I don’t understand how a lot of these aren’t more popular. This even goes for some of the best tropical nano fish like the Celestial Pearl Danio and Emerald Dwarf Rasbora. It blows my mind that some of the most beautiful nano fish aren’t being widely sold at places like Petco and PetSmart.
Native fish are so underrated. Especially darters and other stream fish in my opinion. I do really like the Florida and Georgia warm water species as well
@@Fishtory I did that for most of the year. It was awesome. Black spotted dace. Red shiners, central stone rollers and orange throat darters in a 55. It was not all of the year because here it would have frozen solid but the fish did get some below freezing days outside. Then they went in a thousand gallon pond for the rest of winter
US natives are incredibly underrated, so thanks for shedding light onto them Alex! Interesting to see if these fish will make it worldwide in the hobby
One of the wonderful things about pygmy sunfish is they will actually predate on young pond snails! If you feed sparsely they will definitely seek out food elsewhere in the tank and snails is one thing they seem to like.
You do more research and pure work in this area of aquarium fish than any other person I know! An amazing body of helpful educational material! Thanks!
Hehe well I try and spend 40 hours a week researching and or observing fish/ talking about fish with people way smarter than myself. Plus I find a lot of leads and info from viewers like you! So thank you kindly.
All of these fish are absolutely underrated and look beautiful! There are so many other species that can be kept, we just try to look for the most exotic fish to keep in our tanks. Sure some of them look good, or make revenue when you breed them, but sometimes the beauty and simplicity of these native fish overweighs all that! Thanks for sharing Alex, and looking forward to more parts in this series of Natives!
This was really cool💯 I enjoyed learning about some of our native fish we have here. I really appreciate you showing the areas and the states these fish are found in. Something I really want to do is go collecting some day!!! I hope you're having a blessed day! Thank you for sharing Alex! 🤗👍🌿🐟🌿💚
I am currently keeping at home 6 of your top 10 ! Nice choices, although there are dozens more worthy of mentioning! I used to breed E. gilberti, which would get me 7 of 10, but I no longer have em. A lovely Top Ten video, thank you!
@@Fishtory you bet! I’m excited to check out your other content and I’ll be sharing it with my aquarium buds🤘I’d really like to get some of those rainbow shiners!
I’ll be setting up a planted tank…15 gallons…and this is great. I’d much rather have native fish…these are every bit as beautiful as any of the non native nano fish. Thank you so much!
I had never seen most of these species before. Crazy what beautiful nano fish we have right here in the US. Thanks for the video 👍🏼 excellent content as always.
@@Fishtory well got some work to do on the aquarium got a bit over grown with jungle vale lol but I really like how it’s taken over the layout heck even got my first flower last week and I think the beautiful blues and black that the pygmy sunfish has would be cute how would they get along with black phantom tetras?
Cool list Alexander! There are so many different species of darters here in the U.S. and so many are beautiful, especially those males in breeding colors. Glad you included a couple in your list.
Great Job Alex. You might consider having a video on the the Critically Endangered Native (USA) Nano Fish. I would be interested in helping to raise the numbers to be reintroduced back into the wild.
As a kid, I too collected natives a ton. I hope to get back into it, as now I'll have a house and yard (plus 2 small lakes within walking distance of my house.) Thanks for watching!
Awesome looking fishes I know in my state they have some small fishes that live in small streams that looks like a snakehead & the yellow minnows as well
Yes, there are many many more lovely and colorful fish, these are just a handful of the very smallest AND most colorful, fish, that tend to be 100% peaceful for a community tank also. Thanks for tuning in!
It's really awesome cause I've seen the turquoise darter and rainbow darter while admiring streams along my bike rides. As always, interesting information. Thanks, Alex!
@@yanjijay6752 saw someone on another vid ask the same question about the same fish, and someone responded saying a school of white clouds wiped out a whole colony of their shrimp. The comment also got 50 likes in a short time, so I would assume its safe to bet on white clouds chomping your shrimp.
I see the I have to ask my wife first comments and it makes me sad and sick, I'm happily divorced and do my own thing, my wife used to bum me out with complaining about my aquariums which brought me joy, now she's gone ....
Yes! Thank you for this. I love the native fish and in the future I so plan on setting up a species only pygmy sunfish tank. Mayne even that turquoise dartee since they are native to my state
I think someone is poised to be the Gary Lange of native species...great video and might I say you look very "contented" this morning lol. P.S. darters are dope.
Haha thanks... i was up all night, because I made the 40 minute long version first haha. There is audio for how to care for all 10 species and much more detail on locations and behavior, but I decided to keep the first video short and if it's popular, I'll find more film and or photos to make such a long video less boring haha
@@Fishtory Show us the long version! I'm really interested in these! Most of these are in my local waters, and I'm interested in keeping some of them to observe, then release. I had no idea there were so many colorful nano fish out there! Thank you, Alex!!!
Either just to show off more colorful fish, when i couldnt find an owner to let me use photos from my list...so i used some similar stuff from people who OKed the photo use. Or maybe im an idiot if i said something directly to the contrary on that slide
@@michaelharrity9795 I got the darters at a LFS, the daces from dansfish.com (he's out) and the shiners at redfishbluefish.shop (he's also out). Dansfish still has some rainbow shiners as does aquaticarts.com last I checked. Jonahsaquarium.com has native fish.
Um jonahs aquarium online has a lot of them :) most are technically illegal to wild collect.. but Florida is a state where you can collect like 4 or 5 of the species listed... Tennessee and Alabama too, I believe
Awesome video bro. Thank you. Can I ask, what's the story with those amazing markings on the southern red belly dace in the picture @ around 9.20? They look nothing like any of the pictures I see when I look up this species. Such a cool looking fish. I want some!
