Native Fish for the Home Aquarium

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And where can you get these fabulous native fish? Well, you might find some at retail aquarium outlets. A few, such as the sailfin molly (Poecilia latipinna), are honestly sold as tropicals. That is, they're Central American fish whose range extends into the extreme southern part of the United States. Species such as the flagfish and the varieties of pygmy sunfish (Elassoma spp.) occur naturally in the waters that supply Florida's tropical-fish breeding farms and are marketed as "by-products."

Of course, the most enjoyable-and certainly the most educational-way to acquire your own native aquarium fish is to catch them yourself and maybe, later, to breed your own stock. Conventional advice at this point would

be to set up your tank first and then go get your fish. I agree, but since I assume that most readers are not all that familiar with the native fish available to them, I'm going to suggest a preliminary scouting trip. The idea of this excursion is not to bring fish home, but just to get a look at what's available . . . perhaps to convince yourself that the possibilities I'm suggesting are real . . . and maybe to stake out a few sites for a later trip, when you really mean business.

Unless you know the countryside well, it's best to start of with a map-study session. Try to incorporate visits to a variety of types of water into your trip: say, one fast and one sluggish stream, a pond, the shores of a large lake, and maybe a swamp or a ditch. If you're near the coast, be sure to sample the brackish waters of the intertidal zone.

The other thing that you should look into before setting off to collect is the legality of what you propose to do. Don't assume that, just because you aren't going to keep any fish this time, your expedition is automatically legal. You may be required to have a sportfishing license. Furthermore, in some waters -stocked trout waters, for example-it's against the law to catch fish by any means other than by hook and line. There may also be regulations concerning the type or size of gear you can use.

In general, most states permit capture of "minnows" for bait purposes and prohibit the netting of "game fish," though definitions of just what constitutes these classifications can vary considerably. Collection of nongame fish other than designated bait minnow species usually requires a collector's permit. Other regulations may restrict the taking of endangered or threatened species. It is, of course, the responsibility of the collector to find out what these species are and where they might be found. (In most waters there will be none.)

Some of the regulations affecting the amateur fish collector may be bothersome; they may seem to be arbitrary or based on outdated information. But regulations, particularly those concerning endangered species, are intended to protect aquatic resources for everyone. If the hobby is to be a force for environmental conservation, we'll all have to pay attention to the rules.

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