Planning a Native Aquarium

[nanofish]

We all know the work with an aquarium is never truly done. With that being said my recently set up South American blackwater themed tank is doing rather nicely. I have only to maintain it and eventually add a few more fish. This has freed me up to start planning my second aquarium.

The one when I was setting my current tank up was to set up a heavily planted Southeast Asian themed tank. That had been near the top of my list for a while. It is however losing out in favor of some other fish I have always wanted to own, namely fish native to the US. Some of these fish rival or even surpass tropicals when you see a male in breeding condition.

Two things have kept me from trying before though lack of both selection and information. I know the laws in my home state (Pennsylvania) and know which species I would be able to catch and keep. There are some good choices there, but it's still limited. I've also found 4 different online websites where natives can be bought. That's not even including what might turn up on aquabid. That definitely helps to open things up for me.

I already own two very good books on this subject, North American Native Fishes for the Home Aquarium and American Aquarium Fishes. The NANFA website is also of some help in regards to info. I don't know if it's worth buying the cd of back issues of American Current though from them as it's pricey. The one thing that might help me out is Peterson field guide (just searched now and it's really cheap on Amazon). That should help with the lack of information.

I'm really early in my planning, a long time from getting any fish but I have to admit that the more I dig, the more interested I become. That's why I'm throwing up this thread. Right now I'm trying to decide between two different biotopes, marsh and riffle. If anyone cares enough I'll get into the two biotopes and the fish I'm looking into for each one.

 

[jetajockey]

When you get the field guide, be sure to get the second edition, it was just released earlier this year, there's a 20 something year difference between the two publishings.

I'm interested to see what you come up with.

 

[gabysapha]

That's great! I'm definitely following!
I did research on marsh fish this summer, and keeping darters (Etheostoma)in aquariums was a delight. However, they were in an ugly lab tank, ewww. I am so looking forward to seeing your progress on your biotopes!

 

[nanofish]

jetajockey-Thanks for the tip! I just bought a copy of the second edition off of Amazon. That definitely explains why the book I had looked up last night was only $5 brand new.

gabysapha-Those are the darters I definitely want to keep. It's big genus like you know and no matter which plan I go with I want to have some of those species. They sound like they have the personality to match their looks.

 

[nanofish]

Well first thing first I guess. The tank size that I'm hoping to use is a 40 gallon breeder since I like the dimensions better than a 55 and it's still a decently sized tank. I'm also hoping to keep a communtiy. This means that anything too big or too aggressive is being crossed off. Some examples of this would be golden shiners, any species of bullhead, any of the Lepomis sunfish, etc.

The marsh tank would probably be the easiest to setup. Basically it's a typical aquarium minus the heater. Dark substrate to bring out the colors of the fish and to resemble mud. Lots of driftwood and plants. I thought I would be forced to break the whole biotope theme in regards to plants. I have however found a few lists of American plants and some apparently occur in the trade. I don't know much about aquarium plants in general so I've been holding off on researching them more in favor of the fish.

I'm still working on which fish will work in this theme that I can find. I know for instance that northern redbelly dace would, but their range is too far north of me and I haven't seen them for sale online yet. I do know some species that MIGHT work are though. For darters I could catch or order Johnny darters. I could also order Iowa darters. The Iowa darter is a candidate species in PA, which is why I would order them even though they are native. Blackbanded sunfish and bluespotted sunfish would make good centerpiece fish. Some madtoms can be found in this habitat, although I'm not sure which ones, the tadpole madtom might be one provided good aeration. I'm still pretty clueless as to which minnows species can be found in stillwaters or can adapt to them. Hopefully the guide book will help me with that. I also think a lot of the non-coastal topminnows will work. There's a variety of both minnow and topminnow species for sale online so I have a lot to research.

That's the extremely rough plan for if I go the marsh theme route. The ability to fill out all of the aquarium levels is something very much in the favor of this tank. I think if I went this route I could certainly make a pretty nice tank. I still need to do tons of research though, but not as much as I do with the riffle tank.

 

[gabysapha]

This is so exciting.

I really like the idea of a marsh set up, just because they are such productive habitats. I'm really interested in what your plant list will be. Would you collect the plant yourself or order them? Are there regulations for the collection of marsh plants?

My only input is that I think water chestnut is the most evil plant I've ever encountered

 

[Wy Renegade]

Tagging along, curious to see what you come up with. I've a couple native tanks running, so perhaps I can be some little help. Most of the species you're citing are not ones that can be found in my area.

 

[nanofish]

This is so exciting.

I really like the idea of a marsh set up, just because they are such productive habitats. I'm really interested in what your plant list will be. Would you collect the plant yourself or order them? Are there regulations for the collection of marsh plants?

My only input is that I think water chestnut is the most evil plant I've ever encountered

I haven't been able to find any info yet in regards to collecting plants on either the PA Fish and Boat Commission or the Department of Enviromental Protection. I'm have to just be missing it.

Like the fish, I'm willing to both collect and order online, just for a greater variety. That's providing I can find them online. I have searched yet. The North American Native Fishes book doesn't even bother to talk about native plants. The American Aquarium Fishes book talks only about native plants, but it doesn't include any ranges.