It's a photo out of the Cahaba river if I remember correctly (Alabama). But I'm no expert...just a hobbyist and honestly I needed help IDing the proper photos on some ...there's one darter photo out of like 6 and I guess I messed up. It was some similar species but from a different county/same river haha (so 3 biologists have mentioned)
@@Fishtory Ah ok, thanks for replying. Such a cool wee fish.....but I've done a little research and I'm gutted to say it's actually on the Scottish banned species list, so I have no hope of ever keeping any. Ouch. First time that's happened to me ,to be honest. A wee taste of how things are in a lot of states over there I suppose. Cheers
Some require chillers, so it doesn't get over 70 in the water...and chillers tend to run 1,000 or more often times. Outside in the south it gets too hot for them, unless you have a lot of flow and aeration etc. So it's a bit specialized and depends on location and then can limit other tank mates somewhat due to parameters. (But if you live where they live, and have them, they're great!)
@@Fishtory Thank you for getting back to me! I have an outdoor, 20 gallon long dirted tank in Portland, Oregon jammed with tons of Washington/Oregon native plants. No heater but a sponge filter and powerhead for flow - kind of thinking rainbow darters would be a great fit. I expect even in summer it won't get too hot - no direct sunlight on the tank. I don't think they're out here, but maybe they'd work - what do you think?
@@no_talking yes that will work nicely! You would just want to add a power head and or a bubblewant/fountain If water Temps top 72 f for more than a day or two. In Seattle I tend to either insulate tubs by burying them in the earth, or just placing them where in June they receive no more and 6 or 7 hours of direct sunlight (20g + tanks...a tank smaller than that can heat up in that time of sun exposure Well best of luck!
Nice list but I'm actually surprised that you didn't include Orangethroat darters since there's an enormous variety of coloration/sub species compared to ((I've 'also had them spawn multiple times in my aquarium like rainbow shiners)) rainbow darters also while we're on rainbow darters they're actually really easy to convert to frozen foods in my experience all wide ranged darters are the only species that I had a hard time converting was stippled darters and the picture at 9:15 is actually mountain redbelly dace. Hope to see Redside Dace if you make a list for slightly larger natives (just over 8cm) 😅👍
Hehe yeah there are around 12 darters I would have liked to include. Sadly no one would give permission to use images of them...but I agree with the orange throat and orangesided... candycane, and plenty more
Awesome list of native nano fish. Very much looking forward to more information about them. I have a love for all things native and feel we should spend more time getting to know our part of the world. As well as appreciate it more. These little fish wouldn't be here if they didn't serve a purpose in the ecosystem. The first native fish I have kept is flag fish. I love them lil guys and gals. Set up a 110 gallon pond that I want to do nano FL natives in. It already has flagfish breeding. I'm having a hard time deciding what else to add. Sooo many good choices.... Guess the only solution is to get more tubs/ponds....
That's the best collection point hehe. I have those, as well. Thanks for your enthusiasm and support in this community! I hope you're having a terrific week.
Thanks for sharing. The Southern Redbelly Dace are definitely a great looking fish. They are not easy to see from above but it's nice to see them when they flash their Redbelly when they reach for the top. I have some in a tub. Native fish are really underrated. I also have Longear Sunfish juveniles that are a blast to watch. I think part of the reason is that in a lot of areas the regulations make it hard.
Totally! I just got my first house with a wife (we've lived in small apartments the last 14 years) but now we have room for a pond and plenty of unheated native tanks
I love American native fish tanks, I think they are underrated. And when most people think of owning native fish tanks they probably think of big large tanks or ponds full of bluegill,bass,catfish,etc. but for most people that may take up way to much space and be difficult to take care of. Most people probably don’t give the smaller native fishes a chance, but they should if they love the idea of having a native fish tank.
Those are all fantastic especially the last one I really wanna know if there's any fish in Canada that's worth keeping I wanna set up a native aquarium
Would you recommend any of these for a tank containing native Missouri species of snails and shrimp (Mississippi grass shrimp, Palaemonetes kadiakensis)? We want some nano fish in there but don't want them to eat the shrimp babies.
I got Florida flag fish from my LFS 'over the pond' in the UK and managed to raise some fry last summer. I wish more of these beautiful American fish were available over here!
We wish they were available too haha. Flag fish, rainbow shiners and pygmy sunfish are really the only fish we see in stores. The rest are caught illegally or grey market ( under a permit as "live fish bait"....but pets would be illegal lol )
@@Fishtory I've kept fish on and off all my life, but COVID lockdown has somehow meant I've gone from 1 community tank to 10 and your channel has really inspired me to make little eco systems suiting the nano tanks. A big thank you for your laid back presentation and explanations - unlike channels where it's all about novelty aquariums and new aquascapes, you've really helped me have healthy tanks with my shrimps, fish and snails all thriving
@@nurseyj9 thank you very much. It warms my heart to hear that. If I can help bring a little more enjoyment and relaxation to just even a handful of people in the hobby, then it is worth it. I greatly appreciate your kind words and your viewership
@@Fishtory Thanks for the quick reply! Your videos are awesome! I learn so much watching them and you are one of most knowledgeable UA-camrs that I’ve found.
I probably would have put #10 much higher in the ratings. My favourite North American fish are larger than these, but these are certainly beautiful, and I would definitely like to have any of them in my tank. My favourite North American fish are the brook trout, the whole family of bluegills/pumpkin seeds/long ears and such. Then I also just love cutthroat trout, especially when they colour up for the spring spawning run. I'd keep them anytime, but oh my are they lovely in the spring in cold water. You'd almost need a chiller to keep the water cool enough to get them into their spawning livery though.
Do these need chillers or just no heater? I am hoping to get some darters after the fish commission in my locality gets back to me verifying it is legal to own them. I really want to breed them and try to get them to my LFS (something I am also waiting on checking legality on). I wish more people appreciated their native species
Nice video! I've been keeping and studying native fishes for over 40 years and this list is not bad at all. I would, however, offer "more" correct pronunciations, I am also into biological linguistics, yes, it's a thing. So feel free to hit me up!
Haha thanks. Since I made this video, I've gotten much better, however I'm sure I still stumble on some latin ...especially when it's based on a last name or place name that I do not know
@@Fishtory Right! As to the list, my faves include Loach minnow Texas cichlid Candy darter, just about any Etheostoma Just about ANY pupfish, including sheepshead minnow and FL flagfish Orangespotted sunfish Plains killifish and, of course, sailfin molly Another amazing fish, now federally protected, is the peppered chub, Macrhybopsis tetranema. Look it up if you're not familiar. I've kept them before they were listed.
