[Stocking suggestions]

I'm planning my new setup and would love your thoughts on species of fish.

It'll be a 26 gallon (100 liters) 2,6 feet long (80 cm), hang on back filter, no lid and heavily planted! It'll have a lot of plants both submerged and emerged. I'd like species that can live in room temperature. I'll have a heater, but in case of a few hours blackout during winter I'd like them to be able to survive if I only can rely on the wood stove to keep the house warm. I also want the tank to eventually require low maintanance with just small water changes so I can water some house plants with the tank water but not much more than that, like an ecosystem tank. So I don't want to overstock.

I've wanted to have Rainbow Shiners for a long time now, so I'm planning on keeping 10 of those. Are they shrimp safe (like cherry shrimp)? It's okay if they eat some baby shrimp to keep the population down but I don't want them to harass the adults. Do you think the shiners will jump out of the tank?

I'd also love to have a wet pet, and was wondering if a vampire shrimp (the big blue ones) could be a good choice? 

6 corydoras would also be fun. But here I'm starting to worry if it'll be overstocked if I want to have a low maintanance tank? If it's okay, is there something else I could have in the tank that you could recommend? I was at first planning on nano fish, but I can't resist the shiners so... 🙈

What are your thoughts? I'd really love some feedback! 🥰

[Largest size of tank with only sponge filters?]

9 minutes ago, lefty o said:

 how many shrimp fish etc, and any plants. these will affect how much filtration will be needed. im not a sponge filter person, but i would imagine 1 large sponge filter in each back corner, would handle a moderately stocked 75gal

I don't really know, I would love a two or three fancy goldfish but they'll destroy the plants so I guess that's a no 😂 I don't like to overstock aquariums so whatever I choose, it won't be a high bio load 😁

75gal sounds nice! 😀 Have you any experience with hang on back? I've never tried those either, but they seems to be popular in the US 🤔

[Largest size of tank with only sponge filters?]

I would live to get a big tank, but I would like to avoid a canister filter. I want to keep it really simple, like a couole of sponge filters/airstones. How big can the tank be for that to work?

There will be a lot of live plants, but I don't know what type of fish I'll keep. I guess it depends on the size of the tank 😁

What do you think? Liters/gallons? What is the largest tank you've had or have with only sponge filters? If I try this, is there something special I need to think about? I've always just had canister filters or internal filters.

Thank you in advance! 😁🙏

[Rainbow shiners, jumpers?]

Thank you so much everyone! 😀🙏 I'll look at the videos when I get home. I have a feeling that this will be an awesome tank. I've never had either white clouds or shrimps before so it'll be exciting 😀

[Rainbow shiners, jumpers?]

21 minutes ago, Streetwise said:

If you get into summer tubbing, those White Clouds can go outside unheated too! I love them.

Nice! 😀 Maby I'll try that!

Are white clouds okay with shrimps?

[Rainbow shiners, jumpers?]

17 minutes ago, Randy said:

+1 for white clouds.  Such an underrated fish.

 

7 minutes ago, MAC said:

I'm going to agree with Randy here. I am also a huge fan of white clouds. They won't disappoint!

Well, then it's decided! I trust you guys. Have been curious about them for a while now, I feel it's time to give them a chance 😀

I'll post some pics when the tank is up and running with the white clouds 😀

[Rainbow shiners, jumpers?]

12 hours ago, WhitecloudDynasty said:

Just males is fine, guppy will jump before white cloud will

Okay, thank you for your time! 😀

[Rainbow shiners, jumpers?]

14 hours ago, WhitecloudDynasty said:

Should be fine, I raise my down to 60, they are still actively eating and swimming but breeding does slow down

Oh really? 😀 Maby I should try then. Is it okay to just keep males?

14 hours ago, Colu said:

You could keep  white clouds at  that  temp

Not a bad idea 😀 They look beautiful! I'll read about them and think about it. Do you know if they jump?

[Rainbow shiners, jumpers?]

1 hour ago, Colu said:

Endlers like 78-80 and guppy like 72-78

Then it'll probably be too cold for them, 72°F is 22°C. I'll have around 64,4°F (18°C) sometimes in the winter 😬 Hm, gonna have to think about this 😁

[Rainbow shiners, jumpers?]

