Millers thumb fish

[Rach88]

I've just been down to my "local" river in the meon valley (UK) and caught this little guy-













I only know it as a "millers thumb" fish but it's a cute little fish, I was wondering if anyone knows what it's really called or anything about it. Also would it be ok in a tank? I like the idea of one day setting up a river tank with a few of these guys in if at all possible...

 

[alLexX]

i know nothing about them,but it sure looks awesome

 

[Maxkolbe]

Looks a little like a hillstream loach but I'm pretty sure you won't find those in the UK. Cool fish though.

 

[Nu-Nu the eel]

No i dont think its a hillstream, the find and face look differant then a hillstream IMO.

 

[Rach88]

Definitely not a hill stream loach lol all I know is it's a bottom dweller. Normally I only catch minnows and trout fry when I go to the river with my son so this fish was a bit of a surprise. Definitely the most awesome native fish I've found here though

 

[Maxkolbe]

I know it's not a hillstream, I just thought it looked a little like one and the care is probably similar.

 

[Rach88]

I know it's not a hillstream, I just thought it looked a little like one and the care is probably similar.

To be fair when I first pulled it out of the river in the net I thought it looked a lot like a plec till I got a good look at it in the bucket

 

[Rach88]

I think I found my fish it's a European bullhead
http://www.bukisa.com/articles/53601_bizarre-and-unique-marine-animals

 

[Maxkolbe]

Looks about right, did you find how big they get or if they live in groups? That would be a step towards figuring out how to keep them in aquariums.

 

[Rach88]

So far all I've found is that they grow to about 10cm, they lay eggs on the underside of stones which the males guard until they hatch, they're carnivorous and they need a lot of oxygen. Other than that i can't seem to find a great deal about them :/ which is weird considering they're native.

 

[Maxkolbe]

So for an aquarium this was what I was thinking.
Let's go large to be on the safe side and go with a nice long tank like a 55 gallon.
Use canister filters and put the intake and outake on opposite ends of the tank so you get a good current. Use double filtration to keep the water clean, most likely a necessity if they come from a stream. The water should also be fairly cool. About the temp of the stream.
Decor could consist of larger, rounded rocks or driftwood, some could even stick partially out the top to keep with the stream feel. with plants collected from the same stream as the fish.
For food I'd start with some kind of insect larvae (Bloodworms etc.) and try to wean them onto frozen foods.
For tank mates you could try white clouds since they're cheap if they get eaten and also like cool water.

Remember this is all just ideas, I actually know nothing about keeping these fish and was trying to come up with something that would probably work.

All in all sounds like a pretty fun project. I'll be interested on how it turns out if you try it

 

[Rach88]

So for an aquarium this was what I was thinking.
Let's go large to be on the safe side and go with a nice long tank like a 55 gallon.
Use canister filters and put the intake and outake on opposite ends of the tank so you get a good current. Use double filtration to keep the water clean, most likely a necessity if they come from a stream. The water should also be fairly cool. About the temp of the stream.
Decor could consist of larger, rounded rocks or driftwood, some could even stick partially out the top to keep with the stream feel. with plants collected from the same stream as the fish.
For food I'd start with some kind of insect larvae (Bloodworms etc.) and try to wean them onto frozen foods.
For tank mates you could try white clouds since they're cheap if they get eaten and also like cool water.

Remember this is all just ideas, I actually know nothing about keeping these fish and was trying to come up with something that would probably work.

All in all sounds like a pretty fun project. I'll be interested on how it turns out if you try it

I was thinking a 55 long with a good flowing current if I do this so thanks for the canister filter idea I never would have thought of that having never needed a strong current in my tanks I was going to leave it unheated as they're likely temperate fish like the minnows I find.
The large rocks are definitely a good idea. I was kinda thinking of trying to mimic the river I found it in, the bottom is a mix of silt, rocks and gravel, would it be possible to mimic the silt using fine grain sand? Food wise my dad says he used to watch these fish eat small fish (I.e. minnows, trout fry etc) as well as mayfly and dragonfly larvae, so I'd like to mimic that as closely as possible too, However judging by that this tank would have to be a species tank considering it would likely eat anything smaller than its mouth :S although i could try using some of the minnows i find in the same river just to check i guess.

I may try it when I have the funds and space for another tank. Would be a cool project. From what I can find there are no laws on collecting this fish but I'll check that out properly before I get started. I'm still having trouble finding any real info on keeping this fish in an aquarium which is a little worrying. However I'm finding plenty of literature on the subject, downside is its all in German or the like...

 

[Maxkolbe]

Here's an idea, you could collect the substrate from the place where you get the fish. Do you think that would work? I know in the warmer months you can get insect larvae by leaving a dish of water out for the mosquitoes to lay eggs in and then feed your fish the larvae once they hatch but it wouldn't work during the winter.

 

[Rach88]

Here's an idea, you could collect the substrate from the place where you get the fish. Do you think that would work? I know in the warmer months you can get insect larvae by leaving a dish of water out for the mosquitoes to lay eggs in and then feed your fish the larvae once they hatch but it wouldn't work during the winter.

Not a bad idea although I think I'd have to invest in a book to work out what all the things are that I'd no doubt get with it lol. I'm not overly worried about the summer months, i get plenty of bugs etc turn up in the bucket kept in my garden for collecting rainwater, as for winter months I think I'd have to either find a way to cultivate food for them or try and get it eating live or frozen from the LFS. Then again this fish might be annual and only live for a year in the wild anyway... So much to think about and find out. I'll be doing more research into all this tonight, I found a couple links to native aquarium set ups earlier which I've yet to look at. Just hope this project is viable coz I'm really liking the idea of it now lol

 

[Maxkolbe]

You wouldn't have to invest in that book if you boiled/bleached the gravel to kill whatever is in it.

 

[Rach88]

You wouldn't have to invest in that book if you boiled/bleached the gravel to kill whatever is in it.

True but I did also think in using the substrate from the river it'd bring across some of the critters the bullhead would eat...

 

[Maxkolbe]

True, I didn't think of that. But then they'd eat it all and it be gone.

 

[sheilak]

fish unknown

you could contact the dept of uk wildlife im sure they have such an office

 

[Rach88]

True, I didn't think of that. But then they'd eat it all and it be gone.

This is true but it would keep them going for a day or two...

you could contact the dept of uk wildlife im sure they have such an office

Yes I will be doing this soon, mostly to check if it's legal to collect these fish or not

On another note I was in my garden this morning and I thought to myself "what if I make a river?" my garden would be large enough I think. I could do a DIY build in acrylic, have one of those pond waterfalls at the top end to create the current, with baffles in front of it to lessen the displacement it'd make of the substrate, put some outcrops of rock randomly down either side to simulate the calmer areas that occur on river bends and have the water circulate out through the bottom end to be filtered and taken back to flow out the top of the waterfall....

Bare in mind this was just an idea that occurred to me today and there's undoubtedly a lot of problems with it but still, it'd be cool if it's possible lol

 

[Ryleyman]

That is a invasive species of goby they eat trout eggs just kill it they have them in Canada too and they are an invasive species