I've acquired detritus worms from picking up a shrimp and not having a quartine tank. How would you go about getting rid of them? I'm doing small water changes every day to try and get rid of them, help
With detritus worms, id be happy, honestly! Fish love them and they are totally harmless. I assume your guppies will eat them if you just don't feed them store bought food for 3 or 4 days max. However buying either fenbendizol, flubendizole or levamisol (strongest) , will specifically kill worms and many nematodes.
@@Fishtory I've read that the worms will reduce the quality of the water and will harm my shrimp and my fish eventually? I don't really want to treat the tank and kill all my beautiful male guppies. These are my five year olds fish, but I don't want a tank of worms. Is there a more natural way to get ride of them apart from starving the fish. The fish don't seem to eat them. They taste them and then spit them out. As it is a tank full of males, if we don't feed them they get really bad tempered with each other, thank for the help. You are a star
Is there any nice native nano fish in the west coast near Portland area? I saw some nice pumpkin seed fish and some minnows but don’t know what type. Thanks
Very helpful for a project I’m doing! Do you think any of these fish could survive a Michigan winter if I maintain the tank temperature above freezing? Also any ideas on low temperature heaters the lowest I can find is 60 and I was hoping to find one that just keeps it above freezing
Yes, many of the darters and shiners will do great at anything above freezing. Almost all fish get sluggish under 40 degrees and many simply start burning o2 from storage in various proteins and fats, so as not to have to even keep up normal respiration pace. (Gold fish can survive days off their own stored oxygen, ripping it off copper in their blood and packing it onto and unloading it off of- iron in red blood cells (from what I understand). I don't know of any heater that is in the hobby for keeping things at specific low Temps, however if you have a tank outside, and good water circulation you could use like a 20 long and a really cheap 5 or 10 watt betta heater, that would just stay on, and likely keep things warmer (but if it's -5 or something ...you'd need like 2 300watt heaters to keep it liquid haha... on the packaging of many heaters it lists how many gallons it heats to 10 degrees 20 , 30 and 40 above ambient temp... so like (im making this up totally) but, perhaps a 100 watt heater in 20 gallons (not correcting for any lids or insulation...or reduces exposure of surface area to retain heat, obviously) 100 watts will heat 20 gallons of water in a 60 degree room 10 ...18 degrees. Or it can heat 10 gallons 30 degrees above 60 ambient room temp.... and 5 gallons maybe 50 degrees (it's usually not linear... so don't assume you can cut it in half temp or wattage-wise and figure it accurately ...look for the general curve of the chart or graph info trend. But im guessing if it's 20 to 40 degrees outside and you had a 20 gallon, wrapped in blanket or Styrofoam and a lid, that maybe 100 watt heater full blast would keep it 40 or 50 degrees? And a 200 watt would keep it 50 or 60 perhaps...I dont know for sure though (they are usually all either 100% on, or 100% off... and the thermostat tells it to blast all 100 watts...or to turn off completely ...then the temp dips below your setting (say 78?) And click, it's on full blast until it reads 78 or sometimes even 80...then turns off... then it senses 77 or 76...and click...full blast again...so if you graph it with temp and time for X&Y - You'd see a consistent sine curve repetition. Good luck! Let me know how it's going, also.
@@Fishtory as always you don’t disappoint this might have to be a once I’m no longer renting a room project so maybe next year once I have my house hopefully with a garage to winter some tanks in
I’m thinking of setting up a native tank. I live in Montana and I love the idea of collecting myself and keeping them in a natural biotope with collected rocks and all. But I don’t think I’ve got many options here. I have a ten gallon laying around not in use. Seems like most fish are from warmer climates. Maybe I’ll try to order some Pygmy sunfish and see if I can’t get a pair and try to breed.
So the pygmy sunfish (elassoma genus...) they'd probably die in Montana winters. No fish do well in solid ice. Even fish that can survive ice, need flow or a layer under it to stay liquid. But if you keep it ice free then there are a bunch of options like shiners, darters and daces that'll do great
A step up from these guys but still kinda "nano" are the Banded, Blue-spotted, and Black Banded sunfishes. You could keep a very small group in a 20 gallon, but a 40 gallon would be much better. A group of these in a tannin stained tank is absolutely stunning.
I have a 4 year old long pincered Crayfish and an ozark banded crayfish. I keep a red ear sunfish and some madtom miniature catfish, and rainbow darters along with top minnows. All native to my area
I watched a lot of videos thinking they will help me in giving me guild lines in securing a better trade but I realize It’s not all about watching trading videos, you might end up losing all.
Last summer my backyard flooded and fish got trapped in puddles. I decided to net them to see if I found anything interesting. First encounter with bluefin killifish. What a beautiful thing! Also captured some sort of wild sailfin Molly like fish.
They mostly ignore the shrimp other than newborn babies swimming in the open water (which the babies will usually avoid if they have some hiding spots to grow out with). But the elassoma's Hang out in the bottom, near rock piles or thick vegetation / hardscape features...otherwise you'll see them in the corners. I would recommend a pair or trio with one male 2 females, or 2 males with 3 females+ (basically at least an extra female for each male is ideal)
Another colorful American fish is the red shiner (Cyprinella lutrensis), which is a fairly popular aquarium fish in China right now. I had a small school of them until I moved to a new apartment, but they didn't survive the trip. I've recently replaced them with rainbow shiners (Notropis chrosomus), your #10 fish. If your #2 fish, the rainbow darter (Etheostoma caeruleum) can be imported into China, I would love to get some of these, because they seem like they would be right at home in my unheated river tank. It seems like they're about the same size and have similar requirements to my Chinese goby species.
We have lots of freshwater darters and little sticklebacks up there...most are not colorful per-say, but many have very cool behaviors. Also there are some killifish under 2 inches around. (the stickleback, and pygmy sunfish or pumpkin seed fish, which I've filmed for this channel, up in BC near Harrison Hot Springs ). When the lockdown is over, I plan on coming up to Vancouver Island again, I love Victoria and the Salish Sea.
