it’s the “little things”…

[Magnum Man]

with all the cover areas , aquatic plants, and terrestrial plants growing out of my tanks, it’s always been my desire to have as much of a “real” ecosystem as possible, this includes the things that break down wastes and excess food, that works it’s way down in between the rocks, and big cover items… is anyone successfully keeping the micro fauna that breaks this stuff down ( other than pest snails )???

I’ve been looking at trying to seed some tanks with these critters, and found this… anyone tryed???

Freshwater Ecosystem Starter Pack (5 Cultures)

Five cultures: phytoplankton, copepods, daphnia, microworms & ostracods. Everything to kickstart a thriving freshwater ecosystem. Free shipping.

copepodsforsale.com

I figure if, for example, I got cultures started in my hillstream tank, in which I’m actively trying to grow algae in, if I get these started, I basically turn my sterile aquarium algae into Aufwuchs, which is a more complete diet for these fish…

seems a natural in breeder tanks, but I don’t know enough about them, to know if the cultures can be maintained in a tank with that kind of consumption level??? I’m thinking in a tank with mature fish, most would survive, as they are too small to be eaten regularly by mature fish???

 

[GaryE]

Nothing is too small to be eaten. Consider the size of you and I, and the tiny foods we eat. Then compare that to fish, who in many cases feed on bacteria, a good size relative to how big they are.
I add plants from nature to my tanks. I live dangerously (not really). That usually adds copepods, ostracods, microscopic worms, insect larvae and daphnia. I also culture outdoor Daphnia and uninvited small insect larvae, and feed them to my fish in complex planted tanks. It is extremely rare for any of them to go more than 3 days uneaten. Our glass boxes are traps filled with bored fish that can't go anywhere and focus on what arrives on their turf with great diligence.

 

[Magnum Man]

well, for good, or bad, I have areas the fish can’t get into, weather it’s the stone piles, of 2-3 inch stones on each end of my hillstream tank, or the silver dollar tank, which has areas the chewed up roots work their way into, from the current of the filters, that the fish are too large to get into… I can believe that in my south American tetra tank, which is too full of a variety of different sized fish, that nothing would survive long in that tank, but many of my tanks end up with a lot of hiding places a small critter could get into, that would be safe from the fish in that tank, even my African tank, with the substrate being 1 inch stones, and adding all the cichlid stone caves that I recently added, there would be a lot of turf, that even the blues, couldn’t get into…

 

[Magnum Man]

coincidently, this morning one of my red tailed hillstream’s was flashing his tail at me, while I was starting this thread… seemed to be signaling yes, he would like some critters in his salad…

 

[GaryE]

The critters can hide in the hard to access areas, which is why some of the ones that go into the tanks survive 3 days. I once, in hundreds of times, had Daphnia establish in a killie tank. There would always be a few around from a very prolific species, and the Aphyosemion elberti ate their fill and left it at that. I got several months of that. But all of these potential foods are mobile beasts that wander out, and the fish welcome with open jaws.

Little cyclops have persisted in some tanks, seemingly not very tasty. But again, you go away for a few days and with nothing better to munch on, they're gone.

I have lots of wood, rocks and plants in the tanks where I've tried too. I hope your luck's better than mine.

 

[Helina]

@Magnum Man
Hey!
Very interesting goal, which fascinates me as well. I don't know that substrate, and I haven't gone that far in my tank in reaching complete ecological cycles, but.... what I have is I think very close already.

My Neocaridina shrimps break down debris to very tiny particles. I rarely if ever see any fish poop anywhere. Ever. Only once I've seen a tiny poop particle still attached to one of my green neon tetras. I only see very tiny black dust coming from beneath the gravel while hoovering the substrate every now and then.

And while my tank is not overpopulated and I feed regularly, I do water changes pretty rarely and the water condition still remains very good... and NO2 doesn't go up much. It must be that the fish poop has, in a system like this, already broken down enough by shrimps to become plant food instead. So in a way it's a system where i add food and remove plants mainly. And that's a cycle.

In my rare maintenance, I clean glasses, reduce plant growth and vacuum the substrate where I can conveniently reach it, only. And not even very deeply. Should maybe go deeper, to oxygenize it further. Water I change about half or 1/3 if done more often. Anyway, if you are looking for a tank with no substrate hoovering at all, then you need to be prepared for piling up of that tiny dust and losing oxygen in deeper levels of the tank. Then you might need to add some wormlets to dig through it constantly to oxygenize it.

But other than that, maybe you don't need to extend it with special mixtures to achieve what you want? If it's not so extreme version? But anyway, what you are aiming for sounds interesting!