Best Native Species as a Pet

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R

Raetak

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Apr 19, 2010
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Florida, USA
Okay, I am planning on setting up a large tank after this summer (125-200gal)
and I think I'm going to go for native species. I have kept bluegill, sunfish and Large Mouth Bass, which I liked all of, but thanks to a kick butt round with ich only my one LMB is living. I was wondering what fish you would get. I am looking for anything really.

Rating system

1. Most popular

2. Best for tank size.

3. Easiest to obtain.


I am also hoping that I can keep two or three of the species in question, even if it has to be a species tank. I would prefer a multi species tank.

Input please.

Thank you for your time! Daniel
 
i would do brook trout...oh wait i am doing that...you should do that...and then you could add some rainbows and tiger trout to that tank aswell
 
It's a bit large maybe for my taste 33 inches
 
what is large?...your brokkies will be 18"+-, bows 24"+-, tigers some were between...you have keeped a lmb witch is a large predatory fish...a 180gal would be fine for all of the above...
 
Florida caught peacock bass. Take a trip to Miami and catch you one. I love their red/green colors
 
I was thinking about Pickerels can they live in a pare and do they breed at all or is that rather advanced stuff?
 
I would go with Sunfish. I think they handle captivity the best and with a larger tank you could have a bunch of them. Mix it up with some nice longears, redbreasts, and so on.
Or if you go farther towards the 200g mark go true monster and get Bowfin.
 
Thalan;4087066; said:
I would go with Sunfish. I think they handle captivity the best and with a larger tank you could have a bunch of them. Mix it up with some nice longears, redbreasts, and so on.
Or if you go farther towards the 200g mark go true monster and get Bowfin.
Click to expand...

I agree. I think a school of pumkinseeds (if you can get them) would be a very interesting setup. If you can't get pumkinseeds, bluegill or crappie would be cool, and should be easier to find. Sunfish would also probably be one of your best bets for breeding a native fish.

Pickeral are cool, but they generally require live foods since they are primarily piscivorous. Providing live foods as a staple diet can be a pain in the butt, and you will probably get tired of it real quick. On the other hand, bluegill and other sunfish can easily be pellet trained(crappie are often more difficult than other species to get off of live food). Sunfish are also much more active and owner responsive than pickeral.
 
Just to be clear: the LMB will not be in this tank, correct?

I have a large community tank setup with sunfish (redspotted, longear, green), rock bass, large minnows (stonerollers, river chub, striped shiner, golden shiner) and a studfish. It's a very entertaining tank.

You could also go for a more peaceable and colorful community with lots of darters, killies, madtoms, and smaller minnows such as Cyprinella, Lythrurus, and Notropis shiners and various dace.
 
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