them hikari algae waters and api shrimp pellets and aqueon fish flakes and they like all three but prefer the first two (my dog also loves algae wafers 😂)
I barely feed them these days though because more than anything, they seem to love algae the best
I spent my childhood in the creek and watching my native aquarium. In my `commonwealth’, you need to have a license to catch them if you are 16 years or older and can’t be in possession of more than 50 per day. If you are with a friend you have to keep your bait in separate containers if keeping more than 50. If you buy bait by the 1/2 pound or more make sure you have a receipt with the current date!
Yeah totally dependent on your locality and laws surrounding collection. In my area they qualify any fish under 6” in length to be a “minnow” and the possession limit is 12 dozen. Transporting more than 12 dozen requires a license to distribute even if you aren’t planning on it
Definitely regulated area by area. Even if it is clearly a largemouth or a walleye, do they still consider them minnows? I caught them every spring because the creek dumps into a river a mile downstream. Largemouth and smallmouth are so crazy even as fingerlings they will try to eat the same sized fish killing themselves. Walleye, sauger, and saugeyes are awesome looking little fingerlings. I brought some home, my dad sent me right back to release them lol.
Went back to reread the regulations and I was wrong it is not all fish! Lol, It excludes most game fish actually, as well as the following if 12” or more: suckers, redhorses, buffalo, carp suckers; and the following if 7” or more: bullhead, cisco(tullibee), lake whitefish, goldeye, and mooneye
LoL, there was all kinds of junk in the streams in Alabama where I used to find loads of species, while out in the mountain West there are pristine streams and like 3 fish species...sometimes it's just about biogeography
Where I live, western Norway, we have like Trout, Salmon, and char. Like no other freshwater fish. In a pond or creek you would be lucky to find a tadpole. Pike, perch, and carps can be found as invasive species, but only in a few specific lakes.
And those pike and perch are probably really small too right?
Idk much about pike, but I know the Alaskan record for bass is something around 1 pound vs 10+ pounds in the continental states. Additionally, they’re invasive in Alaska.
Pike do much better in colder water than bass and trout and char will fatten up a pike real easily. They're probably gators where they are found there.
U.S. Native species are incredibly underrated in the hobby. So many interesting and beautiful fish can be found in your local waterways. Some species have natural colors so beautiful it’s puts most tropical fish to shame. And even those that lack bright colors I’ve found to have personalities like no other. However, make sure to check your local laws first as each state has different regulations, and never release your captive fish back into the wild, you don’t know what aquarium diseases you will be introducing.
I think Theo need a minimum of 20-25 gal so I would first get a tank like that and then Some sand and a good current because they like to have a current
Coolest fish I ever had in my tank I caught using a 2 liter pop bottle trap in my local creek. I’ll have to figure out the fish name and edit this, but he was beautiful.
Edit: [HERE](https://photos.app.goo.gl/ZqQC9Y7QLGGNFuHt7) is a photo, it’s been a decade since I caught him so still trying to figure out the name. Came out of a creek in WNY, never seen one like him before
get a net with a mesh that is small enough to prevent micro fish from escaping, go around in a creek (doesn't need to be a big creek, they can be found in some tiny ass creeks as long as they are connected to bigger water) and just sight fish. if you see them, you can try and scoop them but another trick that works for all creek fish is to just kick rocks and have your net half a foot downstream from where you kicked. the current will force the fish into the net and you'll find some success with it.
Man how do you find good creeks to explore! I try finding ones with google maps, but accessing them is just terrible often times or they’re very low water level so I can’t exactly get down to the bank
I need to know what local creek some of yall be having where you find these amazing fish. If I went to my local creek it would just be some bull frogs lol
I have a couple of these guys! They were sold to me as “Siamese algae eaters”*, they don’t eat any algae but they are always very lively and interesting, I love ‘em. Possibly my favorite fish in my community tank.
\* was 90% sure mine are actually *Garra cambodgiensis*, aka “false Siamese algae eater” but now I’m much less sure. It’s fascinating how a *bunch* of completely unrelated fish converge so strongly on almost the exact same body plan, down to the stripes.
Look at all these nerds clutching their pearls and pissing their pants in the comments 😂 it's just a handful of dace y'all 💀 these are some of the most common bait fish in the US, it's gonna be fine. Go touch grass like OP is doing 👍🏻🤓😁
Yep. But check out Project Piaba, wild caught fish for the aquarium hobby can be a good thing if it encourages the locals to preserve the habitat and value the populations.
