8 Gallon Darter Tank

[severum mama]

HN1 and I picked up 2 darters yesterday at a club meeting, hopefully a pair. The only info on the bag was "green swamp darter" but we have tentatively ID'ed them as Etheostoma fusiforme. We have them in a 10 gallon open top tank right this moment, but after reading a little about them, I decided to redo our 8 gallon JBJ Nano so I could get them into a tank with a lid. What little info I could find suggests that they would appreciate plant cover and driftwood on a sand substrate. Here's what I came up with for them.

I took the stock filter out of the tank and replaced it with an Azoo Bio Sponge filter. Lighting is the stock 11W power compact bulb. Darters are going into the tank in a few minutes. I'll try to update with pics or a video later.

 

[jetajockey]

Look like a cool setup! If they are anything like the ones I've found they are in various areas from leaf litter bottoms to pebbles. I think they like to hole up in gaps in the gravel also.

 

[absolutangel04]

Awesome. I will be looking forward to more pictures.

 

[severum mama]

Thanks you two!

Jeta, I was hoping you would chime in here. Do you think we could keep a couple of those sweet pygmy sunfish in this tank? Maybe some least killies, to provide a source of live food for the darters? *edited to add* Temp stays between 69-72, the tank is unheated.

I've been trying to get a pic of these fish in their new tank, but so far it has bee a no go. The only pic I have managed to get is a bad cell phone pic when they were stressed out in the catch cup....

 

[jetajockey]

yes, we definitely need better pics

As to what can go with them... Well, it depends. These guys are bottom dwellers, spending most of their time resting on a surface.

If they don't get too big, then yes pygmy sunfish will work, however I don't know enough about this particular species to say for sure. I wouldn't try putting any really small ones in there with them, but I have a few medium sized pygmies in with my 2 darters and they don't seem to bother.

Least killies are a good idea, the fry would provide food for both the darters and the pygmy sunfishes. I don't think that the darters will eat the male adults, but it's also another possibility depending on size. The nice thing is that they spend most of their time in different sections of the tank so they probably won't run into each other much.

I've only had my darters for a short period and they are already taking flake readily, and I've never kept any that were live food only, so you may be o.k. in that regard.

The pygmy sunfish will need live food or thawed bloodworms, brine shrimp, etc. Some learn to eat flakes, some don't, either way they are much more robust and healthier if you keep some sort of live or frozen thawed food in their diet.

Tank temperature is fine, even a bit warm compared to what they are living in this time of year, so it's a non issue.

 

[GodFan]

You may already know this but the JBJ has a major design flaw that causes massive algae build up in the filter media. You might want to cover the media with a piece of plastic or something. Pretty tank though!

 

[severum mama]

You may already know this but the JBJ has a major design flaw that causes massive algae build up in the filter media. You might want to cover the media with a piece of plastic or something. Pretty tank though!

I wouldn't call it a major design flaw. I just cleaned the algae from the pad during PWCs when I was using the stock filter. It wasn't that big of a deal. I've had the tank for several years and for this application, I have removed the stock filter and added an Azoo Bio Sponge filter.

I did manage to get a few pics of the smaller of the two darters. First two are with flash, third is without. The actual color of the fish is somewhere in between. LOL

 

[GodFan]

Oh ok. Ours turned green to fast to just clean during PWCs but we like our lights on alot
Fish are cool!

 

[Wy Renegade]

Nice - looking forward to furture updates and some better pictures. Hope to get some of these from Jetta soon.

 

[DragonFish71]

Hey!! You got my darters!! Love them, awesome little guys.

 

[greenfish]

Cool looking fish!

 

[severum mama]

Time to update.

These fish are really cool and they aren't hard to feed like I expected they could be. They LOVE frozen bloodworms. Here are a few pics from today. Only the smaller one was out in front. You can see how small that fish is if you look closely at the full tank shots.

 

[Coursair]

Time to update.

These fish are really cool and they aren't hard to feed like I expected they could be. They LOVE frozen bloodworms. Here are a few pics from today. Only the smaller one was out in front. You can see how small that fish is if you look closely at the full tank shots.

Saw some Darters at a LFS yesterday
Starting to catch on. Nice tank.

 

[severum mama]

Today was water change day, and I got a short video of the smaller one hamming it up afterwards. I love how these fish move their heads, it's really funny.

We have some awesome new tankmates coming soon... stay tuned.

 

[absolutangel04]

I wish I had dance moves that good.

 

[severum mama]

Added some buddies, courtesy of jetajockey.

Stock list is now:
2 Etheostoma fusiforme
3 Elassoma gilberti
6 Heterandria formosa

I don't have a pic of the least killies just yet, but here's a quick phone shot of one of the darters with one of the gilberti.

 

[Wy Renegade]

Very nice - I'm hoping for a similar combination in one of my tanks as well! Thanks for sharing the picture.