Thanks Todd. Yeah, finally! I thought it was a creek chub when I first caught it, until I got a closer look. We need to meet up and collect again somewhere. How is the plywood tank coming along?
I'd love to meet up for collecting again some time - I had a great time last time we went.
It needs a little exterior finish work as you can see but it does the job and doesn't leak. Fortunately It was pretty cheap - I used glass from a 55 gallon tank I got for free and some of the wood is from old rafters left over from when I got the roof redone. The most expensive part was the pond shield. I think I'll reduce the tanin level eventually, but for now I'm just keeping that as it is. I'm waiting for the plants to grow in some more and then I'm going to try and get some bluespotted and banded sunfish; I'll probably try Mattaponi Bluffs in Virginia for that tank. I still want to get more stream fish for my other tanks as well.
The sunfish is a young green sunfish so he will be getting big and the spottail shiner is a bluntnose minnow I believe. But the algae level is perfect. The tank really looks natural love it.
Mike, after finally getting a good picture where it wasn't moving 100 mph in the tank, I was able to get a better look at that fish. You are correct, it is indeed a bluntnose minnow. I donated some of the fish, and I must have accidentally donated the spottail shiner and kept the bluntnose. Duh. Thank you for the correction. I caught a bunch of spottails on my previous trip and none of them survived the trip home for some reason. When I finally got one to survive, I was excited about it...and then I gave it away LOL.
I do like the bluntnose minnows though. The ones that I had before were larger, and I think they actually spawned in my tank. Right before I had the ich problem, I found fry in the tank. It was either them or the blacknose dace pair that were acting weird at the time. Anyway, the noses on those fish were a grayish blue. This fish might be younger and not displaying that coloration yet. I also don't see the spot on the dorsal fin yet, but suspect that will show up as it grows a bit. Another thing that threw me was the behavior, as the ones that I had previously hid under rocks all the time, and were territorial over them. But, that could have been spawning behavior. This fish is all over the tank chasing the silverjaw and stoneroller in an endless game of tag.
I went fish collecting a couple weeks ago, and the fish that I collected went into QT for 2 weeks. I treated them with salt for the full period, and during the last 3 days, one dose of Prazipro. All of the minnows, shiners and dace collected survived QT OK and were added to the display tank yesterday.
I also collected 4 tessellated darters. One jumped out of the tank, one disappeared and I couldn't find it, and one died early on. The last one died the day before he was slated to go into the display tank, and was eating and apparently happy up until then. So, I'm bummed about that. I added 4 satinfin shiners, 3 blacknosed dace, and a bunch of bluntnose minnows to the tank. I also fished a local small stream for smallmouth bass on Sunday, and brought home some plants and snails. I collected wild Valisneria and water stargrass, and added those to my tank. I "cleaned" the plants with a mild hydrogen peroxide/water bath for 20 minutes. The snails just went into the tank,so I hope that I didn't introduce any villainous hitchhikers with them.
I found 2 species of snail, one very common one that looks like a pond snail. It seemed like if you looked at one section of chunk rock, you'd see over a hundred of those snails. The last time that I added snails like those, the darters in my tank hunted down and ate every single snail. This time, they seem to be ignoring the snails altogether. I also added a bunch of ramshorn snails. Maybe the darters will leave those alone because they are a bigger snail.
I got the snails to help with algae control and maybe as an additional food source for the darters. My stoneroller has done a nice job of keeping the tank pretty tidy, and he's getting big. I know he eats a lot of algae because I see him grazing often, and he poops out algae all the time. And, the plants that I had in there took off and I think that has had a huge influence.
I have a green sunfish in the tank as well, but his days are numbered in my tank. He's growing quickly, and seems to be starting to take interest in the minnows, and not in a kind way. It's almost a feeding response. In the past, since I got him, he merely chased fish away from his staked territory. Now, he has that evil eye toward the smaller minnows, dace and shiners. I will donate him to the local aquarium or give him away.
Once again, a fantastic set up. I think your large Greenside will have no problem eating the snails--but that only goes to make it a more complete ecosystem. And, the snails are easily replaceable.
You should be quite pleased with yourself on how well you did with this tank. It has 'public aquarium quality' written all over it. Now, we'd love to see you do it with something 100 gallons or more. You up for that challenge!?!
