Creating a aquarium with substrate and fish from the wild.

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LiamCH

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
May 17, 2010
Messages
33
Location
Middlesex, England
Hello again. It seems I've really been bitten by the aquarium bug from my ten gallon tropical tank, and after recently noticing a 6.6 gallon (25 litre) tank which would fit well on my bookshelf, I decided to take the plunge.

Anyhow, as I already have a tropical tank which I'm very happy with, I was planning to create a coldwater one. Having noticed the large number of three-spined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) in a small brook near my house, I was thinking of choosing them as my aquarium's inhabitants. Would you think that'd work? They're pretty small fish, so I would have thought they'd be suited to a tank of this size. None of the ones in the brook appear to be larger than about an inch. Also, judging by the crazy prices for substrate in my local pet shop, I was also considering just scraping an amount of sand/gravel off the riverbed to use in the aquarium. I'd take some plant samples too.

Do you think this would work? Any suggestions would be helpful. I've always had a fascination with these sticklebacks, as I often used to play by the brook when I was little, so it'd be nice to finally have some in a tank. Also, I like the idea of using entirely indiginous fish, plants and substrate, all collected from the same brook, as it would be more... authentic.

By the way, my tank measures 24" x 8" x 8", so they should have more than average space in which to swim for a tank of that volume.

What do you think?
 
First, check your local laws and see if it's legal to collect these items and take them. Not sure how things work over there, but here in the US different states have different laws on what's allowed and what's not.

Assuming it's legal...

Personally I wouldn't use the substrate from the local brook. It's too easy for that stuff to be contaminated by waste, trash, etc. In a brook there's probably not much direct localized impact on the wildlife, but in a small system such as a fish tank if there are contaminants it can wipe out your entire tank. Try to find a commercial product that mimics the look if you'd like and use that instead, IMO.

As for fish and plants, once your tank is up and running (go ahead and do a normal cycle on it, fishless preferred) then by all means you can gather plants and fish for your tank - again assuming it's legal to do so. Make sure you acclimate the fish, just like you would if you bought them from a pet store, and that will work.

Sounds like an interesting project!
 
i know nothing about them but ready they get to be 3-4 inch. that size of fish i would look for a tank thats bigger.
 
Fortunately as I have a pond I could always rehome them if/when they outgrow the tank. Still, I've definitely never seen any of the sticklebacks in my local brook approaching that size. Thanks for the email address by the way!
 
I definitely wanted to keep sticklebacks after learning that they can learn by example and imitate other fish. Very cool.
 
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