10 replies to this topic

[leaqua]

*Hello everyone !

 

As said in my presentation post, I just move from France to Québec and in the same time became really interested in native fishes. One of my favourite family is definitely the darters. There's a lot of Johnny darter (Etheostoma nigrum) in the river where I live,  and I decided to start a tank for them. My goal is to conceive the tank to please them first (and maybe, if I'm lucky, breed them). They may have tankmates or not, I'm not sure yet (maybe a small school of Fundulus diaphanus, are I found them in large number in the same place as the J.D.).

 

As I'm a student, I have two main constraint : place and money. I found a second-hand shallow tank   and thought it'll be perfect for darters as it optimize the floor area. I also bought a used Fluval 106 to have a good waterflow. I had some filter media from an old tank of mine which has been running for a year to "boost" the nitrogen cycle. The sand is a sandbox one (free of pollutants), so much cheaper than fish tank gravel and really looks like river sand (and already washed !). I add a simple LED bar (640 lumens, 3000K) that should be alright for the few plants I'm gonna have. All rocks, wood and plants come from the river.

 

So, here it is, just after setup (still cloudy):

L*w*h = 78*29*24cm = 31* 11.4* 9.4 in

About 54L or 14Gal.

 

 

I tried to replicate the biotope where I found JD here : a sandy river bottom with a lots of dark schist-like rocks of different size. I used the rocks to create 4 caves. I often found them next to the river bank, and so I tried to mimic it with the wood and some plants. To date I only have a few but I will add more.

 

Time for questions !

- How many JD could I keep in there ?

- If I want to breed them, should I leave them alone or could I had some tank mates ? If tank mates, which one ? (Next to my place I already found some Fundulus diaphanus and small minnows).

- Do you have any suggestion to improve the setup ? More rocks / caves ?

 

I look forward to have your comments and advice !

 

PS : I'm used to wait, and as it's almost winter here fishes will probably arrived only in a few month !

Edited by leaqua, 24 October 2019 - 09:40 AM.

[Michael Wolfe]

your set up looks great.  I think you could keep 6-8 darters in that 31 x 11 footprint, but you might need a few more caves on the other side of the tank.  If you really want to see the Johnny darters breed, I would no add tankmates... except maybe snails as you will have to feed plenty to get them into condition and darters do not really compete well with other fish for food falling from the top.

[leaqua]

Thanks for your answer !

Food competition with possible tankmates was indeed one of my fear. I think I'm gonna stick with a darter's only tank.

I recently discover there's others species of Percidae close to where I live : the channel darter (Percina copelandi), and the common logperch (Percina caprodes). As the first one is imperiled in Canada, harvest some is out of the question. But if I manage to catch some common logperch, could I mix them with Johnny darters ? I suppose their similar behaviour should limit food competition ?

Anyway, I'm right in the nitrites peak, so I have plenty of time to improve the hardscape and think about my future population.

 

Meanwhile, a clearer view of the tank:

 

And the first inhabitants:

 

 

Edited by leaqua, 28 October 2019 - 05:07 PM.

[Michael Wolfe]

Logperch are great aquarium fish. They get bigger but have great behaviors to observe (using the long snout to flip stones is a sight to see). I highly recommend them.

[JasonL]

I keep a 4-5 inch common logperch with a variety of smaller darters without issues. For some reason, I've never had much luck with Johnny darters or their cousin Bluntnose darters. Not sure why.

I will be curious to see what becomes of your snail population. Several of my darters seem to have an affinity for them.

[leaqua]

Hello,

Spring is finally here in Quebec (or almost here, it still snows from time to time...), the streams are accessible again and I was able to go fishing again. A good opportunity to give news of this tank!
I took advantage of the winter to add rocks and caves, as well as gravel on the ground to be closer to the biotope in which I find Johny darters here. The plants are growing slowly (very slowly ), and the algae are starting to give a nice patina to the aquascape.
And above all, the inhabitants are starting to arrive! To date I have three Johny darters waiting in quarantine. I keep looking for others (or logperches), I hope to find some quickly and to be able to introduce them more or less at the same time to limit territoriality at the beginning.

 

Really looking forward to see a darter colony in this setup!

Do you have any advices, remarks? Should I add more caves?

 

Front view :

 

Side view :

Edited by leaqua, 09 May 2020 - 10:02 PM.

[Matt DeLaVega]

Johnny darters are common in sandy areas. I think your cover is more than adequate. Nice

[Josh Blaylock]

Johnny darters are common in sandy areas. I think your cover is more than adequate. Nice

 

I agree with DLV.  Also, I'm not sure quarantine is necessary.  You had an empty tank and collected wild fish.  The tank itself would be the QT tank? No?

[leaqua]

Thank you for your feedback!

In fact I already had a johnny darter in the aquarium (caught earlier), hence the quarantine. And I didn't catch them all in one place. It's true that my message wasn't very clear ^^

 

I caught another one yesterday, so I should have a group of four. I'll see if I can find some logperch (I've already seen some around here) to have a group of each, otherwise it'll be a just a colony of Johnny darter.

[Josh Blaylock]

I would suggest adding some native shiners/minnows.  Your darters will blend in with the substrate and from a distance, it'll seem like an empty tank.

[Fleendar the Magnificent]

Very late coming into this discussion, but....

Darters are great fish, but they're benthic fish which means bottom-dwellers. They have no air bladder unlike most other fish. So they remain on the bottom. Add other types of mid-column types of fish that will inhabit the upper areas of your tank to fill in and give you show and movement.