7 replies to this topic

[Shay]

I really like the sheepshead minnows, but haven't had any luck keeping them in pure fresh water, even when I collected them in pure fresh water. I'm an experienced aquarist and have kept a few difficult species, but I've tried twice and not managed to keep the "easy" sheepsheads alive. Willing to try brackish, but not excited about it.

 

I'd like to try a 4' river (flowing) tank, mimicking a "Tennessee River Shiners & Dace" tank at the Denver zoo. I don't live in Denver (or Tennessee), so I'm looking for a Houston native fish that will work well in this type of tank.

 

I can get sailfin mollies, sheepshead minnows, or red shiners fairly easily. None of those have the torpedo shape of the Tennessee fish. Would any of those be good with current? Other suggestions?

 

Thank you.

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[trygon]

If that is the aquarium at the Denver Zoo don't copy it.  Tennessee rivers don't look anything like that.

[Michael Wolfe]

Here is a link for all the fishes in your county. There are a lot that make good stream tank inhabitants... Red Shiner, Redfin Shiner, Weedshiner, maybe a Blackspotted Topminnow, and Slough Darters and the Dusky Darter.  That would be a cool community tank!

 

http://www.fishesoft.../harris-county/

[Shay]

That's nothing like Texas either, but I like to watch Anubis (the slooow growing plant in that tank) grow. As long as the fish are happy and healthy, I can accept a little inaccuracy.

[Shay]

Thank you very much, Michael Wolfe. Looks like I'm good to go. Hopefully, I can grab a tank this week and start cycling.

[smbass]

Duskys are a fun darter to keep and a large one. They work really well with driftwood, like to inspect all the little nooks and crevices for inverts to eat, very interesting behavior to watch. Red shiners are also a very nice and easy to breed aquarium fish. Those two alone would make a nice tank but I always like more variety.

[swampfish]

I've had excellent results keeping sheepshead minnows in brackish water with a specific gravity of 0.012-0.014 in the low 70's degrees F. I use my well water which is somewhat hard with significant iron content but not excessive. I have never done any hardness or content analyses. Fish that do well in my water I keep, those than don't, I avoid. the pH is around 6.8. I allowed evaporation of a couple of inches followed by refill with fresh water to vary the salinity in the tank. I used a ten gallon tank for a half dozen fish, but I think that they would have done better in a larger tank with some structure so they could escape line of sight even though they tended to hang together. Once they settle in, they can be rather aggressive to each other. After a couple of years, I gave them to someone else who wanted to try them.

 

Phil Nixon

Illinois

[Mysteryman]

Sheepshead pupfish, like most pupfish, don't need brackish water, but they do need hard water. It just so happens that brackish water is pretty darned hard. If you can harden your water without salting it, you're golden.