Probably... they get 3 or 4 inches, so they're a bit larger, but they can be very colorful and do an amazing job eating algae haha. So let's just say "yes" 😉
In the description I wrote the 2 main spots I've used and those are aquaticarts.com (SECRETHISTORY15 or SECRETHISTORY10) As a code, and the Jonah's aquatics as well (im working to see if we can get a discount code too.)
Not many. Jonahsaquarium.com and aquatic arts...sometimes dansfish.com... check the description in my latest videos for current discount or savings sale codes if you want. Cheers
I don’t understand how a lot of these aren’t more popular. This even goes for some of the best tropical nano fish like the Celestial Pearl Danio and Emerald Dwarf Rasbora. It blows my mind that some of the most beautiful nano fish aren’t being widely sold at places like Petco and PetSmart.
I know! Its strange...but im okay with it, I it protects the wild population
I love your list, but the volume on the video is very hard to hear.
I've only seen Celestial Pearl's one time.
And it was just recently.
They were only about 6 to 7 bucks a piece.
@@jeffalbillar7625 that's cheap
Yes, but can I get this pink blob-eyed bloated double tail barely swimming tons shitting goldfish?
Native fish are so underrated. Especially darters and other stream fish in my opinion. I do really like the Florida and Georgia warm water species as well
I want to do a darter and dace tank when I move...powerhead, but kept outside year round :)
@@Fishtory I did that for most of the year. It was awesome. Black spotted dace. Red shiners, central stone rollers and orange throat darters in a 55. It was not all of the year because here it would have frozen solid but the fish did get some below freezing days outside. Then they went in a thousand gallon pond for the rest of winter
That Turquoise Darter is absolutely gorgeous. Absolutely as beautiful if not more beautiful than many tropical fish.
US natives are incredibly underrated, so thanks for shedding light onto them Alex! Interesting to see if these fish will make it worldwide in the hobby
Thanks for your enthusiasm and support, brother!
Boosting for the algorithm 🙌 Love your work, keep it up! 🌻🐝
Thanks Alex, it’s nice to see some of the native fish of the US. Most I’ve never seen or heard of before.
We have thousands , but I selected a few that are known to be kept in captivity successfully, and which are under 8 cm ...and somewhat colorful
First time hearing about darters, thanks for the info
One of the wonderful things about pygmy sunfish is they will actually predate on young pond snails! If you feed sparsely they will definitely seek out food elsewhere in the tank and snails is one thing they seem to like.
100% great point. Thanks again for your contributions to this community, as well!
Great list! I have several new things to research now, and the maps were super helpful. Thank you!
Great to hear! Enjoy!
These are the types of fish that I've always been most interested in. Thank you for this great video.
No problem! Welcome, and stay tuned for more native content. I have a little bit (maybe 10 or 15 videos) on native fish on this channel, archived. don
You do more research and pure work in this area of aquarium fish than any other person I know! An amazing body of helpful educational material! Thanks!
Hehe well I try and spend 40 hours a week researching and or observing fish/ talking about fish with people way smarter than myself. Plus I find a lot of leads and info from viewers like you! So thank you kindly.
This was an amazing video. I'd love to see a follow-up with native aquatic plants.
Oh great idea! I definitely will! Thanks
All of these fish are absolutely underrated and look beautiful! There are so many other species that can be kept, we just try to look for the most exotic fish to keep in our tanks. Sure some of them look good, or make revenue when you breed them, but sometimes the beauty and simplicity of these native fish overweighs all that! Thanks for sharing Alex, and looking forward to more parts in this series of Natives!
@Coyote Plays Indeed! I for one always look around for as many plant varieties to keep
This was really cool💯 I enjoyed learning about some of our native fish we have here. I really appreciate you showing the areas and the states these fish are found in. Something I really want to do is go collecting some day!!! I hope you're having a blessed day! Thank you for sharing Alex! 🤗👍🌿🐟🌿💚
Yeah check out inaturalist.com or Fishbase.de (German site ironically) - there's info down to the exact GPS coordinates. Hugs, love you Paige!
@@Fishtory 🤗🤗♥️thanks and I will😁👍🌿🐟💚
Thanks for the video of some of our beautiful native American fish.
100%! Glad you enjoyed it. Cheers
The red belly dace is how i found your video, AWESOME👍🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟😍
Right on! Welcome to (one of the) most nerdy fishtube channels lol
I am currently keeping at home 6 of your top 10 ! Nice choices, although there are dozens more worthy of mentioning! I used to breed E. gilberti, which would get me 7 of 10, but I no longer have em. A lovely Top Ten video, thank you!
I'll be over in 4 minutes ;)
I like your top 10 list. I especially like the #1 the Gilberti Ellisoma Pygmy Sunfish! I have some for sale if you live in Denver! Beautiful fish!
The exact video I was looking for 😂thanks for the solid content amigo! Subbed liked and hit that bell!🙌
No problem! Thanks for tuning in and dropping a line!
@@Fishtory you bet! I’m excited to check out your other content and I’ll be sharing it with my aquarium buds🤘I’d really like to get some of those rainbow shiners!
I thought I subscribed 3 months ago but just realized all this time I havent! Really enjoying the content, keep up the good work mate.
Thank you kindly
I live on the Gulf Coast and will be much more aware during my next creek or lake swim. Thank you!
Wonderful!
I’ll be setting up a planted tank…15 gallons…and this is great. I’d much rather have native fish…these are every bit as beautiful as any of the non native nano fish. Thank you so much!
Certainly! Have fun.
I had never seen most of these species before. Crazy what beautiful nano fish we have right here in the US. Thanks for the video 👍🏼 excellent content as always.
Thanks, and thank you also, for watching! Glad you enjoyed it. Take care, Tryston
That was very interesting..never knew of these!
Glad to hear it! We rarely see them in the USA hobby oddly
Great video man, super informative.
Glad you enjoyed it!
A few of them were really nice. Number 5 was awsome
I think so too hehe!