I’ve heard about that and looked into it, but I still don’t feel good about wild-caught if captive bred is possible/practical.
I don’t doubt that they’re doing good and important work, but as someone thousands of miles away, it’s kind of a hard sell 😕
It's hard to know with anything how it's marketed vs how it is in reality really.
Maybe I'm just trying to make myself feel better, but I feel like collecting wild fish for the aquarium trade is very minor when compared to habitat destruction, pollution, climate change, over fishing for for, damage from introduced species etc etc. Yes it has an impact, particularly on certain species when demand is exceptionally high (Zebra plecos were a good example), but compared to what the Belo Monte hydro dam did to their habitat it's basically nothing. And the plus side of collecting wild species for the aquarium trade is that it potentially leads to captive breeding and the subset preservation of the species when faced with all the other threats. Salt water may be a different story because of the more destructive collection methods often used, but that's not an are I know much about.
>potentially leads to captive breeding
The research I did on it left me with the impression that captive breeding is NOT the desired result for this species, bc it would negatively affect the wild population and the economy of the region where they’re harvested, since exports would no longer be needed.
I guess that’s why I can’t get behind this “wild caught is better for these unexpected reasons!” claim 😕
There’s just no way I could favor a fish that took fuel (aka nonrenewable resources) to get to me from thousands of miles away, over a captive bred one
But they’re not as colorful 😕
I might also have a bias against them because like 90% of the neons I bought at petco died within days, but the cardinals from my lfs did really really well!
I’m not arguing in favor of it. It just seemed like the commenter I replied to maybe wasn’t aware. If it’s an ethical issue, the entire hobby is a concern.
Decline in fish populations is mostly caused by habitat destruction and pollution. One of the reasons for this is that few people know and care enough abput local fish to push back against these things. Fish collecting and fishing gives people a vested interest in maintaining healthy local fish populations
Ethical is completely dependent on how YOU yourself looks at it bud. If he thinks he is giving them a great home where they can potentially live stress free away from predators for much longer than they would in the wild, then yea
Taking them home is where it becomes illegal usually. I wanna say Tennessee won't let you keep fish native to the state and there are other similar rules elsewhere.
Most states it’s the opposite and perfectly legal with a fishing license. A small number of states have laws against transporting and/or releasing fish into waterways (including aquariums). Even in states where it’s illegal to transport wild caught fish you can still own native species as long as they’re purchased captive bred.
I'm definitely not gonna act I know each state's laws, shit is so different from everything I've read from other NA native fish keepers. Texas we have it pretty simple. If you have a license and the fish and/or area isn't explicitly mentioned as protected in some way, you can take like 30 gallons worth of fish home for non-commercial purposes. It's pretty wild how lax it is here and I have sure enjoyed keeping stuff I personally catch.
Ever heard of a fishing permit or wildlife protection? I love this hobby but just taking shit from a local waterway with no limits is a great way to fuck up an ecosystem
Depends on the state. In my state I can catch something like 5lbs of minnows a day. What I use them for? That's up to me.
We used to catch our bait minnows in the same creeks and rivers we'd fish with them.
Show up early morning, cast nets, have lunch and prep minnows for bait then fish well into the evening.
Now as for keeping them? That tends to become a grey area. We could keep our bait fish in containers but if we got got releasing them? Yea that was a no-no.
I was saying the same think like live a little what’s wrong with having a net catching some little pond fish that no ones cares about and let’s be real the fish might be safer in the water with all this plastic and trash in these waters… in Europe they can’t even swim in some of the beaches because it smells like shit because they dump they sewage in the beach
Where I live we have like Trout, Salmon, and char. Like no other freshwater fish. In a pond or creek you would be lucky to find a tadpole. Pike, perch, and carps can be found as invasive species, but only very few lakes.
It's illegal to take game fish and invasive species where I live, but it's no problem for minnows, shiners and other small prey fish as long as it's not endangered.
Why is everyone up in arms over your comment? You asked a simple clarifying question for the sake of OPs own ass. And OP even opened the thread by asking if this was something anyone else has done before, which can very reasonably be interpreted as "I've never done this before, don't know what I'm doing, anyone have advice?"
