I think every serious fish hobbyists daydreams about fish collecting in the rainforests of Central America or the Amazon river system in South America, or even the steamy jungles of Africa. All of this comes with trappings of airfares, hotel accommodations, passports, guides, transporting hundreds of pounds of equipment half way around the world, and then transporting what you have caught back home, with the hassles of customs and local laws, and MONEY. For what, in hopes of finding something no one else has, but more likely to bring fish back to your aquarium that can already be purchased from some other source, whether it be a store, wholesaler or a fellow hobbyist.

There still is an untapped source of new fish yet to be tapped, at least in this country, out there for the collector. I am speaking of native fish. There is a multitude of fish available that will rival any of the exotics in color, interesting shapes and habits.

The title speaks of collecting with out a passport. This is true, but every collector still needs a valid fishing license for the state he or she is collecting in. This can be on a yearly, month or per day basis. The price is very reasonable for almost any state. Different state regulations can be found on the Internet or you can call the states DEC department.

Equipment needed for a successful collecting trip can vary greatly. For the casual local collector a long handle net and a bucket is more than adequate. For the serious collector, various dip nets, seines, minnow traps, throw nets, buckets, bags, Styrofoam boxes, tests kits, and thermometers are but a few things one can take. TFH magazines has started a monthly column on native fish written by Robert Rice that will go into collecting equipment in more detail.

A couple of weekends ago a fellow club member, Chuck Mule, and myself went out for a Saturday morning of collecting in the Evans area. We started out about 10:00 in the morning with a couple of dip nets, a few pails and a eight foot seine (that we didn't use). Our first stop was a drainage ditch near Chuck's house. We were able to park the car within a couple of feet, from were we wanted to collect, and walk in. This waterway is usually about 12 to 16 feet wide and about 16 inches deep. Because of the low rainfall and change in the drainage pattern this water way was nothing more than a dried-up swamp. We were hoping to obtain some breeding specimens Culaea inconstans, the Brook stickleback. We searched this area for a couple of hundred feet and found some puddles of water but nothing that contained fish life. While walking back to the car we were talking about perhaps having to restock this area with sticklebacks from our own breeding program because it was obvious that the fish that were here were no more. That is when we found a drainage way that went under the road and over to the other side. After a swipe with the net we had a net full of Brook sticklebacks. We collected a few possible breeder pairs. It is very important, when collecting to take only what you plan on keeping in your tanks. It is very easy to over fish a collecting spot and one can do terrible damage to the local fauna population for years to come.

Our second spot was an area of Little Sisters Creek that I hadn't collected in before. Again we were able to park with in a few feet of the stream. In fact if we were able to park across the street we would have be on a blacktop parking lot. Water temperature was about 50 degrees but with calf high rubber boots I didn't feel the cold at all. Chuck, being of sturdier stock, just wore sneakers in the crystal clear water. Little Sisters Creek has a slate bottom with small rocks strewn about to form small ripples and rapids with the occasional small waterfall. It is on the average, 30 to 40 feet wide and when not rain swollen 10 to 24 inches deep. Chuck brought a long handle dip net with a 16 inch flat sided , 1/8 inch mesh net, and a short handle 8 inch net. These proved to be the weapons of choice in this stream. By one of us holding the net downstream and the other kicking and moving the small rocks upstream we were able to collect many darters of a few different species. One of these was the spectacular Rainbow Darter, Etheostoma caeruleum. The males were in breath taking hues of orange, red and dark blue. They were so colorful that the males could be spotted in the stream from several feet away. Another darter collected was the Iowa Darter, Etheostoma exile. These are rather small fish in the two to two and half inch range. The males have a dorsal fin that is edged in blue with a red band under that and a sky blue band under that. The body has an orange underside that fades to brown in top. Females are brown with several black spots along the lateral line. Another darter found was E. nigrum, the Johnny Darter. This is a rather small fish with a huge range. It can be found from the Hudson Bay to Alabama and from Quebec to Nebraska. The males have a black head and lower fins during breeding season and the females are dusky brown. Both fish have X's and W's in black on their scales. Its almost like each scale along its flanks are outlined in black.

Along with the darters, in the open water, we were able to catch several minnows and daces. One of the more interesting species was the Central Stoneroller, Campostoma anomalum. Breeding males have a dark lateral line, and orange dorsal and anal fins. This species grows to about 8 inches but will breed at half that size. We also caught some Emerald Shiners Notropis atherinoides. These fish grow to about 5 inches but are mostly encountered at half that size. These look very much like the Green Striped Rasboro. Some Blacknose Dace, Rhinichthys atratulus, Creek Chub, Semotilus atromaculatus, White Sucker, Catostomus commersani and a 9 inch Northern Hog Sucker. All of these were caught within a couple of hours and within a 100 yard area!

Future collecting trips are planned for Big Sisters Creek, where I hope to find the Greensided Darter, Etheostoma blennioides, and the Fantail Darter, Etheostoma flabellare, also the Red Dace, Clinostomus elongatus.

There is a national club, which one can join named Native Fish Conservancy. Their web site is Http://nativefish.interspeed.net/. Membership fee is $10.00. They offer a newsletter, trading post, collecting trips, books, chat room, projects, and many more things.

All of these fish can be kept in an unheated aquarium and will thrive on a high quality flake food, except for the darters. They can be trained to eat flake foods but really thrive on live or frozen foods.

They relish chopped earth worms, and soon come into breeding condition on this food. If you are interested in learning more about native fish there are several good books available through some of the large bookstores. They are Peterson Field Guides to Freshwater Fishes by Lawrence Page and Brooks M. Burr, Freshwater Fishes of New York State by Robert G. Werner, and Handbook of Darters by Lawrence Page. There is a new book that just came out entitled North American Native Fishes for the Home Aquarium. There is a review of this book by Lee Finley in the December issue of Aquarium Fish Magazine.

I have started a native fish aquarium. This is a 44 gallon tank with fish and plants, I have personally collected. Fish and plants are all doing fine and the aquarium should be entered in the upcoming Home Show.