How about a nice Green Sunfish

[JIM]

North American Native Fishes are the most overlooked species i can imagine for keeping in the home aquarium.  Here is a pic of my Green Sunfish with his buddy Bubba, caught when he was about 2 inches long, has been a great fish to keep and resembles cichlids quite a lot in attitude, and tank activity.

[SKISWETPETS]

Thats cool, a buddy of mine was trying to keep some perch and bluegill, and i believe a couple sunfish until he came over and saw my tanks. He quickly changed his mind and got back into the Tropicals again.

[Frenchie]

Nice, Real nice.

[GrizzlysDad]

North American Native Fishes are the most overlooked species i can imagine for keeping in the home aquarium.  Here is a pic of my Green Sunfish with his buddy Bubba, caught when he was about 2 inches long, has been a great fish to keep and resembles cichlids quite a lot in attitude, and tank activity.

You're right JIM, very overlooked in the aquarium hobby and very similar to cichlids in behavior.
But there are a surprisingly dedicated group of Native fish keepers...most belong to http://nanfa.org/ if you weren't already aware.
Personally, I prefer to catch-and-release the majority of my North American Natives.

BTW, I received your photo contest entry but it was past the deadline. I will save it for an upcoming contest.

[Marty]

Mmm, looks tasty!  Just kidding! 

I think it was Spencer Jack that was giving a talk when he mentioned that a number of times he's gone collecting fish, and the locals served him several species of cichlids he normally would have swimming in his tanks.

I figured if that nutjob Harold Camping was right about the end of the world on Friday, I'd have at least a couple months worth of cichlid snacks in my basement

[GrizzlysDad]

  Harold Camping.....this time I am sure...really, I am...come on, PLEASE believe me 

Sorry for the hijack, but Marty started it, LOL

[grampamo]

North American Native Fishes are the most overlooked species i can imagine for keeping in the home aquarium.  Here is a pic of my Green Sunfish with his buddy Bubba, caught when he was about 2 inches long, has been a great fish to keep and resembles cichlids quite a lot in attitude, and tank activity.

You're right JIM, very overlooked in the aquarium hobby and very similar to cichlids in behavior.
But there are a surprisingly dedicated group of Native fish keepers...most belong to http://nanfa.org/ if you weren't already aware.
Personally, I prefer to catch-and-release the majority of my North American Natives.

BTW, I received your photo contest entry but it was past the deadline. I will save it for an upcoming contest.

I prefer to catch and eat

[gmaschke]

I have kept native fish years ago they are fun but the non-native seem more exotic an draw me in for that reason.  I assume its most people same reason for keeping other species as well.  The less common they more draw there is.

[pikayooperdave]

Hi guys, I just found this forum again after the old site crashed last July.  Good to be back!

I am also enjoying native fishes.  I currently have a 72 gallon setup with fish from the lake that I live on.  1 smallmouth, 1 green sunfish, 3 small bluegills/pumpkinseeds, 1 perch, 1 bullhead and 3 crayfish.  It is fun!  I set up the tank in September.  Everybody is happy, healthy and active.  Last September the smallmouth was a minnow and he is now the size of my hand.  Everything has grown fast in the last few months, as a matter of fact.  The bluegills and green sunfish have looked delicious to me on more than one occasion

At first, I fed them live foods as needed, but always put some Hikari pellets in at the same time.  It took a few weeks for everyone to catch on but now they can happily eat cichlid pellets exclusively.  I still feed them live foods on occasion.  The crayfish and bullhead do an incredible job of scavenging, the tank is always clean.  The crayfish are also entertaining to watch.  They hide 90% of the time but stumble around with a chip on their shoulder the other 10%.  One of them in particular goes through great efforts to build his house, he will go all around the tank picking out larger pebbles from the substrate in order to carry them back and stack them in front of his hiding spot.

It would be a very expensive setup, but I would love to have a cold river tank setup.  A long tank with large pumps at one end and intakes at the other.  A chiller.  Stock it with brook trout, rainbow dace, etc.  Something to think about!

[pikayooperdave]

correction - my sunfish is not a green sunfish, it is a redear sunfish.  I had the two species confused for some time and only recently figured out the difference.