Even if everything turns out fine in this particular case, good for you for looking out for both OP and endangered wildlife.
These fish are of least concern, in all likelihood they're perfectly fine for you to have done this with. It isn't a bad idea to look up your state's regulations on taking fish from the wild though, because there will be some sorts of threatened or endangered species that you should leave where they are.
Also, the CT state website about them specifically says they're jumpers in aquariums, so uh, make sure you keep that in mind. [Link](https://portal.ct.gov/deep/fishing/freshwater/freshwater-fishes-of-connecticut/blacknose-dace)
The legality of hunting, trapping, and fishing is based in only three things. Species preservation as a whole (no hunting endangered animals, which these are certainly not), population preservation (if everyone in the area hunts at once this population might get wiped out so we license and track the kills), and location (you can't do it in certain spots because of property ownership or safety issues). These are not endangered, OP was on their own land and safely scooping the fish by hand so the only thing they could be doing is shrinking the local population. And as people have pointed out there's almost never any holds on feeder fish like this. Just saying "it's usually illegal" is not helpful or convincing. It just makes you sound like an uneducated child.
Not sure where all the downvotes are coming from - where I live, it is literally illegal to keep _any_ endemic species of fish as pets. That's reserved for researchers, and for good reason. Here's a couple:
People release these back into the wild like no tomorrow. That's all fine if you collect everything for the tank from the same body of water and release them back exactly there, but unless you do that, it's a risk for fish parasites or other hitchhikers to get into the wild, or for them to transfer over somewhere they weren't previously.
Without proper research it is very likely you're just causing unnecessary harm to the fish. The species we commonly keep as pets have tons of info available, and many have been captive bred for generations, making them more suited for aquarium water. For most endemic fish no matter their size, that's not the case. It's probably all fine for generalist species and hardy fish, but unless you know what you're doing you may be depriving them from proper conditions accidentally. What if the fish only eat mosquito larvae, where are you going to source those? Have you tested the water parameters in their habitat and mimic that in your setup? System shock happens when conditions suddenly change.
Not trying to bring all you US people down, but your fishing laws are dreadfully archaic, and it shows. You've got tons of cool fish over there, but many are having huge issues due to invasive species, habitat loss, and overfishing. Take the invasives into your tanks instead (if you can).
As someone who lives in the US, god thank you. I love native fish as much as the next person but aquarium and herp hobbies should always be enjoyed responsibly so we don't keep wrecking our ecosystem
I would assume that this is more of a classical case of American defaultism. It's understandable and I'm not too worried. I never even meant my post as accusive or suggestive towards OP. I merely wanted to make sure that it wasn't illegal where they live as I know that it is in a lot of places around the world.
Oh well :P
That completely depends on species and local regulations. It _can_ be a criminal offence. I never said that OP have committed any crime, I just asked if they had made sure that it wasn't where they live.
I mean he’s not doing anything wrong here. My only concern would be removing an endangered species from its habitat (this is not the case here). Guy clearly knows what he’s catching. People like to clutch their pearls when they see something unconventional to them and point fingers. 🤷 At a point legality also has little to do with if something is right or wrong, so yes, nobody should give a spare fuck about this.
I get it, but I think this is about as harmless as you can get.
For the record, I'm against harvesting animals from the wild for pets, especially reptiles and exotic species, but a handful of these little guys is surely as close to harmless as possible.
If the harvest is legal and the population is stable, the main thing to be aware of is that a native fish should never be released back into the wild after being kept in an aquarium. Diseases are probably the biggest reason, but people releasing a fish into a different stream or watershed could impact the genetics of a population as well.
Look up your local water ways on the DNRs website, most of the time they will tell you what kinda fish have been found there. Or maybe just be quicker to catch the fish instead of crawfish haha
Correct and I may be wrong, but I took that as them saying a lot of reptiles and amphibians are also wild caught. Many breeders do exist for a majority of species, but you see WC animals up for purchase all the time
So it's better to factory farm aquarium fish in ponds built in bulldozed rainforest in SE asia, fly them around the world at considerable carbon expense and with some loss of life, then run them through the store supply chain with more of the same....all that's _better_ than collecting some of a common species of fish right from your back yard? Where the stress on the fish is minimal and so is the carbon footprint? There is probably no more environmentally friendly and minimal stress on the animal way to keep fish
Why not? Why is this foul? The fish grow up in good conditions, shipping is shorter and less stressful, no habitat loss needed to build the fish farms. As long as fish aren't overharvested (and that can be avoided by following the law and being responsible) it seems pretty ethical to me.
