Hi i have a 55 gallon tank and I want to stock it with native fish. As of right now I have 4 darters in the tank but I dont know what species they are. I also have 1 crawdad. Thanks.
What should I get for 55 gallon native tank.
Started by
Gavin Chalmers
, Sep 15 2018 06:04 PM
19 replies to this topic
#4
Michael Wolfe
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- Board of Directors
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- North Georgia, Oconee River Drainage
Posted 15 September 2018 - 08:37 PM
Im trying to imply that it will eat your darters. I have had bad experiences with crayfish and strongly recommend against including them in aquaria.
Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. - Benjamin Franklin
#11
mattknepley
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- NANFA Member
- Smack-dab between the Savannah and the Saluda.
Posted 17 September 2018 - 04:58 PM
Littlen is teasing that it is impossible to think anything could be better at anything than a darter. Except maybe for a lame Redline Darter. Those things are useless...
(More teasing. Redlines are Littlen's favorite.)
As for my experience, I kept crays with my fish without concern. Then I found half of my best Christmas darter with a gash a good ways through it. Never found the other half. I no longer mix crays and any fish I am partial to. That said, they are pretty dang cool critters and I can see having a couple small cray only tanks...
(More teasing. Redlines are Littlen's favorite.)
As for my experience, I kept crays with my fish without concern. Then I found half of my best Christmas darter with a gash a good ways through it. Never found the other half. I no longer mix crays and any fish I am partial to. That said, they are pretty dang cool critters and I can see having a couple small cray only tanks...
Matt Knepley
"No thanks, a third of a gopher would merely arouse my appetite..."
"No thanks, a third of a gopher would merely arouse my appetite..."
#12
Gavin Chalmers
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- NANFA Guest
- Northwest Arkansas
Posted 17 September 2018 - 05:01 PM
Littlen is teasing that it is impossible to think anything could be better at anything than a darter. Except maybe for a lame Redline Darter. Those things are useless...(More teasing. Redlines are Littlen's favorite.)As for my experience, I kept crays with my fish without concern. Then I found half of my best Christmas darter with a gash a good ways through it. Never found the other half. I no longer mix crays and any fish I am partial to. That said, they are pretty dang cool critters and I can see having a couple small cray only tanks...
Oh, yeah I guess I’ll take the crawdad out when I get home. Any suggestions on what other fish I should add to the tank.
And also how many darters would I be able to put in a 55 gallon without aggression.
#13
littlen
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- NANFA Member
- Washington, D.C.
Posted 18 September 2018 - 07:54 AM
Littlen is teasing that it is impossible to think anything could be better at anything than a darter. Except maybe for a lame Redline Darter. Those things are useless...
You broke my heart, Fraedo. You broke my heart.
To contribute useful info to the post, I too have kept inverts and fish together. Those with claws usually win out if kept with small fish. If they are easily replaceable (which a Redline should NEVER be thought of as!) then keep your community as you wish. After all, that's part of the food chain in the creeks where you're catching the animals. Have fun with it. Post a picture of your tank if you'd like.
Nick L.
#14
Josh Blaylock
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- Board of Directors
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- Central Kentucky
Posted 18 September 2018 - 03:54 PM
I don't want to be that stick in the mud, but it's never a good idea to bring home fish you cannot properly identify.
Grab a Peterson's Field Guide, 2nd ed, used from Amazon, it's a great help. Also, you can narrow down your fish's identity by visiting fishmap.org
Josh Blaylock - Central KY
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#17
mattknepley
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- NANFA Member
- Smack-dab between the Savannah and the Saluda.
Posted 20 September 2018 - 04:20 PM
I have kept Blackbandeds and Bluespots together just fine. Dollars have a reputation for being nasty to, well, everything.
Matt Knepley
"No thanks, a third of a gopher would merely arouse my appetite..."
"No thanks, a third of a gopher would merely arouse my appetite..."
#18
littlen
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- NANFA Member
- Washington, D.C.
Posted 21 September 2018 - 06:58 AM
The two most common set ups for that size tank are:
1-community tank with local shiners & darters.
2-'community' tank with Lepomis species. I use the term lightly because you will be able to keep just a few in a 55-especially for some of the larger species. Dollars may not be the best bet. I tried to keep 5-6 in a 150 long ago with heavy tank decor and they still hammered each other. Now, loading that many into a smaller tank could possibly reduce some aggressive tendencies (think, African cichlids) but that's not very natural IMO. And that is what a lot of the native fish keepers are going for, right?
Nick L.
#19
Fleendar the Magnificent
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- NANFA Guest
- Ohio
Posted 16 November 2018 - 02:19 PM
So far, I have been lucky with my tank setup and the species I have in there. I have 15 darters, 4 of which are rainbows, 1 fantail and 10 banded darters, a western blacknosed dace, 2 stonerollers, what I think is a bullhead minnow, 2 green sunfish, a stonecat madtom catfish and 4 rusty crayfish. So far I have lost no darters to the craws, green sunnies or madtom, but I also keep feeder guppies or small rosies in there to keep the bigger fish fed and I feed a mix of blood worms and Mysis shrimp twice a day to keep the rest sated as well. I've gone through over 50 feeders in a week and it seems like it keeps them occupied and away from the darters. However, as the sunnies get bigger I will probably have to remove them from the tank. Right now they're 2" and 3" respectively and still relatively small.
Lastly, keep good cover in your tank for the crays and darters. I have lots of larger river rocks and some branches placed in my tank to give them lots of holes to hide in and under and to try to resemble the river habitat. Right now, the most aggressive critter in the tank is my testosterone blasted western blacknose dace. He chases everything but the sunnies and the madtom.
#20
rcb
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- NANFA Guest
- Indiana
Posted 20 November 2018 - 08:49 AM
I am new and have had good luck with my darters and crawdads together so far. However I have a lot of large flat rocks and restricted spaces. Our crawdads are small. There are a lot I'd like to have, like sculpins, hogsuckers, madtoms, bluegill but darters are our favorites and get prime consideration... even with the crawdads. We keep everything well fed though. On the new tank setup I am creating a hidden division to keep the crawdads/crayfish separated. I am not good enough to identify the crayfish so they are just crawdads as far as I am concerned.
They eat bloodworms readily, except the johnny darter. The crawdads love snails though. Good grief do they love snails. I'm going to start a native snail tank for fodder for future greensides but I'm not sure if I could raise enough to compensate for the crawdads. The kids love them though. We've had several moltings which are always exciting.
Edited by rcb, 20 November 2018 - 08:52 AM.
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