I am becoming increasingly fascinated by these little natives and I'm wondering which of my many aquariums would best handle the addition. All of my aquarium fish are cool water species of danios, most on the small side other than one tank of longfin white cloud mountain minnows. All aquariums are well planted natural environments with wood, river stones, and currents already established.
One tank, 15 gal, has a group of about 12 danio choprae that mature at one inch. These are very active fish that are in constant motion, even in the middle of the night. There are also some cherry shrimp in there and horned nerite snails.
Another option is a 29 that has sundadanio axelrodi and burmese gold ring danios, also small fish at one inch or just a little over. These guys are very quiet and peaceful fish and other than displaying for each other or looking for food, they don't do much moving around. There is a large colony of cherry shrimp in there as well as nerite snails.
The last option is another 15 gal with a small group of longfin white cloud mountain minnows, shrimp, ramshorn snails and a thriving population of copepods that I would love to have better managed. I know the darters are compatable with the white clouds because that is how I learned about the cute little guys from a friend who has rainbow darters with her white clouds.
So would rainbow darters harrass my peaceful 29 gal tank of little danios, or would my manic group of choprae drive the darters nuts? How many darters could I add to each tank and what is the best male/female ratio to keep them happy? Thanks in advance!
Darter compatability questions
Started by
Guest_Carmon_*
, Feb 28 2011 01:27 PM
5 replies to this topic
#2
Guest_EricaWieser_*
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Posted 28 February 2011 - 02:09 PM
Darters don't really interact with swimming fish, or at least my etheostoma spectabile didn't seem to notice my swordtails other than to eat the fry.
I cannot guarantee the safety of any shrimp who share a tank with darters. They might be left alone or they might get small bits ripped off of them until they are finally completely devoured.
My advise would be to pick either of the tanks without copepods, remove the shrimp from it, add darters, and see whether or not they can feel comfortable in your present level of current. Darters like fast current, or at least the stream-based darters do ( swamp darters being an exception to the strong current generalization) so often the addition of a powerhead makes them more comfortable.
I cannot guarantee the safety of any shrimp who share a tank with darters. They might be left alone or they might get small bits ripped off of them until they are finally completely devoured.
My advise would be to pick either of the tanks without copepods, remove the shrimp from it, add darters, and see whether or not they can feel comfortable in your present level of current. Darters like fast current, or at least the stream-based darters do ( swamp darters being an exception to the strong current generalization) so often the addition of a powerhead makes them more comfortable.
#3
Michael Wolfe
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- North Georgia, Oconee River Drainage
Posted 28 February 2011 - 04:00 PM
So would rainbow darters harrass my peaceful 29 gal tank of little danios, or would my manic group of choprae drive the darters nuts? How many darters could I add to each tank and what is the best male/female ratio to keep them happy? Thanks in advance!
Your fish will be fine... in their native habitat, darters are used to a bunch of crazy shiners zippping around overhead, they will not bother, or be stressed by, your other fish at all...
As far as stocking density, well that is a flame war waiting to happen and totally a matter of how much tank cleaning and husbandry you like to do... I dont do hardly any so keep my stocking low... others like it crowded and love changing water... Again, in the natual habitat darters can live in close proximity to each other with no problems... just takes food and oxygen...
Snails and shrimp are good for darters... darters are not good for them... I know the darters will like them... if you like them, you dont want to add the darters... they will actively hunt shrimp nearly their own length... and eat them... eventually... it is what a darter does... eat benthic inverts... I have added ghost shrimp to tanks with darters and if you have 8 darters and add 30 shrimp, you might get one that will make it for a week or so... if the tank it heavily planted... but in general it is just a buffet.
Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. - Benjamin Franklin
#4
Guest_Carmon_*
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Posted 28 February 2011 - 05:37 PM
Thanks for the responses!
First, I don't mind at all if my shrimp population becomes food. I have stocked every tank I have plus all of my friends' because these shrimp are such fast breeders. If they get cleaned out of two or three tanks I won't mind because there are plenty more in my other tanks!
Stocking: I keep my fish at low healthy numbers for the tank size and species. That's why I figure I can add a few fish wihout upsetting the balance. Each tank is well planted, has good daylight lighting and already has powerheads because creating a stream flow was part of the original designs.