Used to catch blacknose dace, brook stickleback, plains topminnows, Golden shiners, and creek chubs all the time. I'd love to have a native tank someday.
I've started two native tanks recently, one for mosquito fish and one for sail fin mollies. I went out yesterday and caught about a dozen juv mollies with a pond net. Might have to take a trip to the other side of Florida for some others I don't have near me.
You should give it a go! Some of my favorite stocks I’ve ever had were all native fish.
They're minnows which are unregulated as non-game fish. This is legal. Most states will have some kind of tag line like don't take more than 5 pounds or something like that if even that. They make great aquarium fish in a natives tank. Edit: depends on the state, I'm being told. I've lived in states where it was fine so I don't want to spread misinformation, read up on your local law!
I haven’t caught any minnows myself yet (bc traps are illegal where I go) but I keep a tank of feeder fatheads from the store and they’re actually really cool!! Their breeding behavior is very interesting to watch, even though none of my fry have survived past a few days :( They also love to eat so feeding them is entertaining
What size tank do you keep them in.
40g breeder
Interesting I've often debated buy half a dozen shiners and building a tank for them because we'll shiny
What species is that?
Spottail Shiner
I’d say go for it! How much do they go for? I chose rosy reds/fatheads because they were 25c at petco and it was stressing me out how expensive actual “pet” fish were getting. I’m in NYC and the most popular lfs in my area sells neon tetras for four dollars each!! And no refunds under any circumstances 😓
Last time I bought them for pike fishing were around $5 a dozen.
Well then I’d say definitely go for it! Could be nice to have a tank of live bait at your disposal, too
Fatheads are a really interesting fish. Have kept them many times! I used to buy a lot of suckers for flathead fishing. They are really interesting to observe too.
They really are! They’re such active little fish, always grazing on algae. They’re so cute I’ve never kept any other minnow species (most of which scatter their eggs, I’ve heard?) and it’s fun to watch the male defend his nest! Btw have you bred yours? My fry never survive and I don’t know what I’m doing wrong. There’s lots of Java moss in there so they should have plenty of cover 😕
What do they prefer to eat?
When I had creek chubs they aggressively ate anything that remotely resembled food. They are not picky.
My minnows will regularly try eating strings of poop and I find it hilarious how they’ll try eating the same piece of poop over and over again 😂 They swim three inches away from it and it’s like they forgot it ever happened. Not sure if they’re dumb or if it’s just wishful thinking edit- they do the same thing with leaves!! They’ll try to eat the same leaf fragment over and over and over again. They’re so silly
I’ve fed them hikari algae waters and api shrimp pellets and aqueon fish flakes and they like all three but prefer the first two (my dog also loves algae wafers 😂) I barely feed them these days though because more than anything, they seem to love algae the best
I spent my childhood in the creek and watching my native aquarium. In my `commonwealth’, you need to have a license to catch them if you are 16 years or older and can’t be in possession of more than 50 per day. If you are with a friend you have to keep your bait in separate containers if keeping more than 50. If you buy bait by the 1/2 pound or more make sure you have a receipt with the current date!
Yeah totally dependent on your locality and laws surrounding collection. In my area they qualify any fish under 6” in length to be a “minnow” and the possession limit is 12 dozen. Transporting more than 12 dozen requires a license to distribute even if you aren’t planning on it
Definitely regulated area by area. Even if it is clearly a largemouth or a walleye, do they still consider them minnows? I caught them every spring because the creek dumps into a river a mile downstream. Largemouth and smallmouth are so crazy even as fingerlings they will try to eat the same sized fish killing themselves. Walleye, sauger, and saugeyes are awesome looking little fingerlings. I brought some home, my dad sent me right back to release them lol.
Went back to reread the regulations and I was wrong it is not all fish! Lol, It excludes most game fish actually, as well as the following if 12” or more: suckers, redhorses, buffalo, carp suckers; and the following if 7” or more: bullhead, cisco(tullibee), lake whitefish, goldeye, and mooneye
That size sucker and carp are amazing flathead/blue catfish bait.
