Kirsten Posted April 7, 2021 Share Posted April 7, 2021 I saw some rainbow shiners for sale online recently and wow are they beautiful! It got me thinking about what to put in a North American tank, if I could find space for it. Since I live in New England, aren't too many aquarium-size species out here to collect. I'd probably have to take a trip down south, or just pay someone who lives there or breeds them. And while I'd love to start a pond instead for native species, I probably couldn't do it year round. But what would you put in your perfect North American tank? How big would it be? What plants would you include? Any inverts? 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fish Folk Posted April 7, 2021 Share Posted April 7, 2021 I’ve got a 29 gal. North American natives tank. For filtration, an Emperor 280 HOB and sponge filter. Eco complete for substrate. Plants are Bronze crypt, Valisneria Americana, and a few melon swords (it’s not trying to be a “biotope” per say). Hardscape is half a dozen large Mexican beach pebbles, 12 or so smooth landscaping pebbles, and an aged piece of mopani wood. Fish stocking is (1) a pair of rainbow darters for the bottom (2) ca. 30x rainbow shiners (3) a single pair of Florida Flagfish as “centerpiece” fish. It is by far my favorite of our... 20 tanks. 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fish Folk Posted April 7, 2021 Share Posted April 7, 2021 Here’s photos of the Flaggies... Females have a black spot on the back of their dorsal fin They’re a proper greenish fish! 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brandy Posted April 7, 2021 Share Posted April 7, 2021 I think I would want a stream tank set up with trout and crayfish. I know that is incredibly impractical. It would need to be huge, and refrigerated. But those are the freshwater fish I would want. The only way I would do a salt tank ever would be if I could do a PNW tidal tank. we have INCREDIBLY beautiful invertebrates here, and the rock fish are also pretty spectacular. Again, needing to keep it cold enough would be the issue. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DShelton Posted April 7, 2021 Share Posted April 7, 2021 For livestock (Just the US) Gambusia holbrooki (eastern mosquitofish) - I saw some of these on aquabid that are b&w spotted (possibly het melanistic) Elassoma okefenokee - Okefenokee Pygmy Sunfish Palaemonetes paludosus - American Ghost/Glass Shrimp Scuds Including Mexico as well, any of the Goodeids: Ameca splendens or Limia perugia For plants the sky is the limit: Ceratophyllum echinatum Ludwigia Bacopa caroliniana Cabomba caroliniana Echinodorus barteri, Echinodorus cordifolius Echinodorus tenellus Sagittaria kurziana Vallisneria americana Nymphoides aquatica 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nordlys Fish Room Posted April 7, 2021 Share Posted April 7, 2021 My Reddit account is just fish pictures and I keep many different natives. If you want to see a couple generic setups, I’ve linked the account https://www.reddit.com/user/1uninterested/submitted/ Shiners/dace are usually pretty easy and there are tons of colorful species. They usually keep well with the smaller native killifish, Enneacanthus sunfish, and the two small Lepomis sunfish species (dollar / orangespotted). Darters are also awesome but are sometimes challenging to feed in a community tank. If you wanted to do a New England themed tank, I believe banded sunfish, a couple native killifish (banded and blackline) and swamp darters are local to the area. There’s no doubt a New England local out there somewhere who could tell you a lot more than I could. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fish Folk Posted April 7, 2021 Share Posted April 7, 2021 15 minutes ago, DShelton said: Gambusia holbrooki (eastern mosquitofish) - I saw some of these on aquabid that are b&w spotted (possibly het melanistic) Enjoy... 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kirsten Posted April 7, 2021 Author Share Posted April 7, 2021 26 minutes ago, Nordlys Fish Room said: If you wanted to do a New England themed tank, I believe banded sunfish, a couple native killifish (banded and blackline) and swamp darters are local to the area. There’s no doubt a New England local out there somewhere who could tell you a lot more than I could. Whoaaa cool, I gotta look those up! Thanks for the tip! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lefty o Posted April 8, 2021 Share Posted April 8, 2021 so many choices with a n american tank, limited only by size and imagination. for smaller aquariums there are tons of minnows, shiners, creek chubs, darters, dwarf sunfish etc. large aquariums have vast options, all the smaller ones plus all the game fish, panfish, perch, bass, walleye, trout. for those with swimming pools, the biggies, gar, sturgeon, muskie, northern pike etc. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DShelton Posted April 8, 2021 Share Posted April 8, 2021 I went to undergraduate at a small university in SW Texas down by Big Bend National Park. I worked in the labs of a couple of different professors. One of which was a vertebrate biologist. I had the privilege of field work on several of the mosquitofishes (G. gagei and G. alvarezi, and G. nobilis). Those fishes and the herps (colubrids and crotalids) are pretty special to me. The mosquitofish are (and were then) endangered and not available to the trade, but G. affinis and G. holbrooki are still good choices. The het melanistic G. holbrooki look like this (image from seller on Aquabid): 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fish Folk Posted April 8, 2021 Share Posted April 8, 2021 Elassoma Okefenokee... 