I do 20% water changes twice a week primarily because we have well water that is very high in mineral content so I look at the water changes more as diluting the mineral build up than anything else. You get a lot of evaporation here in high desert country and fish tank water is great for my garden.
So what I would like to do is add the minimum number of darters in a good male/female ratio that will keep them happy without over crowding my well balanced tanks! Having them help control the population by eating fry is also a bonus.
So one more question - I keep a 150+ gal deck water garden fish pond where my fancy goldfish spend the entire summer and then winter indoors. Are there some of those beautiful minnows that would do well living out there year round? I do keep a tank deicer that holds the water at about 40 degrees during the winter so that I can over winter my pond plants out there.
It's nice to know my little maniacs wouldn't bother anyone! I've been going through chemotherapy since last October and those crazy little fish and my other aquariums have helped to keep my sanity for the last five months.
First, I don't mind at all if my shrimp population becomes food. I have stocked every tank I have plus all of my friends' because these shrimp are such fast breeders. If they get cleaned out of two or three tanks I won't mind because there are plenty more in my other tanks!
Stocking: I keep my fish at low healthy numbers for the tank size and species. That's why I figure I can add a few fish wihout upsetting the balance. Each tank is well planted, has good daylight lighting and already has powerheads because creating a stream flow was part of the original designs.
I do 20% water changes twice a week primarily because we have well water that is very high in mineral content so I look at the water changes more as diluting the mineral build up than anything else. You get a lot of evaporation here in high desert country and fish tank water is great for my garden.
So what I would like to do is add the minimum number of darters in a good male/female ratio that will keep them happy without over crowding my well balanced tanks! Having them help control the population by eating fry is also a bonus.
So one more question - I keep a 150+ gal deck water garden fish pond where my fancy goldfish spend the entire summer and then winter indoors. Are there some of those beautiful minnows that would do well living out there year round? I do keep a tank deicer that holds the water at about 40 degrees during the winter so that I can over winter my pond plants out there.
It's nice to know my little maniacs wouldn't bother anyone! I've been going through chemotherapy since last October and those crazy little fish and my other aquariums have helped to keep my sanity for the last five months.
#5
Michael Wolfe
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- Board of Directors
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- North Georgia, Oconee River Drainage
Posted 28 February 2011 - 08:42 PM
So one more question - I keep a 150+ gal deck water garden fish pond where my fancy goldfish spend the entire summer and then winter indoors. Are there some of those beautiful minnows that would do well living out there year round? I do keep a tank deicer that holds the water at about 40 degrees during the winter so that I can over winter my pond plants out there.
Well I tried an experiment this winter with a dozen or so yellowfin shiners in a 100 gallon stock tank... and we had a cold one in Georgia the stock tank froze over solid a couple inches thick at least twice... and no food for them... or no supplimental feeding form me at least. Put them in there last October... and saw at least 11 just a few weeks ago... fed them some earthworm flake... and they went nuts and ate like crazy... so it seems that some of North Georgia's finest (Notropis lutipinnus the yellowfin shiner) can overwinter even in some pretty harsh condition. Other species may well be abl eto do the same.
Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. - Benjamin Franklin
#6
Guest_Carmon_*
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Posted 01 March 2011 - 01:51 PM
Well I tried an experiment this winter with a dozen or so yellowfin shiners in a 100 gallon stock tank... and we had a cold one in Georgia the stock tank froze over solid a couple inches thick at least twice... and no food for them... or no supplimental feeding form me at least. Put them in there last October... and saw at least 11 just a few weeks ago... fed them some earthworm flake... and they went nuts and ate like crazy... so it seems that some of North Georgia's finest (Notropis lutipinnus the yellowfin shiner) can overwinter even in some pretty harsh condition. Other species may well be abl eto do the same.
That's great to hear! I have native mosquito fish (can't remember their name) in our horse water trough. We got down to -24 here at night for about a week this last winter and even with the deicer the water froze over. I've got at least 20 fish still in there and swimming around happily though. Nice to know I can get some prettier fish to live up here in the deck water garden safely too.
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