Ohio Native Fish

HI Everyone,

So this is kind of a specific question and I don't know if I will be able to find any help here, but I thought it couldn't hurt to try.

I have really been wanting to have a tank with native fish species in it but they are hard to find since they can not be sold in fish stores in Ohio. Sellers have to be certified or get permission or something from the state in order to sell fish from Ohio lakes and rivers, even if they are bread. Due to this I have been having problems finding someplace to buy them, and with a new baby I do not have time to go fishing for them. So I was wondering if anyone new where I might be able to find someplace to get native fish in the Cleveland area? Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

 

I did a quick Google search and found a site you can order sunfish from but think they were only Ohio ones.(I'm a fellow buckeye too) it was zimmermansfish.com. I searched Ohio native fish for sale. Good luck!

 

You may also need to check laws regarding ownership of native species as pets. Not all states have them but some do.

 

I think you can own sunfish.

ive seen quite a few people own them.

theyre actually pretty fish, too!

 

Sunfish actually get rather large. I caught a bluegill once that probably weighed 3.5 pounds. I can't say how large it was, but it was heavy! My point being, even sunfish would need a huge tank. Honestly, if I were to do native fish, I would get some sort of minnows, anything else would get rather large. Just my opinion though, if you have your heart set on a larger native species I would do sunfish.

 

Sunfish actually get rather large. I caught a bluegill once that probably weighed 3.5 pounds. I can't say how large it was, but it was heavy! My point being, even sunfish would need a huge tank. Honestly, if I were to do native fish, I would get some sort of minnows, anything else would get rather large. Just my opinion though, if you have your heart set on a larger native species I would do sunfish.

Yes, I agree. If you want a large fish, go for it, but if not and you don't have the room for the large tank, just go down to a lake/river and catch a few small fish haha.

watch out for edgewater though! There is rumored to be an alligator in there

 

In most cases the legality is that the animals can't be collected from the wild and kept and/or sold, hence the problem of getting them from a registered breeder.

In other cases there are weird laws about transporting wildlife into or out of a state where they are found as natives.

Combine the two and it could make it pretty hard to do, so I suggest doing your legal homework. I do not know the specific laws for Ohio in this regard.

 

I did forget to mention something, be sure if you catch minnows, ID them before you keep them, that cute little, itty bitty fish could turn into a huge bass someday!

 

Thanks for the input everyone. I have checked out zimmermin before but I was hoping to find something I didnt have to pay to ship.

From what I understand, in Ohio you can own native fish but you can not sell them unless you have a commercial breeders license. Furthermore, I recently found out you are not aloud to catch and keep fish with a net, only those caught by hook, so that kinda eliminates that rout also (not that I have the time for that anyways).

As for what spices I am looking for, I am mostly interested in darters (particularly rainbow), redbelly dace, top minnows, and minnows.