Display Tank

I showed my native tank to my dad, who's a veterinarian, and he asked me to set up a tank for him at his veterinary hospital. He said I could come by every few weeks to take care of the routine maintenance. Now, I've been perusing the photo thread for ideas, but I wanted to some input from you guys... assuming that dumping thawed bloodworms into the tank is about the maximum level of expertise I can expect from anyone up there, and that any complicated tank maintenance would have to be done by me when I could get up there, what would you recommend?

I wanted my next tank project to be a stream setup, but it will be my first one, so maybe the tank for my dad's lobby wouldn't be the best place to experiment. What do you think?

Just a few thoughts:

Check with the law first.

Get the biggest tank you can afford, and go for height and length over depth; public spaces need big displays.

Next priority: filtration. Get the biggest and best filtration system you can afford, with lots of filter space. A sump setup is probably the best thing for a big tank; failing that, get canisters.

If you want live plants, lighting will be important too. Get a rough budget estimate before you start planning too much.

Beyond that, it will depend on what you want to keep in the tank. Do you have any preferences? Smaller community fish vs. big predators, etc?

Just a few thoughts:

Check with the law first.

Get the biggest tank you can afford, and go for height and length over depth; public spaces need big displays.

Next priority: filtration. Get the biggest and best filtration system you can afford, with lots of filter space. A sump setup is probably the best thing for a big tank; failing that, get canisters.

If you want live plants, lighting will be important too. Get a rough budget estimate before you start planning too much.

Beyond that, it will depend on what you want to keep in the tank. Do you have any preferences? Smaller community fish vs. big predators, etc?

Yeah, I'm planning on erring on the side of "over" filtration.

As for the types of fish, I'm thinking to stay away from large predators. Knowing my dad, he likes to wax pedantic and would probably enjoy talking to clients about the tank residents... hell, everyone's seen largemouth bass, but most people haven't ever seen orangethroat darters (or whatever other small fish). I'd prefer to set up a tank populated with nothing larger than, say, dollar sunfish.

Cool. Do you want specifically local natives, or a more general North American native theme?

Cool. Do you want specifically local natives, or a more general North American native theme?

Probably local. I'd like to collect all the specimens myself.

Do you have a copy of 'Freshwater Fishes of Texas'? If not, you should invest in one. It'll help a lot with finding out what species are around you as well as understanding their basic biology, which will help you decide which species to keep.

Do you have a copy of 'Freshwater Fishes of Texas'? If not, you should invest in one. It'll help a lot with finding out what species are around you as well as understanding their basic biology, which will help you decide which species to keep.

Yeah, I was just looking for general ideas, at this point. What people have found gets the best responses in terms of public tanks.

Ah. I don't know about that; there are some people who respond best to big fish, but frankly unless you have a giant zoo-style tank that you can keep a bunch of big fish in, they're fairly boring (in my opinion, of course). Community tanks on the other hand seem to be more soothing, which might be nice for a waiting room environment.

The display tank I'm setting up is mainly a mix of moderate-sized sunfish and large minnows, which I think provides the best of both worlds- color and movement along with some impressive predators. Of course, leaving out the sunnies will expand your options as far as smaller minnows and darters.

From a standpoint of combining low maintenance and high activity, I always head the same direction. Smaller topminnows/killifish for the top, smaller minnows for all ranges (I think SRBD are the perfect display fish, always in color and zero maintenance), then darter(s) for the bottom. Since the tank will probably be on the warm side, I would consider a small Percina darter since they look great even when not is spawning mode. You can always mix a number of compatible minnows and you could probably get a away with a tadpole madtom.

I think this would captivate the waiting customers and provide a great amount of conversation about the inhabitants.

I love my logperch and blackside darters. They aren't colorful, but they are handsome fish, and they more than make up for their lack of color in personality. They are active and inquisitive. I put a couple of marbles in the tank which the logperch move around. They are just neat fish that most people haven't seen.

From a standpoint of combining low maintenance and high activity, I always head the same direction. Smaller topminnows/killifish for the top, smaller minnows for all ranges (I think SRBD are the perfect display fish, always in color and zero maintenance), then darter(s) for the bottom. Since the tank will probably be on the warm side, I would consider a small Percina darter since they look great even when not is spawning mode. You can always mix a number of compatible minnows and you could probably get a away with a tadpole madtom.

I think this would captivate the waiting customers and provide a great amount of conversation about the inhabitants.

What is SRBD?

What is SRBD?

Southern redbellied dace

Southern redbellied dace

Ah. Well, checking Natureserve, there don't appear to be any of those in Texas.

If you are only interested in natives...I could see a dollar sunfish/sailfin molly tank doing pretty well. if you keep the filtration etc. going real good you should be able to raise some outstanding specimens that will be admired even by people who raise mollies themselves(seldom do petstore mollies develop good finnage). You'll need fish out in the open doing interesting stuff, and mollies circling eachother with their sails beating in the wind fills the bill nicely.

Not too sure what part of texas you are located in but a mangrove setup with mollies, topminnows(Fundulus would be easiest to find, and you'd want the smaller species), and maybe gobies of some sort.

Are Texas cichlids anywhere nearby you?

Edited by critterguy, 02 October 2008 - 04:29 PM.

If you are only interested in natives...I could see a dollar sunfish/sailfin molly tank doing pretty well. if you keep the filtration etc. going real good you should be able to raise some outstanding specimens that will be admired even by people who raise mollies themselves(seldom do petstore mollies develop good finnage). You'll need fish out in the open doing interesting stuff, and mollies circling eachother with their sails beating in the wind fills the bill nicely.

Not too sure what part of texas you are located in but a mangrove setup with mollies, topminnows(Fundulus would be easiest to find, and you'd want the smaller species), and maybe gobies of some sort.

Are Texas cichlids anywhere nearby you?

I live in North Texas (D/FW). I live on Lake Worth, which is an impoundment of the Trinity River. So, no mangroves near me. There are some interesting shiner and darter species in my immediate area, and L. Humilis (according to Natureserve) is in several rivers around me, as well as dollars. I've never come across Texas cichlids (except in LFS), so I don't think they're near me.