Thank you so much been wanting some bright nano options. Good to see your in good health 👍🏾
Thank you kindly! Hopefully some funky native fish will inspire you :)
@@Fishtory well got some work to do on the aquarium got a bit over grown with jungle vale lol but I really like how it’s taken over the layout heck even got my first flower last week and I think the beautiful blues and black that the pygmy sunfish has would be cute how would they get along with black phantom tetras?
Awesome video! I absolutely love natives and have 4 of the 10 you listed here.
Oh right on! They're so under appreciated. It's awesome you have some of them too!
Cool list Alexander! There are so many different species of darters here in the U.S. and so many are beautiful, especially those males in breeding colors. Glad you included a couple in your list.
It was a very hard choice haha... ill be doing a cold water and medium sized fish list z soon hopefully.
I've been really getting into the native species myself this summer...I'm going to up my game for sure next summer✌
Right on, brotha!
Great Job Alex.
You might consider having a video on the the Critically Endangered Native (USA) Nano Fish. I would be interested in helping to raise the numbers to be reintroduced back into the wild.
Agreed. Ill consult an expert!
Excellent.
Cool looking fowad to. more on this subject
Thank you!
Fish like the ones on this list are why I want to get into microfishing 😎 thanks for amazing information as usual!
I would really enjoy that also! Thanks buddy! Good to see yuh
Really enjoyed this. Great job!
Glad to hear it. Thanks for checking it out!
Pretty cool list of fish. Totally fascinated to see that a couple on your list are as far north as me (I'm in Toronto). One day...
I know I know. I'm right there with you since I live in Seattle .
Great video man, been looking for some new pond fish and I think red belly dace is gonna be the one!!
Niiiice! Yeah they're great. Just make sure you oxygenate the pond for most those species if it gets over like 70 Fahrenheit
Great video Alex! Loved this one, i started this hobby with natives and have always liked that i can go collecting
As a kid, I too collected natives a ton. I hope to get back into it, as now I'll have a house and yard (plus 2 small lakes within walking distance of my house.)
Thanks for watching!
Too cool Alex..I'm planning a 20 long native plants and fish
Right on! Let me know how it goes!
Thank you for this! Very interesting!
Of course. As always, thank YOU Carolynn! For your support.
Great list! Thanks.
Thanks buddy. I appreciate you checking out the video. Cheers!
Awesome looking fishes I know in my state they have some small fishes that live in small streams that looks like a snakehead & the yellow minnows as well
Yes, there are many many more lovely and colorful fish, these are just a handful of the very smallest AND most colorful, fish, that tend to be 100% peaceful for a community tank also. Thanks for tuning in!
It's really awesome cause I've seen the turquoise darter and rainbow darter while admiring streams along my bike rides. As always, interesting information. Thanks, Alex!
@@Fishtory now will white cloud minnows try eating shrimps I want to get a planted tank done but not sure if they'll go for them or not
@@yanjijay6752 saw someone on another vid ask the same question about the same fish, and someone responded saying a school of white clouds wiped out a whole colony of their shrimp. The comment also got 50 likes in a short time, so I would assume its safe to bet on white clouds chomping your shrimp.
Great video I never knew there was so many colorful fish in the US
There are many many more, but these are some of the ones people keep in aquariums successfully, and that stay really small
Dude thank you! I need more tanks. First I need to consult with my wife.
You are most welcome! Thanks for coming by, my friend. Man your name on here has my mouth watering lol
I see the I have to ask my wife first comments and it makes me sad and sick, I'm happily divorced and do my own thing, my wife used to bum me out with complaining about my aquariums which brought me joy, now she's gone ....
Finally a post that addresses native fish. I want to buid a cold water tank father fish and walstad method tank. I wish moer people woud do vidieos.
Great video, 🤜💥🤛
I never knew Florida was Central USA, lol. I liked this list!! Thanks for sharing!
If you count the latitude of Hawaii and Guam it is :)
@@Fishtory Ohio must be in the west then lol
Makes me want to set up a native tank again. My favorite colorful native is the Iowa Darter--delicately beautiful.
Very nice. Those photos you showed me from your cabin, were really beautiful too
Great Video Bro !
Thanks Brotha! Hope you doin well lately. Take care, man.
@@Fishtory Hope you doin well too my Friend
Yes! Thank you for this. I love the native fish and in the future I so plan on setting up a species only pygmy sunfish tank. Mayne even that turquoise dartee since they are native to my state
Oh that sounds epic! You are most welcome also
I think someone is poised to be the Gary Lange of native species...great video and might I say you look very "contented" this morning lol. P.S. darters are dope.
Haha thanks... i was up all night, because I made the 40 minute long version first haha. There is audio for how to care for all 10 species and much more detail on locations and behavior, but I decided to keep the first video short and if it's popular, I'll find more film and or photos to make such a long video less boring haha
@@Fishtory Show us the long version! I'm really interested in these! Most of these are in my local waters, and I'm interested in keeping some of them to observe, then release. I had no idea there were so many colorful nano fish out there! Thank you, Alex!!!
I like long and boring *Russian accent* lol
@@MrsBJPalmer I agree!
While talking about Southern redbelly dace, you also showed pictures of Mountain dace and various killifish?
Either just to show off more colorful fish, when i couldnt find an owner to let me use photos from my list...so i used some similar stuff from people who OKed the photo use.
Or maybe im an idiot if i said something directly to the contrary on that slide
Thank you
Hey, thank YOU! For watching and commenting. I appreciate it.
A great video. I hope you have recovered after the resent health scare
Getting there! Thank you so very much for your thoughts, though. Cheers!
I set up a 75 gallon with all native "rainbow" fish...shiners, daces and darters. Love that tank!
Where can I get some
@@michaelharrity9795 I got the darters at a LFS, the daces from dansfish.com (he's out) and the shiners at redfishbluefish.shop (he's also out). Dansfish still has some rainbow shiners as does aquaticarts.com last I checked. Jonahsaquarium.com has native fish.
Id love to see that. That's awesome!
Aquatic arts code (SECRETHISTORY15 or SECRETHISTORY10) For a discount...im working on Jonah's for a code too
@@Fishtory I came close to ordering more darters from them yesterday. I'll wait for the code now though.
Rainbow Shiners and Dace are my favorites that I have experience with
Yes those are wonderful fish. Right on!