I do have a project like that, my oyster reef tank build. I just need to get my act in gear and make it happen. My old oyster reef tank was a 20g long. This tank is a 101g cubish tank, 36"x36"x18". I have almost everything that I need to complete the entire project, except I need to have a dedicated electrical line run to my basement for the sump and other equipment. I also need to finish the stand, plumb the tank to the sump, etc. But, I decided to set up a sumpless version of the tank on the unfinished stand. Why? Because I already have most of the fish in QT, and the therapeutic stage of treatment has ended. They are ready for their new home. I may try this weekend to do everything that I can to get the tank up and running.
Sorry for the long absence of info on this tank. I've been out fishing a lot (lately ice fishing). I posted a few notes about the status of the tank in the video and a list of the fish in my tank now.
My plants died back but are not dead. I see new growth on them. Maybe because my water temperature is in the mid 50's? Last week it was as low as 52. Yesterday, it was 55. The tank is in my basement where I don't have heat. I know that in the fall in the river, most of the weeds die off and then come back the following spring. I don't know if this is happening in my tank as well. The problem with that is that when pieces of the plants float around the tank, they clog my filter intake.
The biggest thing that you'll note is the lack of the roots. I pulled them out so I could get to the filter intake to clean it out. The fish love the roots. The river chub loved to hide in there, and the other fish swam through them often, and the darters perched on them as well. But, visually, they grew old on me. They take up way too much space in the tank, making maintenance difficult.
I also wanted to see more of the faux rock wall. So, I pulled them out permanently, at least as they looked before. I sawed them into two pieces, thinking that I'll keep one half on the left side, and one on the right, to provide cover. I also cut out the middle section. I didn't like it anyway, as the short branch looked like ET's hand. I need to trim back some of the roots at the base to get them to fit into the tank better, where I can easily remove them for maintenance and also have them not take up so much room. Then, I have to seal them to keep water out. They were never completely water tight anyway. If the trimming doesn't work or it becomes too cumbersome to fix, I may scrap them and create a couple smaller versions.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy the video. My favorite part is the duels between the feisty male satinfin shiner and the river chub.
Thank you Bruce! I need to make a new video. I thought that I had 3 females and a male. Then, one of the other, what I thought were females, colored up and now I have a duo of males! There is one very fat female, and the last one, I'm not sure about. It's smaller than the others, so we will see when it gets larger.
Time for an update. Sorry for not keeping you all up to date on this tank. This video is a couple weeks old. I will post another video update in a few days showing positive results in my battle with cyanobacterial blooms in the tank. Also, in two weeks, once my newly collected fish complete QT, I will post another exciting update showing the new additions to the display tank. I collected more satinfin shiners and tessellated darters. Also, I have two new species that I'm excited to collect, and will reveal them at that time, so stay tuned! Until then, enjoy the video.
Hi Everyone. Sorry about the previous post. I accidentally deleted that YT video. Well, here's a much more exciting update. I'm so excited about the recent additions to my Potomac River Watershed Biotope Aquarium. My friends Todd and Glenn joined me on a mountain tributary collecting trip and we found beautiful Mountain Redbelly Dace. After two weeks in quarantine, I've added them to the tank. I added more blacknose dace, some of them are beautifully colored up males. In addition, after collecting with Friends Nick, Jen and Dave in another Potomac tributary, I've added tessellated darters and more satinfin shiners. The satinfins are really putting on a show in this video with their spawning antics. Enjoy!
I'm a bit depressed. A fish from my very first collection for this tank, one of my favorites, jumped out when I was doing tank maintenance, and I didn't see it. I noticed that night that he was missing, and sure enough, while checking the floor with my flashlight, to my horror, there he was, all dried up. I thought that I heard something and looked around but didn't see anything, and I regret not having a flashlight available at the time, because I could have saved him. From now on, after each maintenance, I've learned my lesson and will search the floor for jumpers.