I did find this online though and it might interest you North American Natives - August 2005 TFH Planted Tank

 

[KonvictKeeper]

Sounds fun. When I set up my 90g I'd like to do bluegills and LM bass. Then put them in MY pond (personal pond, not the state's).

 

[nanofish]

Tagging along, curious to see what you come up with. I've a couple native tanks running, so perhaps I can be some little help. Most of the species you're citing are not ones that can be found in my area.

Thank you. I'm trying not to sound completely clueless with all of this. It is fun doing all the research though. I know I didn't list many species but sadly I'd only be able to collect the bluepsotted sunfish (here in the Susquehanna drainage) and the Johnny darter if I head out west. The tadpole madtom, banded sunfish (forget to list those), and Iowa darter are all either endangered or threatened here. The blackstriped sunfish is extripated. I've seen all of them be sold online though. We do have four species of killifish but I don't think any of them would work in this type of setup.

 

[Wy Renegade]

Just speaking from my own experience, unless your able to locate a specific area which is known to contain a high population of a specific species, it can be pretty difficult to collect specific fish.

Generally when we collect minnows, we get a cross sample of whatever happens to be in that area of the water. For example, we've collected fathead minnows, sand shiners, emerald shiners, black bullheads, and rock bass as well as a minnow which has a mouth/lips like a sucker fish that I've never been able to get a positive ID on. Seems like every time we collect here, we get a little different cross sample.

I can only imagine the time that might be involved if we were looking for only certain species.

For plant collecting regulations, you may also need to review your states guidelines. You should probably review any state regulations in regards to the fish as well. When I asked when I first started keeping natives, the Wy Game and Fish told me I would need to keep a current fishing license at all times, and make sure that I didn't exceed any of the limits. Now I've had many G&F personal in my classroom since, all of whom have looked over the various tanks, and I don't think one has ever asked about a license, but better safe than sorry.

 

[nanofish]

I definitely have to agree with you about the time it would take. It's certianly not something I'd want to do just in search of one species. There are a whole bunch of local streams that I wouldn't mind spending an afternoon looking in with friends. Even if I didn't catch anything I'd still most likely end up having fun. Driving halfway across the state in the hopes of finding a needle in a haystack, only to come home emptyhanded, is much different. In that case I'd most likely just want to order what I wanted.

NANFA has a list of all the regulations for each state and I read through all of PA's before. They basically don't care what you do with your fish provided you catch them legally. There was no mention of needing a current license after they have been removed from their habitat. I would however need a special permit to legally import and keep any PA species that are threatened or endangered. That's one of the reasons I'm keeping track of what is and what isn't, besides collecting itself. To receive the permit I would only need to show that it "Has no demonstrable adverse impacts on the population of the species in this Commonwealth." That shouldn't be too difficult to do. I honestly doubt anyone is going to come into my bedroom to check out my fishtank, but even so it's always better to play by the rules instead of paying for it later.

 

[jetajockey]

Here's a resource I use to help locate certain species that I'm after. A lot of it is dated and you may not be able to access certain places because of development and whatnot, but it's still a good starting point. I look up the coordinates on google earth and try to find nearby roads to get a street view of the area for a better idea of accessibility and actual photos of what the area looks like.
Put the scientific name under the "Taxon" section, and I usually put the county in the location section.
FishNet2 Search

 

[greaver83]

Im following this my first tank was a 220g native tank with pumpkin seeds bass and a channel cat

 

[nanofish]

I mentioned this before I think but the fish that most have me wanting to keep a native aquarium are some of the Etheostoma darters. Some of these species do occur in slackwater but many more are riffle species. I thought that to keep them I would need a high current tank. It's now becoming apparent from a variety of sources that I made my first mistake in my thinking. I've found out that while they do require current, the high amount that I had thought isn't really necessary. A stream tank containing them now has a massive amount of options for designs, plants, and suitable tankmates.

 

[jetajockey]

I've caught darters ranging from 3-4 mph creeks down to barely moving slackwater, so yeah I think you'll be fine in that regard. Same goes with several shiner species.

 

[nanofish]

Blackstripe topminnows will work as well in a stream tank. Probably some other topminnow species as well. I was thinking I wouldn't be able to keep anything that stayed at the top of the tank. It just got a whole lot harder for me to even narrow down which tank type I want.

 

[Wy Renegade]

So are you going to use powerheads or canister filters to create additional flow or are you thinking more about something like a wave maker?

 

[nanofish]

I know absolutely nothing about wave makers. I won't lie about that. Loaches.com has the directions for building a river manifold. I think that might be too much though. NANFA has directions for increasing the flow of a HOB filter. Unless you're hanging it from the side though you won't be getting unidirectional flow. Hanging it off the side isn't something I really want to do for fear of jumpers. My thought right now is to use a canister filter with spraybar and supplement it with a powerhead. I'm hoping that would work but don't know. I've never set out to creat additional current in any of my aquariums before.

 

[Wy Renegade]

I'll have to check the river manifold out, sounds like something that might be of interest for a future trout tank. I've created additional flow in tanks using just a powerhead in addition to the filters. My current native tank has a maxijet 1200 running with the mod on the bottom. It moved so much gravel initially that I had to prop it up on a rock to keep it from rescaping the entire tank.