@@Fishtory fosho
Where do we buy these? Awesome presentation. Thanks..
Um jonahs aquarium online has a lot of them :) most are technically illegal to wild collect.. but Florida is a state where you can collect like 4 or 5 of the species listed... Tennessee and Alabama too, I believe
very beautiful i hope US can populate this fish and export for fish enthusiasts worldwide
That would be wonderful
Awesome video bro. Thank you. Can I ask, what's the story with those amazing markings on the southern red belly dace in the picture @ around 9.20? They look nothing like any of the pictures I see when I look up this species. Such a cool looking fish. I want some!
It's a photo out of the Cahaba river if I remember correctly (Alabama). But I'm no expert...just a hobbyist and honestly I needed help IDing the proper photos on some ...there's one darter photo out of like 6 and I guess I messed up. It was some similar species but from a different county/same river haha (so 3 biologists have mentioned)
@@Fishtory Ah ok, thanks for replying. Such a cool wee fish.....but I've done a little research and I'm gutted to say it's actually on the Scottish banned species list, so I have no hope of ever keeping any. Ouch. First time that's happened to me ,to be honest. A wee taste of how things are in a lot of states over there I suppose. Cheers
@11:10 you say you may not want to keep rainbow darters in an aquarium, what do you mean?
Some require chillers, so it doesn't get over 70 in the water...and chillers tend to run 1,000 or more often times. Outside in the south it gets too hot for them, unless you have a lot of flow and aeration etc. So it's a bit specialized and depends on location and then can limit other tank mates somewhat due to parameters. (But if you live where they live, and have them, they're great!)
@@Fishtory Thank you for getting back to me! I have an outdoor, 20 gallon long dirted tank in Portland, Oregon jammed with tons of Washington/Oregon native plants. No heater but a sponge filter and powerhead for flow - kind of thinking rainbow darters would be a great fit. I expect even in summer it won't get too hot - no direct sunlight on the tank. I don't think they're out here, but maybe they'd work - what do you think?
@@no_talking yes that will work nicely! You would just want to add a power head and or a bubblewant/fountain If water Temps top 72 f for more than a day or two.
In Seattle I tend to either insulate tubs by burying them in the earth, or just placing them where in June they receive no more and 6 or 7 hours of direct sunlight (20g + tanks...a tank smaller than that can heat up in that time of sun exposure
Well best of luck!
Nice list but I'm actually surprised that you didn't include Orangethroat darters since there's an enormous variety of coloration/sub species compared to ((I've 'also had them spawn multiple times in my aquarium like rainbow shiners)) rainbow darters also while we're on rainbow darters they're actually really easy to convert to frozen foods in my experience all wide ranged darters are the only species that I had a hard time converting was stippled darters and the picture at 9:15 is actually mountain redbelly dace. Hope to see Redside Dace if you make a list for slightly larger natives (just over 8cm) 😅👍
Hehe yeah there are around 12 darters I would have liked to include. Sadly no one would give permission to use images of them...but I agree with the orange throat and orangesided... candycane, and plenty more
@@Fishtory dude..why would anyone have a problem sharing pix..they're fish for chrissakes
Awesome list of native nano fish. Very much looking forward to more information about them. I have a love for all things native and feel we should spend more time getting to know our part of the world. As well as appreciate it more. These little fish wouldn't be here if they didn't serve a purpose in the ecosystem. The first native fish I have kept is flag fish. I love them lil guys and gals. Set up a 110 gallon pond that I want to do nano FL natives in. It already has flagfish breeding. I'm having a hard time deciding what else to add. Sooo many good choices.... Guess the only solution is to get more tubs/ponds....
Right on! I totally agree that it's important to focus on those first. And yes , more tubs or more plants is always the solution lol
I love the elassoma gilberti. They are my favorite native fish (so far) the pair I have originated from Wicassa springs.
Where can I get some
That's the best collection point hehe. I have those, as well. Thanks for your enthusiasm and support in this community! I hope you're having a terrific week.
@@michaelharrity9795 if you’re local to Seattle, Aquarium Zen might have a few left.
Thanks for sharing. The Southern Redbelly Dace are definitely a great looking fish. They are not easy to see from above but it's nice to see them when they flash their Redbelly when they reach for the top. I have some in a tub. Native fish are really underrated. I also have Longear Sunfish juveniles that are a blast to watch. I think part of the reason is that in a lot of areas the regulations make it hard.
Totally! I just got my first house with a wife (we've lived in small apartments the last 14 years) but now we have room for a pond and plenty of unheated native tanks
@@Fishtory that would definitely be very awesome. I wish I had more room for more things myself
Amazing. I love these more than tropical fish. I'm from Europe and we probably have as suitable aquarium fish as these. But there is not much info.
Check out the spanish and turkish killifish species.... you guys have neat stuff from end to end haha
I love American native fish tanks, I think they are underrated. And when most people think of owning native fish tanks they probably think of big large tanks or ponds full of bluegill,bass,catfish,etc. but for most people that may take up way to much space and be difficult to take care of. Most people probably don’t give the smaller native fishes a chance, but they should if they love the idea of having a native fish tank.
I have an empty 5.5gal and was looking for us stocking ideas
I was thinking some pygmy gulf sunfish species
Or western mosquito fish since pest companies give them away for free here
Yes! Add a snail or some shrimp and plants...and that'll be a beautiful and dynamic tank
No need for filters or aeration on either species (elassoma or gambusia)
Those are all fantastic especially the last one I really wanna know if there's any fish in Canada that's worth keeping I wanna set up a native aquarium
Would you recommend any of these for a tank containing native Missouri species of snails and shrimp (Mississippi grass shrimp, Palaemonetes kadiakensis)? We want some nano fish in there but don't want them to eat the shrimp babies.
Probably only the least killifish, north American fish are pretty tough and all the nanos hunt shrimp and bugs if it fits in their mouth
Any suggestions for native NA fish that would pair reasonably well with neocaridinas?
That's tricky.... maybe least killifish ( live bearers) they have done well with mine, and like 74 degree water
I got Florida flag fish from my LFS 'over the pond' in the UK and managed to raise some fry last summer. I wish more of these beautiful American fish were available over here!
