I've found My Best Fish in Brassy Minnows

[10 Tanks]

Hello. Have found a very hardy fish in the Brassy Minnow. They're fairly large, up to three inches as adults and these I keep, have a distinctive, black vertical stripe down the middle of both sides of their heads. Not very colorful, but very active in the 55 gallon tank where I keep them. I've never kept them before and doubt they're available in the local fish stores. They remind me of Guppies but are egg layers, live longer, are larger and are at least a year old before they can reproduce. For me, they're a much better fish. Though again, I will admit, they're not nearly as colorful.

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[GaryE4 2]

They're probably Hybognathus hankinsoni, a North American native in the shiner group. You might get them in bait stores more than in aquarium shops. They reach 4 inches/10cm, are herbivorous and like cool water. They can handle low water quality as they often get trapped in late summer dry periods.

They have a wide range, mostly in the midwestern and Great Lakes US, but also into Canada. I think I may have seen them in a minnow trap west of here. They're really neat fish.

Do they need a cold period? I read they're found with northern redbelly dace, which I used to keep, and those fish needed a coolwater winter. It was hard to meet their needs inside my house.

 

[10 Tanks]

Hello again. Yep. You're right about the scientific name. These fish thrive in our local beaver ponds. Even though this is Colorado, the temperatures in the southern part of the state are much warmer than the northern areas. We seldom get temperatures much below freezing in the winter, but it can get pretty warm in the middle part of the summer. I retrieved quite a few of the fry from a pond close to my place and to my surprise they have done extremely well in 55 gallons of water. I don't heat the tank and make sure to remove and replace half the tank water weekly. Looking forward to seeing some fry in the tank, but it's going to take a while.

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[10 Tanks]

Supplemental post. Be careful what you ask for. Fed the Minnows their afternoon meal and found one Brassy Minnow Fry. Go figure. These fish are fry themselves, so this is just funny to me. There are quite a few fish in this tank. See attached photo.

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[GaryE4 2]

You know the rule for native fishkeeping - never release. Once they've been in tanks, they may be exposed to pathogens that aren't in the wild. You're going to have a lot.

I got my redbellied dace in beaver ponds as well, and they were great fish. I just couldn't keep them right, although they lived for several years.

 

[10 Tanks]

Oh yeah. They'll get good food and plenty of large, weekly water changes. There's roughly 40 in 55 gallons of water. But, time will tell. That may change.

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[Back in the fold1]

Nice looking fish . A guy could keep worse fish . No heating is nice .

 

[WhistlingBadger39 22]

I miss keeping native fish. Maybe for my next project...

 

[Back in the fold1]

I miss keeping native fish. Maybe for my next project...

I haven’t kept native fish in over thirty years and that time was unplanned . I used to have an outdoor pond at another house and we had a gravity fed irrigation system that drew from The Big Ditch which is Billings’ main irrigation canal that stretches from west Billings all the way to Ballantine Montana . That’s about thirty miles and was dug by hand in the early 20th century . True story .
Anywho , I used to do water changes and top ups in my small pond from this irrigation water system . One day I noticed dozens of one inch minnows in my pond and all I can figure is that they came in from the ditch which in turn is fed by The Mighty Yellowstone River . Never did determine what they were .