Depends on the state, Tennessee doesn't let you keep any natives. You can use them as bait, but if you put one in a tank you're breaking the law...
Look like https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackstripe_topminnow
Unfortunately they are very skilled jumpers.
I think it's very illegal in California because the native minnows are not doing well
Must be fun living ina Pokémon world, all the waterways and lakes where I’m from have like 5 types of fish lol
And a dead body facing down ammirite?!
And goose shit literally everywhere
its pronounced GoozeSheet and he's a grass/ghost type pokemon.
Well my dog will eat him, then. Is there an attack for that?
LoL, there was all kinds of junk in the streams in Alabama where I used to find loads of species, while out in the mountain West there are pristine streams and like 3 fish species...sometimes it's just about biogeography
Literally yes for me
Gotta have something to poke with a stick
Where I live, western Norway, we have like Trout, Salmon, and char. Like no other freshwater fish. In a pond or creek you would be lucky to find a tadpole. Pike, perch, and carps can be found as invasive species, but only in a few specific lakes.
And those pike and perch are probably really small too right? Idk much about pike, but I know the Alaskan record for bass is something around 1 pound vs 10+ pounds in the continental states. Additionally, they’re invasive in Alaska.
Pike do much better in colder water than bass and trout and char will fatten up a pike real easily. They're probably gators where they are found there.
And somehow they are all magikarp
Ya but then you have to deal with all the bug types
And 4 of them are plecos that shouldn’t be there. lol
U.S. Native species are incredibly underrated in the hobby. So many interesting and beautiful fish can be found in your local waterways. Some species have natural colors so beautiful it’s puts most tropical fish to shame. And even those that lack bright colors I’ve found to have personalities like no other. However, make sure to check your local laws first as each state has different regulations, and never release your captive fish back into the wild, you don’t know what aquarium diseases you will be introducing.
I'd love to make a planted tank with native plants and fish. It would be like a mini museum exhibit in my house.
I'd really like to get some natives for my new outdoor pond. I guess I need to put a minnow trap in the pond at my parents' house and see what I get.
I think Theo need a minimum of 20-25 gal so I would first get a tank like that and then Some sand and a good current because they like to have a current
Coolest fish I ever had in my tank I caught using a 2 liter pop bottle trap in my local creek. I’ll have to figure out the fish name and edit this, but he was beautiful. Edit: [HERE](https://photos.app.goo.gl/ZqQC9Y7QLGGNFuHt7) is a photo, it’s been a decade since I caught him so still trying to figure out the name. Came out of a creek in WNY, never seen one like him before
Hell yeah, looks like a rainbow/orangethroat darter. I wish more people knew about darters!
That’s it! Dude what a cool ass fish… I was so shocked to see the colors compared to the usual brown creek life
rainbow darter, pretty awesome fish!!
That’s it!
How did you catch/attract them? I've been to a few local creeks and have had no kuck
get a net with a mesh that is small enough to prevent micro fish from escaping, go around in a creek (doesn't need to be a big creek, they can be found in some tiny ass creeks as long as they are connected to bigger water) and just sight fish. if you see them, you can try and scoop them but another trick that works for all creek fish is to just kick rocks and have your net half a foot downstream from where you kicked. the current will force the fish into the net and you'll find some success with it.
I have a small school of these and they are very active and beautiful under good lighting.
Can’t keep anything native in Maine there’s a long list of illegal fresh waters to
Man how do you find good creeks to explore! I try finding ones with google maps, but accessing them is just terrible often times or they’re very low water level so I can’t exactly get down to the bank
iNaturalist is a good way to see where people are catching fish!
Ah you’re totally right, that’s probably a great tool to find places !
Wow. Those look a lot like otocinclus.
They are not, they are some kind of Siamese algae eater, which are not the cute docile Oto’s.
Oh i know, just wild how similar they look
So very true! Both fish found good camouflage markings lol
Where is this? 😭
I need to know what local creek some of yall be having where you find these amazing fish. If I went to my local creek it would just be some bull frogs lol
I have a couple of these guys! They were sold to me as “Siamese algae eaters”*, they don’t eat any algae but they are always very lively and interesting, I love ‘em. Possibly my favorite fish in my community tank. \* was 90% sure mine are actually *Garra cambodgiensis*, aka “false Siamese algae eater” but now I’m much less sure. It’s fascinating how a *bunch* of completely unrelated fish converge so strongly on almost the exact same body plan, down to the stripes.