We wish they were available too haha. Flag fish, rainbow shiners and pygmy sunfish are really the only fish we see in stores. The rest are caught illegally or grey market ( under a permit as "live fish bait"....but pets would be illegal lol )
@@Fishtory I've kept fish on and off all my life, but COVID lockdown has somehow meant I've gone from 1 community tank to 10 and your channel has really inspired me to make little eco systems suiting the nano tanks. A big thank you for your laid back presentation and explanations - unlike channels where it's all about novelty aquariums and new aquascapes, you've really helped me have healthy tanks with my shrimps, fish and snails all thriving
@@nurseyj9 thank you very much. It warms my heart to hear that. If I can help bring a little more enjoyment and relaxation to just even a handful of people in the hobby, then it is worth it. I greatly appreciate your kind words and your viewership
How do you go about catching these fish? Can I just use a minnow trap and some bread or do you need to use some other methods?
Fishing line, minnow trap or dipnet...sort of depends on the fish. Take a look at my florida collecting wild fish videos if you want to see
@@Fishtory Thanks for the quick reply! Your videos are awesome! I learn so much watching them and you are one of most knowledgeable UA-camrs that I’ve found.
I kept darters tht I caught from my local creek in my aqurium to season it cuz it was easy to catch around here (north western indiana)
Awesome! We only have one species of darters in WA state, sadly
I’m super in to the turquoise darter but have no idea where to buy. Does anyone know?
Email jonahs aquarium and ask.... he has a quite a few that arent always listed
Really would love the sunfish
I just caught one today!
I probably would have put #10 much higher in the ratings. My favourite North American fish are larger than these, but these are certainly beautiful, and I would definitely like to have any of them in my tank. My favourite North American fish are the brook trout, the whole family of bluegills/pumpkin seeds/long ears and such. Then I also just love cutthroat trout, especially when they colour up for the spring spawning run. I'd keep them anytime, but oh my are they lovely in the spring in cold water. You'd almost need a chiller to keep the water cool enough to get them into their spawning livery though.
I just caught some Pygmy sunfish and darters with a dip net while trying to catch crawfish in Florida
Love both those fish
Do you have these pygmy sunfish for sale? #1 the blue fish? I'm starting a nano gentle community tank.
I do not (I only have 5 at the moment and they've been dormant all winter) but jonahs aquarium online sells them year round! Good luck!
Hehe, time for me to get a cast net and get some nice fish.🙂
Yes you do lol
Do these need chillers or just no heater? I am hoping to get some darters after the fish commission in my locality gets back to me verifying it is legal to own them. I really want to breed them and try to get them to my LFS (something I am also waiting on checking legality on). I wish more people appreciated their native species
Usually just no heater. 50 to 80...with 70-80 being no more than 3 months at a time pretty much
It's often easier to apologize after than to ask permission first
Nice video! I've been keeping and studying native fishes for over 40 years and this list is not bad at all.
I would, however, offer "more" correct pronunciations, I am also into biological linguistics, yes, it's a thing. So feel free to hit me up!
Haha thanks. Since I made this video, I've gotten much better, however I'm sure I still stumble on some latin ...especially when it's based on a last name or place name that I do not know
@@Fishtory Right! As to the list, my faves include
Loach minnow
Texas cichlid
Candy darter, just about any Etheostoma
Just about ANY pupfish, including sheepshead minnow and FL flagfish
Orangespotted sunfish
Plains killifish
and, of course, sailfin molly
Another amazing fish, now federally protected, is the peppered chub, Macrhybopsis tetranema. Look it up if you're not familiar. I've kept them before they were listed.
@@telsonboy Olympic mud minnow, striped top minnow too
Coo fish.... I currently have some of those pygmy sunfish.
Fun eh?
@@Fishtory Yeah, they were just introduce to Lumbriculus variegatus recently (I think I copied that right). they might start breeding again.
I've acquired detritus worms from picking up a shrimp and not having a quartine tank. How would you go about getting rid of them? I'm doing small water changes every day to try and get rid of them, help
I have a planted tank of guppies. I have 3 15 gallon tanks but the problem is only in one
With detritus worms, id be happy, honestly! Fish love them and they are totally harmless. I assume your guppies will eat them if you just don't feed them store bought food for 3 or 4 days max. However buying either fenbendizol, flubendizole or levamisol (strongest) , will specifically kill worms and many nematodes.
@@Fishtory I've read that the worms will reduce the quality of the water and will harm my shrimp and my fish eventually? I don't really want to treat the tank and kill all my beautiful male guppies. These are my five year olds fish, but I don't want a tank of worms. Is there a more natural way to get ride of them apart from starving the fish. The fish don't seem to eat them. They taste them and then spit them out. As it is a tank full of males, if we don't feed them they get really bad tempered with each other, thank for the help. You are a star
the picture at 9:15 are no Southern redbellies but Mountain redbellies ;)
Oh, thank you for that correction , then. I'm still learning all these dace and darter's names
@@Fishtory
You can easily tell the difference by the black line on the side. Mountains have an interrupted one.
Is there any nice native nano fish in the west coast near Portland area? I saw some nice pumpkin seed fish and some minnows but don’t know what type. Thanks
Rainbow shiners, darters and pygmy sunfish are all great choices that are native and sometimes sold at aquatic arts or wetspot online
Man, not 1 fish in my neck of the woods 😔🤣 thanks for the information Alex.
Well I will do cold water fish soon! There's tons... but they need cold water year round, so I started here. Thanks for tuning in, buddy!
Very helpful for a project I’m doing! Do you think any of these fish could survive a Michigan winter if I maintain the tank temperature above freezing? Also any ideas on low temperature heaters the lowest I can find is 60 and I was hoping to find one that just keeps it above freezing
Yes, many of the darters and shiners will do great at anything above freezing. Almost all fish get sluggish under 40 degrees and many simply start burning o2 from storage in various proteins and fats, so as not to have to even keep up normal respiration pace. (Gold fish can survive days off their own stored oxygen, ripping it off copper in their blood and packing it onto and unloading it off of- iron in red blood cells (from what I understand).
