encouragement for a local wild fish tank...

[Magnum Man]

Mrs.and I went to a semi local zoo today, me for the 1st time, kind of small, but well run... saw this display in one of the buildings... being an aquarium guy, this would look lots better with proper lighting, but then it would require more work around the algae... these were Zumbro river fish, the river that runs through the country zoo...

 

[Herpin Man]

Was this Oxbow?

 

[Magnum Man]

yes... my 1st time there today, a little more than an hour from the farm

 

[GaryE]

It's still the same party-killer for me. Those temperate tanks need winter for the fish to thrive.

I moved from a province with laws against aquarium keeping its rich fish fauna to one shaped by the tearing of the continent and the last big ice age. When fish recolonized the previously deep under ice zones, they couldn't get past a torn up band of land to the west, so we have very few native species. Two would be good, if unspectacular aquarium fish, and one of those is a fish I bred in Montreal, where they were common.

I'm forever tempted to have a native tank, but the fish would be poorly treated because of temperatures, and I talk myself out of it. Plus I'd need a large tank for them, and all that I have are easily used for other things.

 

[Magnum Man]

I noticed they didn't have a chiller on this tank, it was just in an air conditioned room...
and I'm not sure if they would breed in this tank, with a consistent temperature, and no winter, but the fish appeared healthy, not showing the signs often seen in local game fish, if it gets too warm... also, there is more variety, local to the state, other than just this particular river system...