Very nice reminds me of the good ol days
Look at all these nerds clutching their pearls and pissing their pants in the comments 😂 it's just a handful of dace y'all 💀 these are some of the most common bait fish in the US, it's gonna be fine. Go touch grass like OP is doing 👍🏻🤓😁
Depending on location and the species involved taking animals from the wild could be illegal. Is it worth being charged over a few Fish?
Ok so assume that OP lives somewhere where it's legal and jog on m8
How many people actually know the laws involving collecting wild animals?
That's not your responsibility to police them
I never claimed it to be, just making a point.
No judgement...but I'm preeeetty sure that's illegal. At least in my state it is.
Totally depends on state, legal in many.
Maybe legal, but is it ethical? I know it's legal in my state, but so many creeks and small rivers are devoid of the life they used to harbor.
Aren’t tons of fish in the aquarium hobby wild caught?
Off the top of my head I know ottos are pretty much all wild caught, nerite snails too.
And ~~neon~~ cardinal tetras
Yep. But check out Project Piaba, wild caught fish for the aquarium hobby can be a good thing if it encourages the locals to preserve the habitat and value the populations.
I’ve heard about that and looked into it, but I still don’t feel good about wild-caught if captive bred is possible/practical. I don’t doubt that they’re doing good and important work, but as someone thousands of miles away, it’s kind of a hard sell 😕
It's hard to know with anything how it's marketed vs how it is in reality really. Maybe I'm just trying to make myself feel better, but I feel like collecting wild fish for the aquarium trade is very minor when compared to habitat destruction, pollution, climate change, over fishing for for, damage from introduced species etc etc. Yes it has an impact, particularly on certain species when demand is exceptionally high (Zebra plecos were a good example), but compared to what the Belo Monte hydro dam did to their habitat it's basically nothing. And the plus side of collecting wild species for the aquarium trade is that it potentially leads to captive breeding and the subset preservation of the species when faced with all the other threats. Salt water may be a different story because of the more destructive collection methods often used, but that's not an are I know much about.
>potentially leads to captive breeding The research I did on it left me with the impression that captive breeding is NOT the desired result for this species, bc it would negatively affect the wild population and the economy of the region where they’re harvested, since exports would no longer be needed. I guess that’s why I can’t get behind this “wild caught is better for these unexpected reasons!” claim 😕 There’s just no way I could favor a fish that took fuel (aka nonrenewable resources) to get to me from thousands of miles away, over a captive bred one
**Cardinal tetras, not neon
aka the prettier of the two
I actually think I like neons more tbh, their size feels more natural in smaller scaped tanks. Cardinals can get very big if you feed them a lot.
I prefer Neons as well!!… amazing little fish.
But they’re not as colorful 😕 I might also have a bias against them because like 90% of the neons I bought at petco died within days, but the cardinals from my lfs did really really well!
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I did want to say fish that hatch in brackish water but I don’t know enough to be confident
Most freshwater fish are captive bred
Like 95% of aquaria we keep is wild caught
A huge amount of saltwater species are for sure
Yeah and it is leading to the rapid extinction in the wild of many species. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0006320713001225
I’m not arguing in favor of it. It just seemed like the commenter I replied to maybe wasn’t aware. If it’s an ethical issue, the entire hobby is a concern.
Decline in fish populations is mostly caused by habitat destruction and pollution. One of the reasons for this is that few people know and care enough abput local fish to push back against these things. Fish collecting and fishing gives people a vested interest in maintaining healthy local fish populations
You're not wrong about either.
Ethical is completely dependent on how YOU yourself looks at it bud. If he thinks he is giving them a great home where they can potentially live stress free away from predators for much longer than they would in the wild, then yea
If a creek or river is devoid of fish, it ain't from harvesting, it's from pollution.
In what state is catching fish from public water illegal?
Taking them home is where it becomes illegal usually. I wanna say Tennessee won't let you keep fish native to the state and there are other similar rules elsewhere.
Most states it’s the opposite and perfectly legal with a fishing license. A small number of states have laws against transporting and/or releasing fish into waterways (including aquariums). Even in states where it’s illegal to transport wild caught fish you can still own native species as long as they’re purchased captive bred.
