I appericate all of the response I have gotten!

My friend has a super pond, and I am going to print this and take it to him.  I would hate to see that thing take a turn for the worse! :'(

I am off to fish, and plan on doing a report later.  Hope I catch a few! 8-)

"Weed Educated" sticker......that's priceless.

:-[ Wow! Raul, you really did lose some valuable fish! That was an impressive collection of

tropical fish. My husband still talks about the his Wattley Discus tank that Mr. Wattley donated to him for

research when he was

lead researcher for an aquarium laboratory. I agree, fish should not be transfered from

one body of water to another, especially wild fish.

I believe that the LMBV originally was introduced through the escape of tropical fish, such

as guppies from the farms in Florida. We will probably never know for SURE, but that virus

is VERY close to the ranavirus found in asian guppies.

Reading your post really brought back some memories ! I used to have a Corydoras collection of 23 different species in one 100 gallon tank, at one time ! Along with 180 Cardinal Tetras :-) (Paracheirodon Axelrodii)

My most rare and treasured Cory's were C. Atropersonatus, and C. Narcissis.

Anyway, I too had introduced an oddball fish (some strange kind of Tetra) that flat wiped out ALL of my 180 Cardinals, and many of my Corys in less than a week :-( I even had a UV sterilizor.... but unknown to me, the bulb had previously gone out :-( Of course I replaced it right away, but once the bacteria had made it from the one sick fish, to the rest, it was already too late.

Fish

In RI, they have an education course about transporting vegetation. Takes 5 minutes to get educated and they give you a "weed educated" sticker. I had to do it just cause the sticker is right up my alley,lol

Like Matt said, these actions are no joke. The fines for transporting weeds on your boat, motor or livewells is steep, even for a 1st offense. All it takes is 1 time to ruin the next lake you venture to. I, for one, am all for it.

I for one am most definately "weed educated".  A day on the water isnt the same...but back to the topic at hand

I have transplated 3 smallmouth from a public river, to my private fish hatchery, and they are still alive and well.  

it is illegal in most states...

as well as you run the risk of ruing your buddies pond and killing off any fish already there. The immune system of a fish is supplemented as well as adjusted to its home body of water...sometimes even a particular area of its home body of water. With risks like LMBV and other infectous diseases...I think it would be highly irresponsible to move fish from one place to another.

Why not just get a permit and stock your buddies pond?

We do it all the time.  Although we are moving fish from private to private.  

LBH the 5.6 I caught wasnt tagged but it looked exactly the same as the picture I had taken as it had a small dot right above it's eyes. it could have been a different fish and fish don't normally grow that fast in new england but this pond is loaded with tons of bait and lots of vegetation and i think over two years it is the same fish, but I could defenitly be wrong. i don't do it too often but I have never seen a dead fish in that pond, not even a bluegill, and the fish that are in there where not stocked fro ma hatchery the maker of the pond caught all the fish in there from the lake right across the street. I am still worried about disease in the pond so I am not going to d othis again but I think I got lucky the first couple of times.

when i was younger my father cought a baby bass with his hand about 2.5 long. well he got it home and we set up a huge tank for it. well we had that bass in our tank for about 2-3 years. it was alot of maintence to keep the water good for him but he lived and got to be about 2.5lbs then we took him and let him go in a small local pond. that pond never had bass and now when u go there u can kill em on the right secret lures we also let other bass go there not just 1. anyway we did it again with a small bass i cought when i was about 13 and we kept him for a while and let him go also. its alot of fun watching a largemouth in a big fish tank creep around the fake plants slowly then all of a sudden pounce on a little minnor or guppy whatever we were feeding it at the time.

It is against the law in every state I have fished NY,NJ,PA,LA,TX and FLA to take a game fish home and put it intoo an aquarium Fellow anglers please follow our game laws

Salable fish may be transported in any number. Fish caught elsewhere may be transported into New York State in any manner, except parcel post, in the number that may be legally exported from the place of taking, subject to the following:

Quote from NY state DEC site. it isn't technically illegal but I will never do it again i don't want to ruin my pond. I am glad i read this post.