Cave fish

[DarkSide]

So yeha I was on last night, and someone was asking a question about blind cave tetras. It inspired me and I now planning a tanjk with 'cave-like' features, low lighting, cave tetras, driftwood pieces, rock walls, etc.

My main question is, what are other fish, that I could probably get eaily that would live in a cave and/or be blind cave fish?

I don't know about all of you, but I think a tank like this would be very awesome.

 

[Phantom Thief]

Nocturnal fishes, especially catfish, would be suitable

For example, cories live in murky waters and mostly rely on their barbels rather then their eyesight to find food, so they would make a good choice.

P.T.

 

[Opcn]

Loaches are from asia rather than the lower end of north america but thy are very good at cave swimming. Personally I would avoid the drift wood and just fabricate a convoluted cave system with each "room" and most "corridors" haveing a view from the front glass, useing thin plexyglass and a heat gun you can make many shapes for the components of the cave, then you can coat them in epoxy or black expandable foam and glue rocks and sand on, or you could bake it out of food safe clay

HTH

 

[OohFeeshy]

Out of interest, can anyone tell me where you can get cave fish in the UK? I'm aiming to keep 3 platies alive, then a betta, then get a bigger tank and have some cave fish.

 

[Fish Buddy]

Elephant noses -live near Egypt and like hiding stops
Knife fish also live in murky water and would be suitable
How big is this tank?

Edit: Knife fish live in South America. Were you trying to create a biotope at all by chance?

 

[DarkSide]

Well my hopes were to create a kind of bio tope of a cave no specific region, but I wanted them to be all pretty much blind fish. And at the moment, I have no clue on how big the tank would be.

 

[Phantom Thief]

Start planning once you can get an estimate of the size of the tank you will be getting. Some of the fishes recommended, such as the elephant nose and knife fish get to be huge, so you won't be able to get them if you only get a , say, 20g tank.

P.T.

 

[Dorkhedeos]

why not make a clear cave so you can watch them swim around in it?

 

[jacblades]

i used to have some boesemani rainbows with mine. that tank was awesome but the rainbows both decided to commit suicide

 

[ddm18]

A cave tank does sound awesome, provided you had enough viewing points to see the fish. Perhaps make it so that you can see in from all sides, to double the amount of viewing possibilities while still being able to keep it fairly dark.

The only problem I can see is how you would avoid dead, static spots of water - I believe that these aren't a great idea, having said that, presumably cave-type fish will prefer static water...?

What about being extra clever (depending on your funds) and having a big big tank, half cave, half not...?

 

[OohFeeshy]

ddm18 makes a good point. If you do decide to make an opaque cave, how will you know if one has died in there and is polluting your water without doing a head count every few hours to make sure the body doesn't pollute your water?