Natives in Missouri

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C

Cablemonkey

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
May 10, 2011
149
1
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Everton, MO
So, I am somewhat new to aquaria and even more so to natives, I am near Kansas City, Mo and I have tried to make head or tails of our local laws regarding keeping native fish, the only real thing I have seen is a no harvest list. Anyone from Missouri have any input about the laws? I know permits are required to keep wild turtles but beyond that... And Missouri is known as the outlaw state... :D

While I have the locals checking out this thread, where do you guys get your driftwood? I was thinking about traveling over to the shallows of Blue Springs Lake and seeing if I could "obtain" some pieces where the deadwood stands are. I think my fish would really enjoy some local decor as the fake plants dont seem to be comforting them much. If I had a boat I know Truman lake south of Clinton has galores of downed wood thats been there since they built the lake!
 
I'm located in Missouri as well. As long as you have a fishing permit, any non-game fish species can be collected for aquarium use. You can keep game fish as well, but you have to be mindful to follow the allowed methods of capture and they will count towards your creel limit as long as you have them. Obviously, no endangered/threatened species can be kept. If you're ever in the Columbia area and want to go collecting shoot me a pm. I'd be happy to have some help working the seine.
 
I grab driftwood from wherever I see it laying. Creeks, rivers, lakes. Just give it a once over when you get it home and remove anything rotting.

For collection, you can keep anything.Bridger pretty much nailed it. You need a valid fishing license, and then you are good to go. Anything non-gamefish, which MDC does have a list of, you can keep and anything thats a game fish you need to observe local length and daily limits. The non-gamefish thing gets kinda fuzzy though on fish that are under 3", these can be considered bait, which you can collect 150 of them.
 
Thanks for the info guys! I feel a lot better now lol, I was going to keep them regardless but now I can at least share my hobby :D the guys at the LFS really think its cool I am running a native tank, they only get about 5-6 customers a year who run them! I do most of my collecting through regular fishing or bait net currently as I am just getting started. my family enjoys a good fish fry now and again so anything I catch that was injured does not go to waste.

Thanks for the info on the drift wood too, I am not real good with identifying downed trees so I am just concerned about accidentally picking up a softwood like a maple or something. Pine is kind of obvious but some of your broad-leaf softs are a little trickier! Its funny that Pine is supposedly so bad for fish because at Lake Jacomo they collect massive amounts of expired Christmas trees, tie them together and drop them for crappie beds and they are loaded with crappie!
 
yeah but a few christmas trees in a lake that tens of millions of gallons of water isnt going to effected by them, whereas your XX gallon tank is always recycling the same water over and over in a MUCH smaller space
 
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