cold water starter

[FHIman]

hi guys, I' new in this cold water fish keeping. I used to have tropical, but I've moved to chicago, and i'm a little concerned about the temparature
waht kind of fishes do you recommend as starter fishes for cold water( no goldfish please).

 

[cmj15]

sunfish abd bullheads

 

[Bsixxx]

tiger muskie

jk
sunfish?

 

[fishyz]

If you willing to pickup some fish from me I can get you some neat minnows and darters.

 

[soggysandwich]

go to a local pond scoop some fish put them in a tank.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

go to a local pond scoop some fish put them in a tank.

I'm sorry but thats really bad advice. Not only would it be extremely stressful for the fish involved, but you would have no idea what fish you had and thus you wouldn't know how to look after them properly etc.




FHIman what sort of size tank are you looking at to have? How many gallons?

 

[kntrygrl4lyfe]

a smaller bullhead would be the best. I dont know how big your tank is that your using. So you would be limited if its not all that big.

 

[meepster]

you know that all of you suggestions are highly unlikely to be possible right?

That user is from the philipines

 

[fishyz]

He said he has moved to Chicago. That's like and hour and a half drive from me, if that. If he is willing to drive up here I could get him some nice fish. I have some nice weed shiners in one of my tanks and I'm going to get some more tonight.

 

[teleost]

FHIman,

I'm also in the Chicago area. I have over a dozen tanks of North American Natives.

It's really hard to recommend a start fish without knowing what kind of fish interests you.

If you're looking for a colorful and moderately aggressive sunfish.....Longears are the obvious choice. If you want a mild mannered local sunfish, Orangespotted sunfish are a good choice. Pumkinseeds are around as well but don't have half of the color that longears do.

Pickerel are hard to keep with others but also locally available.

On the minnow front....SRBD are true jewels and almost impossible to kill. Red shiners are a little drive west but worth it. Redfin shiners are a great fish but don't hold color all that long and Spotfin shiners are abundant.

We have tadpole madtoms that are also impossible to kill as well as black bullheads (but the bullheads get big and eat big things).

If you're looking to get in the water just let me know. I'm out all the time.