Local plants and fish?

[theinjected1]

So I read about all of these Florida folks scoring sweet plants and fish from their local water ways and am envious to no end. So it gets me to thinking... do we have anything that would be suitable/usable in a freshwater tank? I guess what I am really asking is, have any of you done any collecting, and what have you found? I am guessing there is a ton of milfoil and "bog" plants. I really am not interested in a huge tank of trout (would be cool if done right though). Any info?

[BTDarters]

theinjected1,

I sell American-native fish for keeping in your home aquarium. Check out my website @ http://www.btdarters.com.

Brian

[kebpts]

I am planning to do some hiking around when the water all opens up, see what i can find. I am also really jealous of all the "Look what i found on my hike today" posts from those in the more southern states. I am sure there is something usable in the rivers and ponds up in our mountains.

[theinjected1]

I sure hope so. I also plan on hitting the trails a.s.a.p. Let me know what you find.

[TAF CAF]

When we were up in South Dakota camping, we found some plants in the streams that looked a lot like combomba, but none of them made it home.

[spdskr]

Todd,

I saw something that looked like Cabomba or Milfoil in Castlewood Canyon last year, but I was with a group so I didn't feel like holding every up to go get a closer look. it was late season, and the plants had taken over about half undersurface of a small dammed up area of the stream.

Duane

[theinjected1]

That is where I was going to begin my search. I live in Parker and have a yearly pass to there. I was also thinking of hitting up the local reservoirs until the rivers and streams in the mountains thaw out and start growing again.

[Ira Davis]

Now we're talking my language!

As an avid flyfisher for the last thirty years I have seen many different types of appropriate aquatic plants for the natural planted aquarium.

One of my friends owns a lodge around Meeker. His trout pond is absolutely full of Cabomba or a plant identical to it... in fact it's somewhat of a problem. While belly boating I continually dredge up plants like that while working the shoreline. High mountain lakes below 11K, in the early part of August should yield excellent results.

Many of the high mountain streams are actually spring creeks (maintaining a higher average water temperature) which support a massive amount of aquatic plants. Keep to the slow winding creeks from the end of runoff (this year mid July I would expect) to mid August.

It's more difficult to find aquatic plants in the higher gradient streams but if you know where to look you can still find some here and there. I fly fish Bear Creek pretty much year round (from Bear Creek Reservoir to Evergreen Reservoir).... once July hits all of the eddies and tail outs (riffles leading from larger pools or holes) have plenty of plants in them.

As far as a trout tank is concerned.... personally speaking once I have the space and the money to afford the cooling unit and the tank.... I will once again have a setup with Brown Trout and Brookies. If you want to talk about an aggressive fish let's talk about the Brown.

Ira