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The North American Native Fish Community Tank !
Robert Rice
email roberterice at juno_com
A great many folks out there have a wonderful idea. If I
could stock my tank with local species I could save a few
bucks and learn about the local flora and fauna at the same
time. Then I could spread the word all over town about
how these fish are pretty and cool ! Alas, most folks don't
know where to start , so they do not start at all! This
article ( I hope) will motivate you the readers of TFH to
think a bit about doing the N.A. native thing. It is fun,
easy, and a good way to help your community. You see folks
who collect are usually the first to discover pollution
and other local environmental problems (the "it stinks the
most when it is in your house" theory). Then you factor in
the general absence of most local species' life history ,
and the lack of public awareness of even our most common
non- game species and you can see how aquarists can help
with the dirty work. However, to help, you must consider
your hobby a bit more than a form of live TV. You must
consider your hobby a form of nature study. Many of us do,
we just need your help to get the word out and the job done.
We should let the local authorities know aquarists count.
Please join a conservation organization , it will make a
tremendous difference.
To start off you must begin to observe the things in nature
if you are to successfully create a N.A. Native
community tank (what fishes school together , live
together ,eat together and die together). With just a bit
of observation you will see that in all parts of the
country there are species that make a great community
tank. I live in North Florida and have created several
biotype tanks for local schools and nature centers. It is
just as easy to do for the home aquarium. First we must
understand the environment in which our future tank
inhabitants live. If the water is tannic and soft, or clear
and hard we must adapt our plans and tank setup
accordingly. It is much easier for us to change our tank
setup than it is to change the basic nature of our fish.
A water sample and a temperature check will yield the basic
information that you need. If you are replicating a local
pond it is relatively simple. A substrate of 6 inches of
medium gravel and a simple box power filter and a hood light
should be all you will need. Heaters and powerheads are
unnecessary. Just set it up like a typical generic setup
with some cover and a few live plants and you are in
business. Fishes that would typically do well in such a
setup would be killies of all types, the smaller sunfishes
you know such as orangespot sunnies, longears pumpkinseed,
most of the catfish family including the madtoms and a few
of the tougher shiners like the golden shiner, red shiner
(AKA the Asiatic fire barb) and fathead minnow (AKA tuffies,
goldies or some other cute trade name). With this type of
diversity available you should have a tank that is busy on
all levels. Now when it comes to dinnertime most natives can
be induced to eat prepared food. However I recommend a
mixed diet of frozen, prepared and fresh when available.
Your pond tank will need a nice mix.
The second most popular setup is the stream or riffle tank.
This easy -to- make setup is perfect for darters, sculpins
and many of the shiners. Darters and shiners are some of
the most stunningly beautiful fish you will ever come
across. They are truly the hidden jewels of our North
American fauna. When I build a riffle tank I seldom use
gravel. Instead a use egg sized stones I collect from
various sites and pile them in cave like formations at one
end of the tank. I then let the outflow of the box filter
pour down onto those rocks creating eddies and riffles that
these fish love so much. I also will set a stand -alone
small pump on the opposite end of the tank aimed at the
middle of those rocks. I prefer Aquarium Systems micro
Jet but there are others out there. I mix in several small
clay pots and I am in business. When setting up a riffle
tank make sure that your location does not get above 75
degrees for extended periods of time as it will stress
and can kill your specimens. A basement is just about
perfect. For lunch you are going to have to feed frozen
bloodworms and live worms, or , shrimp if you can get
them. Be forewarned, sculpins are serious chow hounds, so
you might want to feed them redworms in addition to the
other feedings or they may eat their neighbors.
One of the simplest and least expensive setups is what I
call the ditch tank. I do not mean this in a demeaning way,
I just find that it is the perfect setup for those small
fish and insects my daughter and me find in local ditches.
I simply take a small tank with no gravel and add as much
floating vegetation as I can get. I prefer Java Moss , Water
Sprite or Nitella flexis ( AKA needle grass), a hood, and
an air stone and that is it. I do a 10-20% water change
once a week or so removing the debris off the bottom. This
set up is perfect for species like the Pygmy Sunfishes,
Heterandria formosa and small killies like Leptolucania
ommatta. I keep several "ditch tanks" in my garage with
temperatures in the upper 80's and have no ill effects. The
key to this set up is to only feed live or frozen foods
about 1X a week and do regular small water changes. I have
had so many colonies of ditch fish set up over the years I
can't recall them all. However, every one has had a
healthy, self -sustaining population with little or no
work. I highly recommend a ditch tank for your home or
school. Watching those Everglades pygmy sunfish males in
full color displaying for a female still gives me thrill.
Their velvety blackness with iridescent blue spots it as
good as it gets. I have even raised Blackbanded and
Bluespot sunfish in my "ditch tanks" so I highly recommend a
"ditch tank" .
The last and very popular setup is the super predator single
fish single species tank. Typically these setups are used
for Bass, Bluegill, Gars, Pickerel , Catfishes, Bowfin and
the like. The sportfishermen will often times love their
quarry so much that they set up a home aquarium as a further
way to study and enjoy their adversary. For this setup the
only real concern is keeping the fish in the tank (imagine
if a Gar struck at an errently placed child's finger),
enough filtration to cover for their messy eating habits,
and durable decorating materials. An Aquaclear 300 or
similar type of filter and a 40 Gallon tank with a deep
gravel bed are my minimum recommendations. These
monsters will sit for hours still and quite then suddenly
leap into action when a prey species is detected. This makes
for a very exciting tank. Most of the time visits to the
local bait shop are necessary to keep these beasts happy
and full. A great tank indeed.
A N.A. native species tank sound good, doesn't it ? Now,
before you run out there with a net or fishing pole, do a
little homework. Check on the various legalities and
limitations with you local fisheries department. You might
also want to check into the excellent book, Peterson's
Field Guide to Freshwater Fishes by Larry Page and Brooks
M Burr. You will also want to check into the Native Fish
Conservancy , an aquarist friendly non- profit conservation
organization www.nativefish.org
I can be reached at robertrice at juno_com
. Until next time
good luck and good fishing.
Robert Rice
It's official all Native Fish are now Y2K compliant check it out at
http://www.nativefish.org