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[Joshaeus]

'ello all! I have set up a small clear storage bin as a tank with about 2.5 gallons of water for a most unusual reason - namely, as a tank with absolutely no direct, intentional reliance on electricity. It has no air pump (the bin is only 7 inches deep, has a 15 by 9 inch base and is not completely filled, so gas exchange should take care of itself), no artificial light (it gets sunlight from my south window about 8-9 ft away and light from the daylight bulb that is on in my room several hours a day), will be filtered entirely by plants (more specifically pothos, duckweed, java moss, and potentially more houseplants...the moss will get a little CO2 to help it out) and water changes...even the foods (flakes, grindal worms, and micro worms) will not make any direct use of electricity. Obviously pygmy sunnies would probably do well in such a tank, but what about pygmy and least killies? My main worry would be of those fishes jumping out. Thankx in advance!

[Doug_Dame]

My Heterandria jump like trained killer whales. And they just never stop. Splash splash splash, splash, splash splash, splash splash splash, splash, sometimes there's 4 or 5 of them up in the air at the same time. It can be quite distracting when I'm trying to work.

 

But ... here's the good news ... all the movement is purely vertical. They seem to understand the geometry of their home. 

[lilyea]

I had a similar setup with Heterandrias, floating plants, and duckweed that I maintained for over 5 years. The ambient light needs to be enough to keep the low light plants growing/filtering. The duckweed mitigates the jumping. Good luck!

[Joshaeus]

Seems to be enough right now...good to know that H. formosa is one of those rare fish that knows that leaving the aquarium is a bad thing. Just in case, would a tray under the tank with a shallow layer of water be helpful?

[gzeiger]

If they jumped from the big tank they will jump from the shallow one immediately since it's necesssarily a very stressful place to be.

 

I'd recommend Azolla rather than duckweed. It's much nicer looking and has better roots for fry to play in.

[Joshaeus]

OK! Thankx

[Michael Wolfe]

I have a 25 gallon bow front that is set up very similar to what you have talking about... although I do run some LED lighting occasionally.

 

Currently it is stocked with three Enneacanthus... bluespotted sunfish.  They enjoy stalking around the val and chasing each other.

[Joshaeus]

Good to hear that this is possible I also put hornwort in the tank - surely a plant that will keep photosynthesizing under ice in the middle of winter up into Alaska is capable to handling the relatively poor lighting (which is at least 133 footcandles in the tank, and probably considerably higher - likely close to double that)