I don't know of any heater that is in the hobby for keeping things at specific low Temps, however if you have a tank outside, and good water circulation you could use like a 20 long and a really cheap 5 or 10 watt betta heater, that would just stay on, and likely keep things warmer (but if it's -5 or something ...you'd need like 2 300watt heaters to keep it liquid haha... on the packaging of many heaters it lists how many gallons it heats to 10 degrees 20 , 30 and 40 above ambient temp...
so like (im making this up totally) but, perhaps a 100 watt heater in 20 gallons (not correcting for any lids or insulation...or reduces exposure of surface area to retain heat, obviously)
100 watts will heat 20 gallons of water in a 60 degree room 10 ...18 degrees. Or it can heat 10 gallons 30 degrees above 60 ambient room temp.... and 5 gallons maybe 50 degrees (it's usually not linear... so don't assume you can cut it in half temp or wattage-wise and figure it accurately ...look for the general curve of the chart or graph info trend.
But im guessing if it's 20 to 40 degrees outside and you had a 20 gallon, wrapped in blanket or Styrofoam and a lid, that maybe 100 watt heater full blast would keep it 40 or 50 degrees? And a 200 watt would keep it 50 or 60 perhaps...I dont know for sure though
(they are usually all either 100% on, or 100% off... and the thermostat tells it to blast all 100 watts...or to turn off completely ...then the temp dips below your setting (say 78?) And click, it's on full blast until it reads 78 or sometimes even 80...then turns off... then it senses 77 or 76...and click...full blast again...so if you graph it with temp and time for X&Y - You'd see a consistent sine curve repetition.
Good luck! Let me know how it's going, also.
@@Fishtory as always you don’t disappoint this might have to be a once I’m no longer renting a room project so maybe next year once I have my house hopefully with a garage to winter some tanks in
I’m thinking of setting up a native tank. I live in Montana and I love the idea of collecting myself and keeping them in a natural biotope with collected rocks and all. But I don’t think I’ve got many options here. I have a ten gallon laying around not in use. Seems like most fish are from warmer climates. Maybe I’ll try to order some Pygmy sunfish and see if I can’t get a pair and try to breed.
So the pygmy sunfish (elassoma genus...) they'd probably die in Montana winters. No fish do well in solid ice. Even fish that can survive ice, need flow or a layer under it to stay liquid.
But if you keep it ice free then there are a bunch of options like shiners, darters and daces that'll do great
What would be the best way to catch these fish?
Dip net or micro fishing :) i have quite a few fish collecting videos you can watch too actually. Cheers
@@Fishtory Thanks!
How many rainbowshiners is suitable for 20 long
12 would be great, however they swim fast and a longer tank would be ideal. But a 20 will work
A step up from these guys but still kinda "nano" are the Banded, Blue-spotted, and Black Banded sunfishes. You could keep a very small group in a 20 gallon, but a 40 gallon would be much better. A group of these in a tannin stained tank is absolutely stunning.
I have a 4 year old long pincered Crayfish and an ozark banded crayfish. I keep a red ear sunfish and some madtom miniature catfish, and rainbow darters along with top minnows. All native to my area
I watched a lot of videos thinking they will help me in giving me guild lines in securing a better trade but I realize It’s not all about watching trading videos, you might end up losing all.
Right on! Very nice
I keep Bluefin Killifish. They are really cool. I want to keep some of the other US native fish too, but I'm out of tank space.
We all do at some point haha 😄
I love Saffron Shiners, Bluenose Shiners, Black Banded Sunfish, and Tangerine Darters.
Great fish suggestions!
Last summer my backyard flooded and fish got trapped in puddles. I decided to net them to see if I found anything interesting. First encounter with bluefin killifish. What a beautiful thing! Also captured some sort of wild sailfin Molly like fish.
Right on! Are you in Florida then?
@@Fishtory got that right 😉
That's crazy bro..
What part of the tank would ELASSOMA GILBERTII hang out in? Minimum number that should be kept together? Would they eat Neocaradina?
They mostly ignore the shrimp other than newborn babies swimming in the open water (which the babies will usually avoid if they have some hiding spots to grow out with). But the elassoma's Hang out in the bottom, near rock piles or thick vegetation / hardscape features...otherwise you'll see them in the corners. I would recommend a pair or trio with one male 2 females, or 2 males with 3 females+ (basically at least an extra female for each male is ideal)
Another colorful American fish is the red shiner (Cyprinella lutrensis), which is a fairly popular aquarium fish in China right now. I had a small school of them until I moved to a new apartment, but they didn't survive the trip. I've recently replaced them with rainbow shiners (Notropis chrosomus), your #10 fish. If your #2 fish, the rainbow darter (Etheostoma caeruleum) can be imported into China, I would love to get some of these, because they seem like they would be right at home in my unheated river tank. It seems like they're about the same size and have similar requirements to my Chinese goby species.
hey Alex.. do we have any wild nano species up here (PNW, Van. island) worth mentioning as a possible candidate for domestication?
We have lots of freshwater darters and little sticklebacks up there...most are not colorful per-say, but many have very cool behaviors. Also there are some killifish under 2 inches around. (the stickleback, and pygmy sunfish or pumpkin seed fish, which I've filmed for this channel, up in BC near Harrison Hot Springs ).
When the lockdown is over, I plan on coming up to Vancouver Island again, I love Victoria and the Salish Sea.
@@Fishtory ... we'd be glad to have you. friendly bunch we are!... cheers Pete
nice, thanks. Would the Florida flag fish fit this category?
Probably... they get 3 or 4 inches, so they're a bit larger, but they can be very colorful and do an amazing job eating algae haha. So let's just say "yes" 😉
@@Fishtory thank you.
Where can I get some
In the description I wrote the 2 main spots I've used and those are aquaticarts.com (SECRETHISTORY15 or SECRETHISTORY10) As a code, and the Jonah's aquatics as well (im working to see if we can get a discount code too.)
Are there companies that sell them?
Not many. Jonahsaquarium.com and aquatic arts...sometimes dansfish.com... check the description in my latest videos for current discount or savings sale codes if you want. Cheers