Favorite native fish for aquarium and why?

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Awesome input guys. Seems like alot of people prefer the smaller fish and more active fish such as sunfish. i can understand why. Its just a shame that most of the species you guys mention (green sunfish, central mudminnows, blackbanneded, killlifish, topminnows, bowfin. etc aren't native to my province. i find personally that minnows are more active but dont have as much personality as other fish. which is a good thing but also a bit unattractive. My favorite minnow would have to be the Spottail shiner so far. mine is about 2" and is constantly doing entertaining stuff. i have been dying to get ahold of a bigger shiner or chub though

Nativelover do you see your bullhead much? i've always wanted one and they are native here its just i've read that sometimes they just hide most of the day and only come out at night.
 
i kept a p-seed and a bluegill for a while with my community 55 gal. they got along pretty well except for eating my tetras. as they acclimated to the tank, they became very active and as mentioned, are very pretty and entertaining to watch. an friend of mine has a largemouth bass in a 55, by itself.
 
some native fish are just too aggresive and reach such sizes that most people prefer not to have them in aquariums. I like LMB but i would never have one in a aquarium, i prefer to have a community of fish rather then one monster in a huge tank haha. I love yellow perch aswell for aquariums they stick together in a school till they are older even in aquariums
 
davdev said:
I like my P-seeds but I really want to try and fiind a green, haven't had much like in my parts though
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I have one or two smaller ones I can send you with your bullheads if you want. They both have started taking pellets and are maybe 3.5" long. I'll have to measure them. Both males I think.
 
yamahafunkplayer said:
btw, has anyone tried to keep a channel cat or a blue cat?
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I've kept numerous Channel Catfish, The all are excellent bottom cleaners and not terribly agressive toward fish that they cannot swallow. With that said, all of mine have followed the same pattern and all have taken to hiding in caves/ hollow logs the majority of the time. Extremely inactive in comparison to bullhead catfish.

They do not dig at the subtrate in the way that the bullhead catfish do.

I have a natural spring fed pond over 100' across and ~ 15' deep. They grow very quickly and tend to outgrow a 135 gallon tank within the first year of their life. I have only seen the albino channel catfish of the channels that I have migrated to the pond. He/ She will come swimming to the edge to greet you when you go down to the pond, and still accepts pellets. The blue channel cats all must stay near the bottom of the pond.

It is interesting watching the albinao channel cat go nose to nose with the largemounth bass (> 15") that I have in the pond. I don't have to worry though, I put the eight LMB in my pond around a decade ago, and they have to be close to the end of their natural lifespan, and I do not forsee the channel catfish getting large enough the eat the bass before they die of old age!
 
obviously mine would be the all famous Florida gar or alligator they both are amazing fish.

as to why: how they eat and gather air is always cool to watch and mine are constantly active and always waiting for me to come to the side of the tank to drop some food in there for them.
 
floridagar said:
obviously mine would be the all famous Florida gar or alligator they both are amazing fish.

as to why: how they eat and gather air is always cool to watch and mine are constantly active and always waiting for me to come to the side of the tank to drop some food in there for them.
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Yea, I love My Florida & Longnose Gars as well as my Bowfins. The "Air" breathers are always awsome fish to watch and make great pond fish as they enjoy the surface region making viewing in a pond setting better than most bottome dwelling species.
 
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