Why haven't Coldwater species have been popularized yet?

jaws7777

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Goldfish and Koi are coldwater, and very popular.

I think the barrier to natives is all the regulations restricting them.
The LFS doesn't want the hassle, and the vast majority of the customers will just pick from stock anyway.
True but even if we just consider those on mfk not your average hobbyist at an lfs. Most keep tropical over cold water/native. With online sales anyone can pretty much get anything (with in reason)
Dont get wrong cold water/natives are cool but with strictly looks ....its hard to say they look better than tropicals...even the red bellied dace though a nice fish imo gets blown away by something as common as cardinal tetras.

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divemaster99

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Natives are just so much better than any tropicals, the fact that people aren't willing to even take a look, at all the amazing species in their own back yard, simply proves ignorance. I see really no appeal in cichlids or tetras, at least to me, they're just not as interesting or colorful as the vast majority of sunfish species. The same goes for the smaller fish, most tetras can't compare some of our native Cyprinids and there's no tropical goby or gudgeon that comes close to the color of many darters.

Longear Sunfish:
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Yellowfin Shiner:
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Candy Darter:
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Check out this thread if your mind is still set on how much better tropicals are: http://forum.nanfa.org/index.php/topic/15146-june-2014-tennessee-snorkeling-photos/

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jaws7777

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Natives are just so much better than any tropicals, the fact that people aren't willing to even take a look, at all the amazing species in their own back yard, simply proves ignorance. I see really no appeal in cichlids or tetras, at least to me, they're just not as interesting or colorful as the vast majority of sunfish species. The same goes for the smaller fish, most tetras can't compare some of our native Cyprinids and there's no tropical goby or gudgeon that comes close to the color of many darters.

Longear Sunfish:
View attachment 1067271

Yellowfin Shiner:
View attachment 1067272

Candy Darter:
View attachment 1067276

Check out this thread if your mind is still set on how much better tropicals are: http://forum.nanfa.org/index.php/topic/15146-june-2014-tennessee-snorkeling-photos/
Dive those are nice pics but we dont.know if the sunfish are in breeding dress. Personal preferences always matter your assiming people didnt look at natives we dont know that most just chose to go the cichlid route.

You say they are better .... why ?

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divemaster99

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Dive those are nice pics but we dont.know if the sunfish are in breeding dress. Personal preferences always matter your assiming people didnt look at natives we dont know that most just chose to go the cichlid route.

You say they are better .... why ?

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True, I won't argue that there is a fair amount of natives that only bring out their most stunning colors for breeding season, but that's not the majority of them. A pumpkinseed or longear will look amazing at any time of year though. I've just had much better experience with natives is all. My old cutteri cichlids just terrorized all tankmates and preferred to bite my hand rather than observe it first. My green sunfish (which by now you probably know, sunfish are pretty much the NA equivalent of cichlids) is much more personable than any cichlid I've owned and will handfeed rather than bite me, she's also intelligent enough that taught her to swim through my hand and jump for food. Getting in to the category of smaller fish, my redside dace at 4" will actually swim against the glass and beg for food! Something I've never observed in any of the tetra species I used to keep. And darters just top them all. They are some of the most intelligent and curious fish for their small size that I've ever seen. They'll all handfeed at 2", they watch you just as much as you watch them, and they'll explore every little detail of the tank that you put them in. And that, is why I like natives so much better than any tropical fish. I'm also seeing that people who like to claim how boring natives are don't bother to mention all the bland tropicals out there. But I don't complain about those fish because normally fish that lack color, whether native or tropical, will sometimes make up for it in personality. Some examples of bland tropicals that people keep.

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jaws7777

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True, I won't argue that there is a fair amount of natives that only bring out their most stunning colors for breeding season, but that's not the majority of them. A pumpkinseed or longear will look amazing at any time of year though. I've just had much better experience with natives is all. My old cutteri cichlids just terrorized all tankmates and preferred to bite my hand rather than observe it first. My green sunfish (which by now you probably know, sunfish are pretty much the NA equivalent of cichlids) is much more personable than any cichlid I've owned and will handfeed rather than bite me, she's also intelligent enough that taught her to swim through my hand and jump for food. Getting in to the category of smaller fish, my redside dace at 4" will actually swim against the glass and beg for food! Something I've never observed in any of the tetra species I used to keep. And darters just top them all. They are some of the most intelligent and curious fish for their small size that I've ever seen. They'll all handfeed at 2", they watch you just as much as you watch them, and they'll explore every little detail of the tank that you put them in. And that, is why I like natives so much better than any tropical fish. I'm also seeing that people who like to claim how boring natives are don't bother to mention all the bland tropicals out there. But I don't complain about those fish because normally fish that lack color, whether native or tropical, will sometimes make up for it in personality. Some examples of bland tropicals that people keep.
We all know you love u some natives but i think ot also comes down to variety... there are soo many tropicals to choose from and yes the fish you mentioned are lookers but in comparison there really arent that many compared to the tropics.

Dude the fish you used that are drab really arent kept for their colors... lol

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jaws7777

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jaws7777

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divemaster99

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And the natives you claim to be bland generally aren't kept for color either, people keep bluegills and crappie because of their behavior and they keep shiners and dace for their colors, just like fish from any other continent. There's no one area on the world that has fish that are better colored or more personable than another. All fish are equal in my eyes and it all comes down to personal tastes. I just much prefer the look of a redside dace over a cardinal tetra and the personality of a green sunfish over any cichlid, just me. But I know that I prefer natives because I've kept both and can therefor make a decision based on personal experience with them. What bothers me are the people who refuse to even try native fish because of all the negative stereotypes about them like they're boring and colorless. Some may be, but there's also boring tropicals. And where's there's colorful tropicals, there's colorful natives to match them. People just need to try all the different types of fish before they can make a logical and educated decision about which group of fish they'd like to pursue. If you want to keep cichlids, I respect your decision, but at least try the other types of fish before you make your decision, as I have. The same goes for everyone else out there who's mind is just stuck on what type of fish and refuses to acknowledge all the other species out there. I believe I've thoroughly made my point by now.
 

xraycer

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Comparing the colors of US natives to cichlids(old world and new world) is like comparing fresh water fish to saltwater. There's just no comparison in terms of colors, as much as you want to argue this.

While I find your interest and dedication in natives admirable, you are simply trying too hard to convince people, whose been in the hobby for decades, that they've overlooked..............and ignorant? Really?

This is the reason why young, gung-ho hobbyist like you get blasted and flamed. Tread carefully or you'll end up in the hall of infamy like "Pole" and "Furious Fish"
 

Aquanero

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There are many fish I find extremely interesting I get yawns over when I post or the polite "nice fish" comment that I probably wouldn't even get if my name wasn't in RED. The thing is I keep what I like. I always thought Krobia Xingensis to be one of the best fish I've ever kept but there is very little interest in them. To each his own, keep what you like and like what you keep.
 
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