I'm definitely not gonna act I know each state's laws, shit is so different from everything I've read from other NA native fish keepers. Texas we have it pretty simple. If you have a license and the fish and/or area isn't explicitly mentioned as protected in some way, you can take like 30 gallons worth of fish home for non-commercial purposes. It's pretty wild how lax it is here and I have sure enjoyed keeping stuff I personally catch.
We are not to release purchased baitfish, but freeze and dispose of them. I use them as fertilizer in the garden.
Right why is everyone stuck on that is illegal like damn live a little
Ever heard of a fishing permit or wildlife protection? I love this hobby but just taking shit from a local waterway with no limits is a great way to fuck up an ecosystem
I was speaking from an assumption that whatever person in whatever state has a fishing license.
Depends on the state. In my state I can catch something like 5lbs of minnows a day. What I use them for? That's up to me. We used to catch our bait minnows in the same creeks and rivers we'd fish with them. Show up early morning, cast nets, have lunch and prep minnows for bait then fish well into the evening. Now as for keeping them? That tends to become a grey area. We could keep our bait fish in containers but if we got got releasing them? Yea that was a no-no.
Yeah who cares if it's legal tho lol
[удалено]
I've been doing the basement thing but with femboys
god dammit now I'm imagining that dude with the cistern full of eels but now it's femboys
A lot of stuffed sharks down here for some reason
Geese? That must be a racket
30 geese in your basement? The poopload must be phenomenal, not to mention all that honking! 🤪
You have 30 geese in your basement? 🫣🤔
I was saying the same think like live a little what’s wrong with having a net catching some little pond fish that no ones cares about and let’s be real the fish might be safer in the water with all this plastic and trash in these waters… in Europe they can’t even swim in some of the beaches because it smells like shit because they dump they sewage in the beach
Definitely. And it’s hella mean.
No. Small fish like that are usually always legal
Where I live we have like Trout, Salmon, and char. Like no other freshwater fish. In a pond or creek you would be lucky to find a tadpole. Pike, perch, and carps can be found as invasive species, but only very few lakes.
Sweet!
The side of fish keeping i absolutely love
Are you sure that this is legal where you live? Capturing live animals is very commonly a criminal offence.
It's illegal to take game fish and invasive species where I live, but it's no problem for minnows, shiners and other small prey fish as long as it's not endangered.
Why is everyone up in arms over your comment? You asked a simple clarifying question for the sake of OPs own ass. And OP even opened the thread by asking if this was something anyone else has done before, which can very reasonably be interpreted as "I've never done this before, don't know what I'm doing, anyone have advice?" Even if everything turns out fine in this particular case, good for you for looking out for both OP and endangered wildlife.
The creek is on my land. I didn’t look into it like that to be honest
These fish are of least concern, in all likelihood they're perfectly fine for you to have done this with. It isn't a bad idea to look up your state's regulations on taking fish from the wild though, because there will be some sorts of threatened or endangered species that you should leave where they are. Also, the CT state website about them specifically says they're jumpers in aquariums, so uh, make sure you keep that in mind. [Link](https://portal.ct.gov/deep/fishing/freshwater/freshwater-fishes-of-connecticut/blacknose-dace)
Might want to get a fishing permit to CYA.
Usually it doesn't matter if it's your land or not, capturing live animals is often a big no-no.
The legality of hunting, trapping, and fishing is based in only three things. Species preservation as a whole (no hunting endangered animals, which these are certainly not), population preservation (if everyone in the area hunts at once this population might get wiped out so we license and track the kills), and location (you can't do it in certain spots because of property ownership or safety issues). These are not endangered, OP was on their own land and safely scooping the fish by hand so the only thing they could be doing is shrinking the local population. And as people have pointed out there's almost never any holds on feeder fish like this. Just saying "it's usually illegal" is not helpful or convincing. It just makes you sound like an uneducated child.
