tropical river tank

[Phoenixphire55]

What are some fish that would be good in a tank with a temp of around 78F and with a powerhead or two in it for unidirectional flow. I'm thinking like a 40 gallon tank or so. Any ideas?

 

[FishCrazyBenBOMB]

I think you would like some US native fish in that tank. I recommand buying from aquabid.com

Here is a link to the native fish section AquaBid.com - Your Aquatic Auction Website


Native fish are so fun, i'm thinking about doing one.

 

[Phoenixphire55]

That could be cool. Any suggested species? They'd need to be fairly small for a 40 gallon tank.

 

[mike47517]

How about some sculptins?

 

[FishCrazyBenBOMB]

Well here is my list of suggestions, all are choices from the aquabid link I gave you in my first post:

5-8 Killifish of your choice
A couple darters if you can afford them
10 Minnows of your choice, I suggest some sailfin shiners
1-2 Sunfish of your choice (then can get kind of big but not to bad.
Then maybe a school of pygmy cories (I know not native but you need some kind of catfish that doesn't get HUGE.)


You like that? I think the whole natural/native thing would look REALLLLLY sweet, I want to do one.

 

[mike47517]

I like the list. Will you specify on darters just for Phoenix's sake because darters range everywhere from 1 to 8 inches.

 

[FishCrazyBenBOMB]

Well most darters will not get up to 8in especially in captivity, there are a better chance of them growing that big in the wild.

Mostly all darters from this genus of darters (Etheostoma) will stay to the max. size of 3in. Most of them.

 

[mike47517]

al'ight.

 

[Phoenixphire55]

Well, I really like the look of the darters. Very cool. I also think the sculpins look really cool but it sounds like they'd probably eat the smaller fish, which I want to avoid. I would also like to put a couple dojo loaches in this tank so it's important that the other fish won't eat them. I'll look into darters more, and I like the idea of minnows and killifish. I'm really excited about the idea of a native tank. Thanks guys!

 

[Tony Gill]

I'm a little confused by this thread, as you start out by saying you want the temp to be around 78oF. If so, you would have to be careful in selecting your natives. Most will need lower temps, if only for a winter rest period. Darters are great, but some have fairly specific requirements. I kept some years ago when I lived in Virginia - the tank had lots of flow, and I kept it in the basement (which was unheated) so I could allow the temp to drop in the winter. The biggest problem I had was down to me keeping the darters with a range of native shiners and minnows - very little food made it to the bottom, so I more-or-less had to hand feed the darters individually. In any case, I'd suggest careful research before you launch into keeping darters.

Tony

 

[Johnny Tuttle]

Wouldn't any danio readily accept water with a current?

I would think that kribs could possibly as well, being riverine. I don't know that for certain, of course.

 

[mike47517]

Yeah danios like current.

 

[Phoenixphire55]

I think I'm not going to get native fish because I don't know enough about them and so many that I read about are aggressive or carnivores. I like the idea of a river tank with a bunch of loaches and some varieties of catfish, etc. Giant danios could be really cool also.

 

[FishCrazyBenBOMB]

Native fish would be so cool, but I guess that loaches and cats would be alright.

 

[Phoenixphire55]

native fish would be really cool, but I want to put my dojo loach in there and I really don't want him to become dinner. Sunfish and things like that would be too big so the only thing I've found that seemed like it could work are the sculpin or the darters. The darters still seem good, but the sculpin would probably eat my loach.

 

[FishCrazyBenBOMB]

I got ya, I got ya, it's alright man, just do what you want.

 

[czcz]

Check out Martin Thoene's river tank: A River Runs Through It — Loaches Online . 40g with great rockwork and tons of Hillstream loaches would be a sweet tank (but they need cool temperatures, so does your Dojo!). Like a 75 with a bagillion Yoyos or Sidthimunki or other neat loach and a nice school of Rainbows too would be the awesome.

 

[mike47517]

native fish would be really cool, but I want to put my dojo loach in there and I really don't want him to become dinner. Sunfish and things like that would be too big so the only thing I've found that seemed like it could work are the sculpin or the darters. The darters still seem good, but the sculpin would probably eat my loach.

By any chance if you still go with a native tank then go look at Dace they're cool but warning i dont know much about them.

 

[Phoenixphire55]

I totally agree czcz. That's something I'm really considering and so far that's my favorite option. I love the look of hillstream loaches and I would be very cool with a cold water tank, especially because I already have the dojo loach, and I plan to get a few more. That would actually be the ideal setup in my opinion.