Native fish tank?
- Thread starter E_rock
- Start date
SquidwardTentacles
New member
Yes, it's illegal. But very interesting. I know someone that had a 75 with 1/2" to 1" rock bottom about ten years ago. A couple small bass and a couple tiny sunfish. The bass are insane to watch eat crayfish.
Again; technically it is illegal to keep native gamefish in captivity in NY.
Again; technically it is illegal to keep native gamefish in captivity in NY.
St.james of reefdom
New member
yes I have kept bass ,trout, darters, sculpins, bluegill,fundulus,brown bullhead and cats.
All of them have different requirements, different tank sizes and parameters to do them correctly.
All of them have different requirements, different tank sizes and parameters to do them correctly.
GMaquarium
New member
In Europe, middle east and Asia sunfish are actually collectible, rare aquarium fish. I have proposed to export them years ago. This would be a nice easy way for our state to make a few bucks. But exporting and collecting wildlife is not permitted and DEC is not looking to change.
Jacwil
New member
So you were able to do this legally or.....? We don't want to give the impression that this is legit. I've fished those species my entire life...c and r only.
block head
New member
Not sure. I've seen a bait shop with bass,blugill, and crappie. You'd think dec would have shut it down. Maybe they fibbed and said they were hatchery stock. We bought gamefish for our pond. Might be loophole or permit available.
Couldn't you raise sunfish in an aquarium though? I don't think they are considered a game fish, so you should be able to keep them right? You could catch a few of them and get them breeding. Once they are captive raised, I would assume you could export them like any other fish.
Of course, this may not be feasible. Who knows what the requirements for breeding them may be.
MatAndPatti
New member
How does a place like Bass Pro Shops have their display tank if it's illegal? I could see exceptions in the law places like zoos, but they're a retail establishment. Do they have a special permit or something?
I think legal generally rides on their size. You can catch a fish and do whatever you want with it if it's large enough. If it's legal to kill it then it's legal to keep it alive in your aquarium. I've had indigenous species for quite a bit of my life. Nothing in the past several years though. I have really enjoyed it.
I wouldn't worry about legalities to be honest. Go catch a small bass in a drop net. You'll love it. Just take care of it and if you need to, release it in the late fall. You'll have some argue about disease and fungus that can form in the aquarium and spread after release but I think your chances are pretty low.
Bullheads are a total blast by the way. They will NOT stop eating. They'll have night crawlers hanging out of their mouth and gills and keep eating until they can no longer move.
I wouldn't worry about legalities to be honest. Go catch a small bass in a drop net. You'll love it. Just take care of it and if you need to, release it in the late fall. You'll have some argue about disease and fungus that can form in the aquarium and spread after release but I think your chances are pretty low.
Bullheads are a total blast by the way. They will NOT stop eating. They'll have night crawlers hanging out of their mouth and gills and keep eating until they can no longer move.
St.james of reefdom
New member
Yes , there is a loophole in the way the DEC regs are written. Before I kept them I spoke with the DEC and they said I could keep as captive. However, if I was to attempt stocking a body of water somewhere I would then have to go through the permit application process. I f you purchase them from a dealer you will also have to have a permit. So I would recommend go fishing
If the fish you are considering are trout then you are going to need a chiller and fairly strong water movement. Darters, Sculpins, Dace/minnows will also need the cooler strong water movement but with a spot to get out of the flow. They can also handle somewhat higher temps than trout.
Bass can handle quite high temps and do not care about strong water movement. Pretty much any of the gamefish you will end up with just 1 and it will be the most dominant. Most of cannot afford a tank that will deal with the territory requirements needed by these fish. Sunfish are gorgeous especially in breeding dress, however they are nasty little buggers that will incessantly chase and attack other competitors.Bas and trout are the same way you will end up with one.
The southern sunfish or pygmy type sunfish are a bit of an exception to the rule , they are still somewhat aggressive but can be easily kept in smaller tanks, and in my opinion are very nice to look at. Fundulus are top minnows and very adaptable to aquarium life.
For my money I would do the Sculpin/Dace/Darter/minnow type tank much easier to collect and maintain. This is how I started out in the aquarium hobby, most of the foods that were available to me at the time were foods that I collected from the creeks the fish were collected in, frozen brine and flake. There is so much available now that it is fairly easy to keep the smaller guys in a tank of reasonable size.
Here is a pic of a native NYS rainbow darter ..enjoy..and you are close to some prime collection areas..
If the fish you are considering are trout then you are going to need a chiller and fairly strong water movement. Darters, Sculpins, Dace/minnows will also need the cooler strong water movement but with a spot to get out of the flow. They can also handle somewhat higher temps than trout.
Bass can handle quite high temps and do not care about strong water movement. Pretty much any of the gamefish you will end up with just 1 and it will be the most dominant. Most of cannot afford a tank that will deal with the territory requirements needed by these fish. Sunfish are gorgeous especially in breeding dress, however they are nasty little buggers that will incessantly chase and attack other competitors.Bas and trout are the same way you will end up with one.
The southern sunfish or pygmy type sunfish are a bit of an exception to the rule , they are still somewhat aggressive but can be easily kept in smaller tanks, and in my opinion are very nice to look at. Fundulus are top minnows and very adaptable to aquarium life.
For my money I would do the Sculpin/Dace/Darter/minnow type tank much easier to collect and maintain. This is how I started out in the aquarium hobby, most of the foods that were available to me at the time were foods that I collected from the creeks the fish were collected in, frozen brine and flake. There is so much available now that it is fairly easy to keep the smaller guys in a tank of reasonable size.
Here is a pic of a native NYS rainbow darter ..enjoy..and you are close to some prime collection areas..
block head
New member
Dart looks amazing. Dec are weird with fish. I've seen people get tickets for crazy stuff. Moving baitfish would make me nervous. I watched one guy almost go toe to toe with dec . The guy refused to kill gobies on the pier.
The J Man
New member
I have seen it done with bullhead by multiple people I know and they ended up overgrowing the tanks and being dumped back later on. Really sad to see.
Highly recommend doing the proper research ahead of time(as usual) or re-thinking it all together.
I native tank done right would be quite an awesome display though.
Highly recommend doing the proper research ahead of time(as usual) or re-thinking it all together.
I native tank done right would be quite an awesome display though.
reefscape15
New member
A friend and I used to collect hand caught crayfish out of Seneca lake and keep them in a 30g when we were younger. We ended up getting 2 different smaller bottom feeding fish that we also caught just snorkeling around by the dock. The fish lived for about a year each :/ not great, but for 2 14 year old kids catching stuff with their hands, we thought it was pretty cool. It was early on into the massive Zebra Muscle outbreak in the finger lakes, but i would imagine that they may help out in filtering the water.