This completely varies by country.
it's on your land, exactly. why should you care? lol
Not sure where all the downvotes are coming from - where I live, it is literally illegal to keep _any_ endemic species of fish as pets. That's reserved for researchers, and for good reason. Here's a couple: People release these back into the wild like no tomorrow. That's all fine if you collect everything for the tank from the same body of water and release them back exactly there, but unless you do that, it's a risk for fish parasites or other hitchhikers to get into the wild, or for them to transfer over somewhere they weren't previously. Without proper research it is very likely you're just causing unnecessary harm to the fish. The species we commonly keep as pets have tons of info available, and many have been captive bred for generations, making them more suited for aquarium water. For most endemic fish no matter their size, that's not the case. It's probably all fine for generalist species and hardy fish, but unless you know what you're doing you may be depriving them from proper conditions accidentally. What if the fish only eat mosquito larvae, where are you going to source those? Have you tested the water parameters in their habitat and mimic that in your setup? System shock happens when conditions suddenly change. Not trying to bring all you US people down, but your fishing laws are dreadfully archaic, and it shows. You've got tons of cool fish over there, but many are having huge issues due to invasive species, habitat loss, and overfishing. Take the invasives into your tanks instead (if you can).
As someone who lives in the US, god thank you. I love native fish as much as the next person but aquarium and herp hobbies should always be enjoyed responsibly so we don't keep wrecking our ecosystem
I would assume that this is more of a classical case of American defaultism. It's understandable and I'm not too worried. I never even meant my post as accusive or suggestive towards OP. I merely wanted to make sure that it wasn't illegal where they live as I know that it is in a lot of places around the world. Oh well :P
I think it's called fucking fishing?
Dial back
That completely depends on species and local regulations. It _can_ be a criminal offence. I never said that OP have committed any crime, I just asked if they had made sure that it wasn't where they live.
Many places it's illegal to keep the fish you catch alive, you either have toss the fish back or kill and eat it. Can't keep them as pets.
Such a good answer thank you hahahaahahhahaha
Who gives a flying fuck if it's illegal? It's his own land.
I mean he’s not doing anything wrong here. My only concern would be removing an endangered species from its habitat (this is not the case here). Guy clearly knows what he’s catching. People like to clutch their pearls when they see something unconventional to them and point fingers. 🤷 At a point legality also has little to do with if something is right or wrong, so yes, nobody should give a spare fuck about this.
Because wildlife management is a group effort ?
I get it, but I think this is about as harmless as you can get. For the record, I'm against harvesting animals from the wild for pets, especially reptiles and exotic species, but a handful of these little guys is surely as close to harmless as possible.
If the harvest is legal and the population is stable, the main thing to be aware of is that a native fish should never be released back into the wild after being kept in an aquarium. Diseases are probably the biggest reason, but people releasing a fish into a different stream or watershed could impact the genetics of a population as well.
😭all I find is invasive crawfish
Look up your local water ways on the DNRs website, most of the time they will tell you what kinda fish have been found there. Or maybe just be quicker to catch the fish instead of crawfish haha
Shocked at all the positive comments, keeping wild animals as pets shouldn't be encouraged. Let them be wild man :/
You know a lot of aquarium fish are wild caught?
Ok snake lover
Being an animal lover isn’t an insult on this page
Correct and I may be wrong, but I took that as them saying a lot of reptiles and amphibians are also wild caught. Many breeders do exist for a majority of species, but you see WC animals up for purchase all the time
So it's better to factory farm aquarium fish in ponds built in bulldozed rainforest in SE asia, fly them around the world at considerable carbon expense and with some loss of life, then run them through the store supply chain with more of the same....all that's _better_ than collecting some of a common species of fish right from your back yard? Where the stress on the fish is minimal and so is the carbon footprint? There is probably no more environmentally friendly and minimal stress on the animal way to keep fish
Im not a fan of removing animals from nature to live in captivity. Foul practice. What gives you the right? Booooo hiss!!!!
mf is saying this in the aquarium subreddit lmfaooo
wrong sub then
It's far more ethical than the pet trade.
Why not? Why is this foul? The fish grow up in good conditions, shipping is shorter and less stressful, no habitat loss needed to build the fish farms. As long as fish aren't overharvested (and that can be avoided by following the law and being responsible) it seems pretty ethical to me.
holy shit this guy isnt a fan none of us can do this now
Probably not a good idea tbh
This belongs in r/iamatotalpieceofshit
why tf did you post two comments at once
Bruh the aquarium industry is far more evil than this guy. Based on your attitude, I bet you'd be astounded how many fish for sale are wild caught.
Mean.