The species is one of the most common fish in its range, and, although common, very unique in behavior compared to other dace, the longnose dace (Rhinichthys cataractae). They remind me of the freshwater sharks in the barb family, and also, the way that they roll their eyes like Corydorus catfish do. They have a great personality often schooling with other fish. They're very curious and brave. I originally had three that schooled together, and that was great. They're streamlined, perfect for hugging the bottom in stronger riffle current. I lost two of them when I had my ich outbreak early on. This guy survived until my negligence caught up with me. I'm so bummed.
Here's a short video of him swimming in the current created by my circulation pump, one of his favorite things to do:
I'm a bit depressed. A fish from my very first collection for this tank, one of my favorites, jumped out when I was doing tank maintenance, and I didn't see it. I noticed that night that he was missing, and sure enough, while checking the floor with my flashlight, to my horror, there he was, all dried up. I thought that I heard something and looked around but didn't see anything, and I regret not having a flashlight available at the time, because I could have saved him. From now on, after each maintenance, I've learned my lesson and will search the floor for jumpers.
The species is one of the most common fish in its range, and, although common, very unique in behavior compared to other dace, the longnose dace (Rhinichthys cataractae). They remind me of the freshwater sharks in the barb family, and also, the way that they roll their eyes like Corydorus catfish do. They have a great personality often schooling with other fish. They're very curious and brave. I originally had three that schooled together, and that was great. They're streamlined, perfect for hugging the bottom in stronger riffle current. I lost two of them when I had my ich outbreak early on. This guy survived until my negligence caught up with me. I'm so bummed.
Here's a short video of him swimming in the current created by my circulation pump, one of his favorite things to do:
Been there, done that. Dace are jumpers. Bluntnose minnows are jumpers (especially when a longear is bothering them). I had a blacknose dace 3 years ago and he happened to find that 1/2" gap in the tank canopy in between the HOB filter. He leapt out at some point in the night and I didn't find him until the evening of the next day. I have found a couple of rusty crayfish that way as well. They are great escape artists. Now I keep all gaps and holes in the tank canopy duct taped closed. Haven't had any repeat issues after that.
I held my breath during tank maintenance today (water change + filter cleaning). This time, I wore my headlamp flashlight and kept a close eye on the floor around the tank. No jumpers this time. I did suck a tessellated darter into my siphon. Fortunately, even though he was 2' up into it, I was able to get him out by folding the tubing and letting gravity do the work.
My fish have zero fear. As I vacuum the substrate, they all are right there looking for an easy meal, including my arm hairs. That's what baffled me about my longnose dace. He always did the same thing. I can't figure out why he jumped. He was not the wimpy type. Another collecting trip on the horizon soon though.
Here's the latest update on my Potomac River Biotope Aquarium... I've added some plants and new fish caught two weeks ago, including one longnose dace, four rainbow darters, including 2 females, three greenside darters, and one fantail darter. I gave away a few fish to Todd that I've been actually holding them for him (through QT and then into my display), from our MRBD collecting trip. He got three MRBD and a couple tessellated darters. It was good to thin the herd a little, because Todd, Nick Kinser and I worked hard to collect more fish for our tanks as well as the Glen Echo Park Aquarium (GEPA). I have a few more longnose dace, a common shiner, and a couple central stonerollers in quarantine that I will add to the DT in about 10 days. We brought sculpins, darters, one tiny sunfish and stonerollers to GEPA. It was a good trip. The one species that eluded us was the margined madtom. I caught one a couple weeks ago, but this time, none. There is another creek that I'll try that looks like it has a better population of them. 2 weeks ago, I must have caught a straggler. We have a great spot. Riffles with flat rocks that hold hellgrammites, crayfish, darters and sculpins should also have madtoms, right? We also tried shallows, backwater eddies, shoreline holes and eddies. Nick also gave me some Valisneria for my tank, so I added it and added some plant food. Anyway, I hope y'all enjoy the video.
Thank you Chris and Nick. I recently collected some really cool rocks from the upper Monocacy and Marsh Creek that will go well stacked on that slate/shale. I just need to wash them off and put them in the tank.
Also, I have a mystery snail that I added, because it was big and the darters probably wouldn't eat it, and I thought it would help with algae control. It lives but doesn't open up or move much at all. It opens up sometimes but not often. I saw it once on the glass, but has since moved to under a rock. Maybe it's old and about to die? Anyone see this before?
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