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric R Posted April 8, 2021 Share Posted April 8, 2021 (edited) I personally think darters are a really awesome fish, and there are some incredible colors on some of the species. I love @Fish Folk's shiner tank! If I had room for one more tank... Darters and shiners all the way. I'm not personally sold on the flag fish though. Well, two more tanks, first would come the 20 long pea puffer colony tank... In my 10gal native tank with pygmy sunfish, least killies, lemon killies, blue fin killies, and a single swamp darter, the darter eats crushed flake and microworm like everyone else, and he doesn't seem to have any trouble darting around and getting food. I tend to feed heavy though and have a ton of plants. Edited April 8, 2021 by ererer 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheDukeAnumber1 Posted April 8, 2021 Share Posted April 8, 2021 I dunno what perfect would be, but I loved keeping Southern Redbelly Dace.... and a creek chub for the memes :) 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colu Posted April 8, 2021 Share Posted April 8, 2021 (edited) Candy cane darters or orangethoated darter they're are so many beautiful species of darter that would look great in a biotope aquarium Edited April 8, 2021 by Colu 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric R Posted April 8, 2021 Share Posted April 8, 2021 4 minutes ago, Colu said: Candy cane darters or orangethoated darter they're are so many beautiful species look great in a biotope aquarium Can you buy captive bred candy darters? They're listed as endangered and I don't know if any are being bred by hobbyists or whether it's allowed to sell them. They are a great looking fish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChefConfit Posted April 8, 2021 Share Posted April 8, 2021 Okefanokee pygmy sunfish have my vote. I probably spelt that wrong though. Planning to set up a tank for them within the next year hopefully. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colu Posted April 8, 2021 Share Posted April 8, 2021 (edited) I have seen rainbow darter and orangethoated darter and a couple of other species for sale resently but not candy cane darters I was using them as an example to show have colourful they are @ererer Edited April 8, 2021 by Colu 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fish Folk Posted April 8, 2021 Share Posted April 8, 2021 7 hours ago, Colu said: I have seen rainbow darter and orangethoated darter and a couple of other species for sale resently but not candy cane darters I was using them as an example to show have colourful they are @ererer Check out Jonah’s Aquarium for natives. Mark really does a great job there. We buy most of our natives from him. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric R Posted April 8, 2021 Share Posted April 8, 2021 19 minutes ago, Fish Folk said: Check out Jonah’s Aquarium for natives. Mark really does a great job there. We buy most of our natives from him. Yup, I'm familiar! Was browsing their stock list before bed last night after reading this thread.... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fish Folk Posted April 8, 2021 Share Posted April 8, 2021 (Doing a water change on shiner / darter / Flagfish tank) One random note: I add dried oak leaves beneath large Mexican beach pebbles. Their breakdown helps micro life, and mimics natural water contexts... 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kirsten Posted April 8, 2021 Author Share Posted April 8, 2021 17 hours ago, Colu said: Candy cane darters or orangethoated darter they're are so many beautiful species of darter that would look great in a biotope aquarium I can't get over the insanely bright and beautiful colors here. What a wealth of striking and exciting fish we have here in North America. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colu Posted April 8, 2021 Share Posted April 8, 2021 Here's another beautiful dart the banded darter @Kirsten 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jungle Fan Posted April 8, 2021 Share Posted April 8, 2021 I always thought a tank with Longeared Sunfish would be awesome. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kirsten Posted April 8, 2021 Author Share Posted April 8, 2021 Ahhh how is it that we have so many insanely beautiful fish right out our back door and not have them being bred for the hobby? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Celly Rasbora Posted April 8, 2021 Share Posted April 8, 2021 I ran out of responses, otherwise, I would have ❤️ all of the responses. Thanks, @Fish Folk for sharing your rainbow tank. I LOVE it! I add dried oak leaves to my tank, too. I shop my yard for nano-tank sized leaves. 😄 My snails are devouring them, though. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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