lfs and natives
- Thread starter young_rico
- Start date
young_rico;2822128; said:
I THINK they can if they get a permit or something, a lfs about an hour and a half away from me sells lots of natives like perch, walleye, and bass.
Yes the lfs do sell natives. Sailfin mollies, mosquitofish, red rosy minnows, ghost shrimp, channel catfish, gar, flagfish, white sturgeon and lots of hitchtakers in feeder tanks such as green sunfish, madtom, killies, darters, crayfish and topminnows. However the lfs sometimes sell young gamefish such as pike, muskie, sunfish, crappie etc as long as they have a permit for this. Of course some lfs do not follow the laws like the walking catfish case so please check your laws and keep your recipets from the lfs that you obtained these natives legally.
Different rules in different states, Minnesota can, but as i understand, those fish if put in your tank count toward your keep limit. However in Indiana, LFS cannot knowingly sell fish native to Indiana such as sunfish etc. But do like Rebel says sell some imported species but usually dont have them knowingly. I think if the demand became high enough here the LFS would figure out how to do it, but in this area if you ask about native fish, they look at you funny, and little sparks and smoke roll out their ears. 
Unsure on the permits, but most LFS by me have or had natives for sale at some point. I've seen various panfish, pike, and bass.
I got my Tiger muskie from an lfs.I dont see why they cant sell them if they bought them from a breeder or one of those places who supply fish for private ponds.
My state requires a $500 annual permit to sell state-native fish; bait sellers, catch-out operations, and fish farmers have to get them. No LFS's that I know of have bothered to get the permit; natives just aren't popular enough. Of course they do sell a lot of state-native Gambusia affinis and wild-type Pimephales promelas as feeders, but I doubt wildlife resources will ever make a fuss about them.
young_rico;2822128; said:
What natives do you want? You can catch a ton in the bayous around here.