Native Fish for Home Aquariums

By Bill Mclarney
Published on November 1, 1984
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Guppies are good aquarium options.
Guppies are good aquarium options.
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Native fish for home aquariums.
Native fish for home aquariums.
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Small varieties of native catfish can be good for keeping a tank clean.
Small varieties of native catfish can be good for keeping a tank clean.
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Some native fish are social and like to school.
Some native fish are social and like to school.
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A
A "rainbow" minnow.
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Adding a little vegetation will keep fish happy.
Adding a little vegetation will keep fish happy.
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A newt.
A newt.
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Small sunfish like vegetation.
Small sunfish like vegetation.
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A type of darter.
A type of darter.
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Collecting in a local stream.
Collecting in a local stream.
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It’s been estimated that as many as 26 million Americans keep fish in home aquariums. If that figure is accurate, the hobby is the second most popular in the U.S. right behind photography. And, as a glance at the yellow pages will show you, the term aquarium hobby isvirtually interchangeable with tropical fish hobby.

Why the almost total emphasis on exotic fish? Well, it’s certainly not because of any shortage of native ones. Over 700 species of freshwater fish are found in the U.S., and as you’d imagine, more than a few of them are suitable for the home tank. In fact, as a group, they possess several advantages over tropicals:

  • Native fish are less expensive than imported or specially bred fish. If you content yourself with a selection of species that can be collected near your home, the cost of the fish themselves can approach zero. (Of course, as with any avocation, you can “get technical” and spend a fortune, as some native-fish hobbyists do, on far-flung collecting trips for rare and unusual fish.)
  • The costly and energy-consuming electric heaters necessary to insure the survival of most tropicals can be dispensed with. This fact has misled many folks to think of all our northern fish as cold-water creatures. True, there are coldwater fish (the trouts being the most familiar examples), but they’re a minority among the North American fauna. The difference between most of our native fish and true tropicals is that natives are able to tolerate cold water. Given their choice, though, many northern varieties would prefer to skip winter altogether and stay in water between 75°F and 85°F. (Because of this, natives can be kept with tropicals in heated tanks, if desired.)
  • Keeping native fish promotes an awareness of our own environment. I’d be the last to downplay the allure of the exotic; a tank full of jewel-like fish from the jungles of the Amazon is appealing, in part because it presents you with a slice of the unknown. On the other hand, aren’t our nearby aquatic environments just as unfamiliar to many of us? And what does the geographic origin of a fish have to do with whether it is beautiful or homely, interesting or comparatively dull?
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