From Discus to Sunfish, One Man's Journey.
By
Robert Rice
2213 Prytania Circle
Navarre Fl.
32566
                              
                              
                              
It seems kinda strange that I one time self declared King of Tropicals and 
breeder of Discus' and Frontosa's am now known almost exclusively for my part 
in the native fish movement.  Today each and every tank I own is inhabited 
exclusively by native fishes. Darters dart, shiners shine, and Sunfish spawn 
all the while devoid of any tropicals of any kind. It was not how I had 
planned it and now that I look back on it was a very strange journey. It 
started innocently enough I was fishing with my daughter at a local Lake in 
Wisconsin and caught some pumpkinseed sunfish (Lepomis gibbous) and as 
Fathers tend to do I gave in to my daughters request to take it home so it 
can "live with us and be our pet". They seemed like an attractive fish so I 
threw two of these beasts in a 20 gallon tank and gave them little mind as I 
was a   " Serious Aquarist " and gave zero thought to natives. All my fish 
came from a store with a pedigree and a cute name. I was a bit of a fish 
snob. Wild caught fish from South America now that was fine , even desirable 
but wild caught North American Species bah humbug.
Well as fate would have it my daughter kept after to me to look at her new 
"pets" and just when I thought I was safe. I opened my eye's and began to 
learn. I realized these were a very interesting fish. They had excellent 
color and their manners where very interesting not unlike my friends the 
Cichlid's. I was intrigued and decided a little further investigation was in 
order. I really did not even know the names of these fish. My daughter named 
them both princess I however thought a more scientific approach might be in 
order.
So I made the trip to our local library and stumbled across a book called 
"Fishes of Wisconsin " by Dr. George C. Becker. I soon found out how little I 
knew about native fish and was both shocked and intrigued by the information 
the book held. In general Mr. Beckers book so impressed me that I began to 
seriously study native fish. I wallowed in his book absorbing the nearly 200 
species available in Wisconsin and Illinois. I learned about darters and saw 
for the first time a rainbow darter and I was in love. It suddenly seemed so 
simple .Why not keep local species ? When I grew tired of them I could just 
take them back from whence they came. I had a revelation the world was my pet 
store! This country  has species of beautiful fish, no one seems to know much 
about them, or even care. I alone had made the connection ,  Aquarium rearing 
native fish. What a great idea ! I would be first ! I would be famous.
Then I found it, under the heading for northern redbelly dace the line that 
brought me back to reality. This species makes an excellent home aquaria 
species. I was shocked, so others before me had made the connection. As a 
read species account after species account in Mr. Beckers book it would pop 
up again, this species makes an excellent home aquaria species. Why then had 
I never heard of a rainbow darter, A redbelly dace, a stickleback ? I didn't 
know why I'd never heard of such fishes but decided a trip back to our local 
pond was in order to see what other things were out there, and do a little 
follow-up investigation. I grabbed my net, my daughter and headed out. I was 
very unpleasantly surprised. When we arrived we were greeted by a huge fish 
kill, thousands upon thousands of rotting carcasses floating atop the pond. 
The smell and the waste was sickening. When I called the city government and 
the Department of Natural Resources they said "must be the heat happens every 
couple a years" and had no real concern. I was shocked and outraged.
That was the beginning of my turn towards naturalism. I found my self 
clearing one tank after another to house some new species of fish I had 
collected. I spent the bulk of my free time reading as much as I could about 
native fish and their aquarium needs. I realized the best advocates the 
native fishes could ever have would be people like me . Aquarist who had 
turned their hobby into a conservation movement. There are millions and 
millions of Aquarist nationwide. Who better to help out our fishes than You?
You don't think Aquarist can make a difference? Imagine a small prairie 
stream frequented by an aquarium club collecting Longear Sunfish. Suddenly 
there is a fish kill, who is going to notice it first, the 50 Aquarist who 
frequent the stream or the 10 department of Natural Resources field employees 
in the State? Imagine a mid size city with 500 Aquarist who are aware of the 
local waterways and their inhabitants. Imagine how much would the city 
planning be changed when these folks show up at a city council meeting! 
Imagine a small darter that's struggling to maintain a population and so 
little resources are available to preserve them that it drifts to extinction. 
Even though literally hundreds of Aquarist have had great success breeding 
darters of all types. You don't have to imagine the last one it's already 
happened!
So I went from the self declared "King of the Tropicals" to the "Native Fish 
Guy". I began to speak at schools, aquarium clubs and Universities. I began 
to write and write and write until I became good at it. I reasoned the best 
way to reach people was via the written word. So after quite a few failures I 
got my first article published by a major aquarium magazine. The editor took 
a risk he was not sure if Aquarist were all that interested in Native 
species. I received over 500 letters from that article. Aquarist are 
interested! Now the movement, is truly a movement, fish are kept, new species 
bred, writers write, people read. The world has begun to take notice of the 
Aquarists. Government agencies have begun to ask for the help of Aquarists in 
rearing unusual native fishes. The future looks brighter but the job remains 
serious.
Let me leave  you with these sad but true story's .The good enough gambusia 
due to population pressure and destruction of habitat went on the endangered 
list in the 1980's and a small population was kept in a single sight for 
domestic  propagation. When the wild population declined and finally went 
belly up no one bothered to expand the domestic population. Scientist were 
shocked to find the domestic population was impure and was therefore 
destroyed. An easy to reproduce live bearer gone for ever !
In the 1950's blue pike were the staple of fish fry's in the upper midwest 
and was the number one in volume of fish taken in the Great lakes by 
commercial fisherman. As late as 1965 we took out 250,000 tons of blue pike 
out of the great lakes. However due to environmental pressures by 1975 they 
were gone, no one bothered to keep any specimens alive anywhere as a 
precaution and now all we have are a few odd preserved specimens and photos. 
It sickens me that at this day and age these passenger pigeon type 
extinction's can take place. If Aquarists had been there would it have been 
any different?
So that is how I became the native fish head that I am today. So become aware 
, get involved, or learn to explain to your grand kids why we don't have any 
of those anymore!
The author is involved with NANFA (North American Native Fish Association) 
and regularly speaks about native fish to various groups. He can be reached 
with a SASE at 2213 Prytania Circle Navarre Florida 32566 e-mail 
robertrice@juno.com
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