Fish travel

[GaryE]

Let's play a game. If you had free time and a decent budget, and could go anywhere on the planet to look for fish to bring back, where would you go?

As a fishing tourist, you'd have places to stay and transportation, and as a fisher, you'd have health, strength and energy. What one region would your imagination and curiosity take you to, and why?

 

[Magnum Man]

I honestly have no desire for international travel, but to play the game.. the bulk of my fish are from the Amazon area, however I can't take the heat, and am not a fan of mosquitos so I'd be more likely heading out to a more temperate climate like Hillstream country

 

[FranciscoB]

I would like to go to Guyana, and to the Bolivian/Peruvian Amazonia.

 

[gwand]

I would travel to Lake Tanganyika in search of the insular dwarf Submu Altolamprologus compressiceps.

 

[MaloK]

Scuba diving in the Indo-Pacific region, especially the coral triangle.

But I wouldn't be fishing nor take anything back.

 

[MattW]

I'd like to try looking for Native species in Queensland or northern NSW. Another option is Mexico and Goodeid fish. I've never been fond of liverbarers, but after reading up and watching videos on Goodeid's, I now like them

 

[Back in the fold]

India , specifically the Malabar coast , to see Aplocheilus lineatus in their native habitat . After that , up into northern India to find Dwarf Gourami’s and Zebra Danio’s in their native habitat . That is if these habitats still exist .

 

[TwoTankAmin]

I have everything except for one thing needed in the OP to have been able to go wherever I might have wanted. What I lacked was the good health. I smoked for 45+ years before I quit about 14 years ago. Mty reward was COPD. I would drown trying to explore the place I would choose.

My destination would be the Big Bend of the Rio Xingu in Brazil. Since April 2006 I have been keeping and breeding a number of the Hypancistrus from that region. Fortunately, over the years I have been able to sit in on presentations by people who have been there as well as talk to them. I have watched number of vids as well. I was even given a piece of the rock common to that area by someone who has been there multiple times. It still sits in the last pleco breeding tank I still have going.

I have been able to do the next best thing and that is to have had the opportunity and the wherewithal to have been able to keep and breed the fish I did. This has opened a few doors for me to meet some great folks and to get the fish I bred into the hands of many others who wanted to do so. It has also payed for all my hobby costs and even allowed me to donate to some organizations who sponsor events for fish keepers and which are involved in either research and/or species/habitat preservation.

So all-in-all, I really cannot complain but I can still wish.

 

[Colin_T]

Let's play a game. If you had free time and a decent budget, and could go anywhere on the planet to look for fish to bring back, where would you go?

As a fishing tourist, you'd have places to stay and transportation, and as a fisher, you'd have health, strength and energy. What one region would your imagination and curiosity take you to, and why?

If (big if) I had the money and health and was allowed to bring fish back into Australia, and I had space for new fish, and I wasn't going to catch anything (disease wise), or get eaten by anything or kidnapped by anyone, I would go everywhere.
New Guinea for the rainbowfishes, gudgeons and marine fishes & corals.
South America for dwarf cichlids, a few tetras, wild discus and angels, catfish.
Central/ North America for livebearers and some of the natives up that way.
Africa for the Rift Lake cichlids.
Asia for the gouramis and Bettas.
Australia for the rainbows and Galaxias/ Galaxiellas.
New Zealand for Galaxias.

 

[Innesfan]

Let's play a game. If you had free time and a decent budget, and could go anywhere on the planet to look for fish to bring back, where would you go?

As a fishing tourist, you'd have places to stay and transportation, and as a fisher, you'd have health, strength and energy. What one region would your imagination and curiosity take you to, and why?

Is time travel allowed? If so, I'd like to go back to the 1930s to Philadelphia and go 'fishing' in the legendary fish shop, Barrett's, where Innes found many of his subjects for photographs. Then a stop in the 1950's to lower Manhattan for fishing in the equally legendary Aquarium Stock Co.

If time travel is not allowed, then French Guiana, to fish for the one Nannostomus I've never seen in the flesh and is thus far only known from that locale, the lovely N. bifasciatus.

 

[GaryE]

Time travel is only in this as Plan B. I'd go back and see the wildlife diversity of North America before we killed everything. Even 100 years back, it must have been amazing. 200 years ago and this place was probably really something.

My dream trip would start in Douala Cameroon and then cut south through interior Gabon to search for Aphyosemion coeleste, across the equator through Franceville and into the Republic of Congo, ending in Brazzaville. I figure my companions and I (you're invited - bring the money!) would find at least ten new to science species of lampeyes. These are fish I'd love to see, as they are beautiful and interesting.
We'd find Cichlids, killies, characins, barbs, Mormyrids, small catfish and a whole bunch of things we'd throw back.

I like the way this thread takes us everywhere though. Our interests are as diverse as we are.

 

[Colin_T]

If time travel is involved, I go back to North America before white man went there and vaccinate all the Indians. Then arm them and tell them to shoot all white people (except me) that go there. I want to finish this story but if I do it will be deleted by the mods

 

[emeraldking]

I've traveled a lot myself. A small part of those travels was focused on observing fish in free nature and I've brought back self caught fish as well. Besides livebearers, I also caught other fish in te waters I've been. But because of my focus on livebearers, I've put those other fish back into the water. Where ever you'll go, a lot of livebearers are acompanied by other fish in free nature. For instance, sailfin mollies can be acompanied by cichlids.

There are still a lot of places I'd like to go to and observe those fish (and who knows maybe bring some back home as well again...)

 

[Back in the fold]

Time travel opens up some possibilities . I would go back to 1965 and tell my younger self everything I know now and then watch as nothing changes because I don’t listen anyway .

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Interesting thread! @Back in the fold I would just love to go back to the mid-1990s and tell my younger self to invest in Amazon and Google. And once I made a bundle from that, invest in (then) cheap real estate in the foothills. Also, I would tell myself to visit my mom more, and be more careful how I treated people, and and and...I guess there's a reason we don't have time travel.

But back to fish travel... @GaryE is this strictly fish? If not, my first choice would be the mountains of east-central Asia. There are some obscure but extremely cute tree frogs and newts in the Nepal and Yunnan foothills that I would LOVE for my Paludarium instead of Firebelly toads. Plus I've always wanted to hike/run/stare in awe at the Himalayas. And I love really good tea. Likewise Himalayan food. So I think I'd enjoy my frog collecting journey immensely.

I would also love to kayak down the Orinoco, stopping off at small streams to catch fish for my 150g.

And of course, the Thai/Malay peninsula for Betas, loaches, and tiny cyprinids.