Under appreciated fish

[gwand]

I think the white cloud mountain minnows are an underappreciated fish. They are quite lovely, they are extremely hardy and they do not need a heater in the tank. These minnows are mild mannered, and are a great part of a community tank.

 

[Back in the fold]

An added bonus is that you can find them very inexpensive .

 

[emeraldking]

I love the sight when they start to court. The males are flaring their fins which gives the fish an extra dimension.

 

[CassCats]

They're a really pretty one! Shame most of the time people get them and put them in tropical tanks though.

 

[emeraldking]

They're a really pretty one! Shame most of the time people get them and put them in tropical tanks though.

That's not that weird. For a lot of stores labels them as being tropical fish. This goes for more fish species by the way which are actually subtropical or even coldwater fish. And what's also sad is that there are lots of commercial aquarium books that label such fish incorrectly as being tropical.

 

[GaryE]

Part of it is our not thinking through what tropical means. Up high on a mountain slope, or under a thick, sun blocking rainforest canopy is going to be a lot cooler than a wide, sun absorbing river.

White clouds are perfect fish. I think as energy costs rise and people begin to consider economizing by shutting heated tanks, we'd do better to look at great fish like that that cost almost nothing to keep a tank of. Why leave the hobby when you can adapt and still have wonderful fish?

 

[emeraldking]

Part of it is our not thinking through what tropical means. Up high on a mountain slope, or under a thick, sun blocking rainforest canopy is going to be a lot cooler than a wide, sun absorbing river

Completely true. That's why I repeatedly write that one should not look at the tropical country itself but at the location within that country where those fish occur.

 

[Guest5431]

They're easy to kill. I just wiped out half mine with a water change a while back. Too much of a percentage and no way to get the incoming taps cold side low enough. It was fine for the other tanks but get to the peppered corys or white clouds and sometimes even the danios and pooff!!!!! Off to the flusher.

I have to force myself to stay at 50% max for water changes to avoid that terror of looking over seeing fish flipping upside down and corys pretending to have a strock. The albino corys were fakers, the peppered/paleatus were for real.

 

[gwand]

Interesting and sorry to hear. I have had my minnows for about two years. I do a weekly 20% water exchange. The tapwater temperature going into the tank is 70°F. The tank temperature fluctuates with the room temperature and that fluctuation can be 5° Over the course of a year. I have not lost any of the minnows.

 

[Guest5431]

No telling how hot the towns water tower had the incoming cold side this past Summer. I don't remember it being a problem back in the 90's but I was across the street maybe further away or some of the work they've been doing over the years has changed the insulation qualities. It seems like there's always a crew up there doing something to it.

 

[Colin_T]

@Bamf Comics, can you set up some water holding containers for water changes? Then you could make sure the new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine and has a more appropriate temperature for the fish.

 

[Guest5431]

I have a trash can but what I need is something in the 1000 gallon range mounted up in the air so it can gravity feed. I'm closing in on 50 tanks probably headed to over 100 needing changes at a time. While I wrestle with options the landlords may not be upset by, I'm thinking it may be batter next summer to just double the cleaning schedule to 25% twice a week instead of 50% once a week. Who needs a life on Sundays anyway??? Now it's about half a days work on Thursdays. Sunday or Monday mornings would be the most logical option for a second cleaning day.

 

[gwand]

Do you operate a commercial enterprise?

 

[TwoTankAmin]

A gallon of water weighs about 8 pounds. so your elevated container at 1,000 will weigh over 4 tons when filled. Are you sure you can support this properly? You may need to rethink the storage side. But, when looking for containers of higher capacity which are perfect specifically for we hobbyists, I suggest you look here:
https://jehmco.com/html/water_storage_tanks.html

I have bought from Jehmco for years. They sell to those of us who have an above average number of tanks

While I have never bough what you need I have air pumps, frozen foods, drift wood and an assortment of other supplies from them over the years. The are the sort of small business we wish there were many more of serving the hobby. When I tried to spread the word about them to a lot of folks What I was mostly told was that person was already using Jehmco.

 

[Guest5431]

I'm fully aware of the weight and space issues for a 1000 gallon tank. I used to drive a couple of them around on trucks when I was working for my fathers Well Drilling company after closing my first Pet Store. A 1,000 container is not fitting thru the stores doors. Anything else I'll have to custom build which is why it's on the back burner for now. Not impossible but not a project for now. We built a 2,000 gallon tank with baffles out of aluminum for one truck. We also jacked a 500 gallon tank for diesel up in the air with steel A frame type legs for gravity feeding the fuel to top off the diesel trucks and 200 gallon tanks we carried to the jobs. More trouble and expense than I prefer to take on right now.