r/NativeFishKeeping

I have a small creek near my house that I like to go occasionally and sit by to watch the minnows and tadpoles and such, but yesterday I stopped by and realized that the current Virginian drought is striking it hard. I've been thinking how cool it'd be to have some of these fish at home for years, but I am an avid hater of wild-caught pet keepers, so I haven't.

Unfortunately, I'm expecting the creek to dry up too much to reasonably sustain the large population of small fish in it, and I plan to keep watching it until it either returns to normal, or if it continues to go down to truly dangerous levels, I'd like to catch a few fish and invertebrates to start a 35gal native tank before they all dry up.

I've kept 4 tanks before (3 10gals and one in this 35gal tank before ich took it in 2025) so I understand the basics of fishkeeping and I've used the traditional method as well as a combination of Walstad+Father Fish (I don't recommend following all of his advice, it created a beautiful and healthy tank but introduced damselflies to my shrimp tank eventually </3)

The advice I'm looking for is:

1. How to identify the species of the fish, I'll go down there with a mason jar today or tomorrow to temporarily make them easier to see and make a post on an identification sub.

2. How do I make sure they adapt well from the natural creek to my new tank? I plan on starting the tank cycle in a couple days and collecting some leaves and driftwood from the creek to introduce some of the native inverts/micro-organisms and then letting it cycle as long as possible before the creek is low enough to worry about getting the fish out.

3. I assume the best way to build out the tank is to try and recreate the natural habitat, right? Lots of driftwood and the fish seem to stay in the more slow-moving areas instead of the faster rushes of the creek.

That's what I specifically need to know, but any advice or recommendations to read up on is appreciated. Thank yall!