native north american fish

[finfayce]

As Columbo says - "just one more thing". There's a place I found on the Internet called Jonah's Aquarium. They have native fish for sale and have lots of information and pictures on their website

 

[finfayce]

i like columbo too. thanks i do know about jonah’s fish store. that’s where i got the darters. after Sachs went out of business, i had to find another source. fish don’t cost much it’s the shipping that i find expensive.

 

[GaryE]

Now that I'm about 8 hours' drive away from the nearest habitat with darters, and 16 hours from the nearest colourful one, guess what fish I would love to get thanks to this thread? The fish are always greener on the other side of the mountains....

 

[WhistlingBadger]

where are the Thermopolis hot springs?

In Thermopolis. Thermop is in northern Wyoming.

 

[ClownLurch]

the h. formosa fish is a lot like the least darter. small. selling some? are you in US?
the state i live in has so few options for obtaining native fish. i would have to catch in the wild.

No I’m in the U.K. slightly north of London.

 

[Back in the fold]

In Thermopolis. Thermop is in northern Wyoming.

Probably one of the prettiest little towns in Wyoming. Think Cody without the dime store cowboy glitz and tourists. That park near the Wedding of the Waters and that whole canyon south of town is America at its current unspoiled best.

 

[Back in the fold]

Now that I'm about 8 hours' drive away from the nearest habitat with darters, and 16 hours from the nearest colourful one, guess what fish I would love to get thanks to this thread? The fish are always greener on the other side of the mountains....

@GaryE Sticklebacks ?

 

[finfayce]

In Thermopolis. Thermop is in northern Wyoming.

ok

 

[finfayce]

ok

Thermopolis is the county seat city in Wyoming. to be precise

 

[GaryE]

Thermopolis is the county seat city in Wyoming. to be precise

@GaryE Sticklebacks ?

I had a sudden image of someone sitting on a seat covered in sticklebacks.

We do have sticklebacks, and that's a good idea. I have never tried keeping them, and I've read their behaviour is really something to watch. The local name for them is "picks".

There's a hot spring in the Canadian rockies that has been 'infested' with someone's discarded aquarium fish - swordtails and I believe convicts. That act of eco-stupidity was done in the 1970s.

 

[Essjay]

The town where I was born and brought up had a glass making factory. The water used for cooling was returned to the canal via spray nozzles (called the hotties), and the water in the canal was at tropical temperatures. Someone released a lot of tropical fish in there (rumour said it was a pet shop that had closed) and they thrived.
The factory closed a few decades ago as after float glass was invented no-one wanted sheet glass. The site is now a supermarket. I have no idea what happened to the fish - either they died of cold or pollution when the site was cleared.

 

[finfayce]

The town where I was born and brought up had a glass making factory. The water used for cooling was returned to the canal via spray nozzles (called the hotties), and the water in the canal was at tropical temperatures. Someone released a lot of tropical fish in there (rumour said it was a pet shop that had closed) and they thrived.
The factory closed a few decades ago as after float glass was invented no-one wanted sheet glass. The site is now a supermarket. I have no idea what happened to the fish - either they died of cold or pollution when the site was cleared.

 

[GaryE]

The town where I was born and brought up had a glass making factory. The water used for cooling was returned to the canal via spray nozzles (called the hotties), and the water in the canal was at tropical temperatures. Someone released a lot of tropical fish in there (rumour said it was a pet shop that had closed) and they thrived.
The factory closed a few decades ago as after float glass was invented no-one wanted sheet glass. The site is now a supermarket. I have no idea what happened to the fish - either they died of cold or pollution when the site was cleared.

The cardinal rule of native fishkeeping is once caught, never released. It may seem kind to do, but locally, at my old place, we had had a couple of really interesting species eliminated by summertime releases. The fish released would usually die by September, but would out compete natives during the crucial summer months. It's been a really serious issue for turtles, where invasives have really outcompeted local species for food, only to die when winter comes. It's probably for the best if the released tropicals at the glass factory run off died.

Even a native kept in a tank and released back where you caught it is a bad idea. The exposure to tropical fish diseases can play out in too many ways for it to be worth the risk.

 

[Back in the fold]

What gets into people to let tame fish go into wild streams ? Is it pity for the fish ? They can't bear to see a poor creature be deprived ? Whatever the reason it never works out does it ? This is why politicians and wildlife managers step in and go overboard with harsh rules. I think there will always be those people that release pets to the wild. They see it as harmless, or that they won't get caught or that their case is special. Face facts people. It's a fish. Fish have been being caught and eaten since Moby Dick was a guppy. Get a big tank, put a Jack Dempsey in it and let him go ape.

 

[Essjay]

Just because we know not to release fish into the wild doesn't mean that other people won't do it.

In my particular case there was probably no harm to native wild life as the water in the canal was too warm for them and the canal was a closed system.