Jump to content

Anybody have a native fish tank?

Rate this topic


Stryper Snyper

Recommended Posts

I had a native freshwater tank in the 80's with bass (SM & LM) and also trout ... I only had a 20 gal tank and you really need a 50 or bigger to accommodate these fish ... they dirty the water really quickly!

 

As a kid (mid-60's) I had a small saltwater tank at the shore where we had a summer house in Villas NJ ... I had hermit crabs and some small stripers that I netted in the bay. I took them back to the bay at the end of the summer.

 

Every time I go to Cabelas it makes me want to have a native tank again ... for now I'll stick with my goldfish tank inside and also a 80 gal goldfish pond out back.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Had a 50 gal. native tank when I lived on the Ramapo River in northern Jersey. Small sunfish, rock bass, sm-lm bass, baby catfish, dace, 3" pickerel, crayfish and baby turtles had spent time in the tank. Never got the tank cold enough for trout. Sunfish were the most aggressive for their size. Lot of fun collecting, mostly at night. Currently have several tanks with plants and South American fish, some for breeding at times.

ASSUME NOTHING

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Caught a couple small crayfish several years back and brought them home and put them in the tank. Things were fine for several months until one day I heard my daughter screaming in the basement. Ran downstairs and see a crayfish has one of the goldfish pinned to the ground and was picking it apart. That was the end of that. Took them back to the creek immediately.

 

I'd still love to do this though. Is this generally a seasonal thing (catch em in the spring, release em in the fall)? Or can you keep native fish in there indefinitely? Ive got a 60-gallon tank. What mix of native fish / critters could be kept in there?

If only I could cast into it, hook up, and be connected to it. My line would be attached to the chaos and, for a moment, I would mainline the power of nature.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I used to have a 110 gallon salt water tank back in the 80's and 90's. Had many different set ups in that tank. One of the earlier residents and most interesting was a small octopus. Very smart creature and interesting to observe. Later I had it set up with small fish I would catch with dip nets or my hands from the ocean. Had some pipefish, small spadefish, small bluefish, sea cucumbers, different crabs, shrimp and also a small stargazer. Found a skate egg sack washed up that was still alive and put in the tanks a week or two later it hatched. Later I set the tank up as a reef tank with live rock from the Florida when it was legal to harvest. After a while all kinds of life would start to grow including corals. I put together a programmable light system that would simulate seasonal changes of day length and also the lunar cycle. Also had a sysem that would use pumps to create wave cycles. The lighting system really got the system going. The corals would reproduce and show up on all of the surfaces. Once set up correctly it was a mini ecosystem, I never had to feed anything. I had a pretty elaborate system that I only had to replace the water as it evaporated which was automated and also add nutrients. I had a calcium reactor that with the addition of CO2 would provide the calcium the tank residents required. Right now it is not set up but I will set it up again in the future, probably as a reef tank again.

 

John

Link to comment
Share on other sites

funny you should ask...was just reminiscing with one of my college roommates about a native fish tank we had back in the 80's as well. We had several fish we caught in a pond on what is now Carpenter State Park. One fish in particular (a crappie) did quite well and loved the goldfish we used to feed him. He got so large he outgrew the tank over the winter. We would have released him but we felt he didn't have a chance at surviving without the golden gifts from above. He panned fried up nicely. :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I had a friend that raised a perch and some bluegill. The bluegill stayed on one side and the perch on the other. It was a hundred gallon tank. He would feed them minnows and crayfish it was a constant blood bath. I thought about doing it myself. We have gold-fish now. My daughter wants to raise a perch. We frequently catch pinky size perch on 3"inch floating Rapalas. I would like to do this before she grows up more and loses interest. They are very aggressive, but pretty fish.


Link to comment
Share on other sites

My son has one now, 60 gallon long tank (36"L, 12"W, 16"deep), has two small painter turtles, small snapper, crayfish, catfish, small bluegill and sunfish he constantly restocks from the stream behind the house. They do make a mess, we have two filters, but the turtles kill everything eventually. The small painter is maybe 1.5 inches in diameter, the other about 2" and the snapper about 1.5, they are killers!!! Crayfish twice their size last only a couple days, is a good look at the local food chain. He gets babies in the spring, lets them go the next spring each year. I had him stop getting the fingerling bass because i didnt want them killed by the turtles. I love him having them, feed them all the time, they will go through a dozen night crawlers a week if we let them. Also have live plants that they eat a lot too, try and keep a natural and balanced diet so when they get let go, they will continue to eat the same things. I did the same thing as a kid, loved it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Quote:

Originally Posted by Muscella View Post

My son has one now, 60 gallon long tank (36"L, 12"W, 16"deep), has two small painter turtles, small snapper, crayfish, catfish, small bluegill and sunfish he constantly restocks from the stream behind the house. They do make a mess, we have two filters, but the turtles kill everything eventually. The small painter is maybe 1.5 inches in diameter, the other about 2" and the snapper about 1.5, they are killers!!! Crayfish twice their size last only a couple days, is a good look at the local food chain. He gets babies in the spring, lets them go the next spring each year. I had him stop getting the fingerling bass because i didnt want them killed by the turtles. I love him having them, feed them all the time, they will go through a dozen night crawlers a week if we let them. Also have live plants that they eat a lot too, try and keep a natural and balanced diet so when they get let go, they will continue to eat the same things. I did the same thing as a kid, loved it.



Do you have any pictures of that set up, my daughter would love it.


Link to comment
Share on other sites

Very cool. Post pics here, Id love to see them too. My daughters arent fond of their pets eating each other, so I'll have to skip the turtles and large fish in our tank. Read some articles online that suggested starting with small fish / crayfish caught in a dip net. Gonna give that a try next spring.

If only I could cast into it, hook up, and be connected to it. My line would be attached to the chaos and, for a moment, I would mainline the power of nature.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Always thought of building Potomac one for my classroom, but was told it was trickier than a normal fish tank. For one, any native river tank is going to smell very quickly. Also, they have to be kept cool. Unlike tropical tanks that need a $10 heater, a cooling system is expensive. A lot of us keep the stuff that are hardier, like crayfish, but a crayfish could probably survive dropping a bottle bleach in there. Got to imagine a lot of the native fish would die quickly. Even with a good bubler my baitfish all eventualy boil. I know you are most likely talking salt, but a native salt would most likely have the same issues.

But try, it sounds like some people are having luck with some native fish.

"It's the weekend, I don't know you, you don't exist to me." The Hangover
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Jason - They don' t smell any different than a tropical tank if kept properly. You don.t need a chiller for a lot of fish, sunfish/bluegill, lm/sm bass, rock bass, crappy, catfish, are just some that can be kept at room temp. Small fish are best. Overfeeding, overstocking, lack of proper filtering and lack of weekly partial water changes will result in failure. Also, you might want to check out state laws if there are restrictions on sizes of certain fish.

ASSUME NOTHING

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 6 months later...

My daughters and I spent a good part of the last week re-doing our tank and catching some small minnows from the local creek using a handheld net. Had a few that died in the transition, but most of them are surviving well with no heating/cooling system in place. We currently have 4 different species in there. Daughter wants to create an ID chart. Any suggestions on resources for identification?

If only I could cast into it, hook up, and be connected to it. My line would be attached to the chaos and, for a moment, I would mainline the power of nature.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to register here in order to participate.

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


×
×
  • Create New...