On 1/2/2021 at 1:27 AM, Colu said:

 rainbow shiners get 3in  i think you be better going something smaller in a ten gallon like endlers or small tetras

Thank you! I recently realized that I was mixing up a couple of fish. I imagined that the rainbows were smaller and I also imagined that the galaxy rasbora liked colder water 🙈So I absolutely have to rethink 🤔 Can guppies and endlers handle colder water? About 18°C? It's around 22-24 in the bathroom in the summer but in the winter it can drop down to 18 if I don't leave the radiator on 😬

[Rainbow shiners, jumpers?]

4 hours ago, Dancing Matt said:

@WhitecloudDynasty could probably tell you. A word of caution. Be careful what you spray to clean your bathroom. I have accidently killed fish cleaning with a bleach based solution in the vicinity of a no-top tank. 

Thank you! I'll keep that in mind when cleaning, to perhaps spray on the cloth away from the tank instead of directly on the surfaces next to the tank 😁

3 hours ago, WhitecloudDynasty said:

They won't normally jump out, the only time I seen them jump was when I lower the water lv down to 2inch and was adding water to it.

I sure your setup should be fine for the rainbow shiner

Thank you for your answer! That sounds promising 😀

[Rainbow shiners, jumpers?]

Hello nerms!

I'm starting a shallow open top tank in my bathroom. It'll have a lot of live plants, both submerged, emerged and floating. An aquascape, aiming for low maintainance. It'll be a 10 gallon/40 liter tank, no heater only room temperature. Will have a filter, will also have the surface an inch or so below the edge. My first thought was to not have any fish in it, but hey, fish are always more fun if it's possible! I can't stop thinking about these rainbow shiners. SO BEAUTIFUL! 😌

Do you guys think that it would be possible to have some of them in this tank? Or are they jumpers?

If they are'nt a good choice, would Galaxy rasbora, shrimps or snails work? Some kind of algae eater? Something else that would work and thrive in it? 

Thank you, and happy new year! 😁🎉

[Outdoor pond without filtration]

12 minutes ago, Ryan S. said:

I hope you share some pics when you dig out your pond!  

Absolutley, I will! 😀

1 minute ago, Streetwise said:

@LillyBlomqvist, I documented my tubs on YouTube last summer to escape the loneliness of 2020. This is my first video:

Learning from it, I would not cut the Amazon Sword, and I would make sure that wood or rocks allowed mice to escape the water.

Thank you, I'll watch your videos 😀 Good thing you mentioned the mice, I never thought of that. I'll make sure to have something to help them out of the water 😁

[Outdoor pond without filtration]

8 minutes ago, Ryan S. said:

Good question.  Koi get huge but it might take them a year or 3 to get large and while I do have experience with them, I did use filtration in my koi pond so it's not a direct comparison.  I'm not sure on size to recommend, just that it needs to be large.  The smaller it is, the harder the setup will be to manage without filtration and water changes.  I would say if the plants are thriving and growing, you could then add fish and it should take care of any initial water issues.  Just add fish gradually not all at once.  

Thank you for your help! 😀 I'll dig a really big and deep pond in the spring and add just a few small kois when I feel like the pond is in balance.

4 minutes ago, Streetwise said:

I didn’t use filtration in my White Cloud and shrimp tubs, but I used a lot of plants.

Nice! 😀 It feels like there is hope for this idea. I'll make sure to get a lot of plants. Thank you!

Also, a off topic question 🙈 I've watched tons of videos for a while now but joined the forum today, and I don't understand how to upload a profile picture? 🤔

[Outdoor pond without filtration]

22 minutes ago, Ryan S. said:

I definitely think it's possible if the pond is big enough and planted well enough.  I ran a heavily stocked and planted small pond with just air and that wasnt on all the time. 

 

I think the big thing will be to make sure the pond is established enough to handle the bio load when the fish go in.  

By the way, your language use was great!

 

 

Thank you! Nice to hear that it worked out for you and that it should work for me too! 😀 Do you have any idea how big the pond should be to pull this off? Any "liters/gallons per fish" suggestion or something? Or how long I should wait before adding the first fish? A few weeks, months or maby a full year?

Thank you very much! 😀

[Outdoor pond without filtration]

I've never had a pond and english is my second language so bear with me 😆

Is it possible for fish like koi or goldfish to thrive in a big outdoor pond if I don't have any filtration? I've heard that mussels can clean the water really good, I would also have live plants to help keeping good water quality, and there would of course be some water changes because of evaporation.

Is this a good idea or should I just stick to aquariums? Is it possible to get a good water quality this way? I live in northern Sweden and we have +30°C (86°F) in the summer and -30°C (-22°F) in the winter. I don't just want the fish to survive, I want them to thrive 😁