Hobby

[Jeremy Hunt]

I just thought I would share something that I've been working on the last six months or so. All these fish are called rainbows. They are from Australia’s water systems. I also have live plants that are from their environment hook up to C02 which is dispersed into the water. I guess you can say I put them right back into their world. Some pretty cool stuff. I love fish and this is what I tie in front of everyday. Anyways, just thought I would show you what I love doing in my spare time.

[Kansas Fly Fisher]

Good looking tank!

John

[Crippled Caddis]

Neat!

My aquarium is now hosting a 'school' of Ozark Shiners. I like to keep native fish and the Shiners are VERY hardy. Took them @ 3 days to figure out what the fishfood I sprinkled on top was but they now go into a feeding frenzy like a school of Piranha when I lift the lid. They have been fun to watch and having models for streamers isn't a bad idea either.;o)

[jjtroutbum]

Have you used http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Product/Shop.cfm?N=2004

Its a great place for Pet supplies in general but is awesome on the dry goods and such in the aquarium trade/hobby.

Nice job on your tank. I'll need to get a few new/ better shots of my personal little 7year old and 7 gallon nanoreef.

[crappiefisherman]

caddis I also have a large tank with easy fish, gold fish and shiners.I think they are just as pretty and are also my fishing barometer.I mean whats a 50 gallon tank but a small lake.I can tell the differance when a front is coming in just by the slowing of activity in the tank.The fish exhibit schooling also.Kinda fun to watch.

[Wayne SW/MO]

Jeremy, couple of questions, when you say Australia's water system, what exactly do you mean? Are these fresh water "Minnows"? How do you balance the co2 and the O?

[Al Agnew]

Gorgeous fish!

I keep a pretty big aquarium with native Ozark stream fish. Some species are beautiful and do very well in the aquarium environment. Some of my favorites are bleeding shiners, steelcolor shiners, and redbelly dace for beauty. Stonerollers are hardy and although drab, are easy to keep. Rainbow darters are beautiful, but take a lot of training to get them to eat aquarium food that isn't live. I do it by sparsely feeding them live aquatic insects I get out of the tiny creek behind the house, while putting in frozen brine shrimp at the same time. Eventually they switch over to the brine shrimp, and later they will start eating flake food. Logperch are similar in their eating habits and do well, and it's fun to watch them flipping over pebbles with their snouts as they hunt for food. I have kept little smallmouths and rock bass for a while, and always have little bluegill and longear sunfish. Some of them will harass other fish too much, but they seem to be individuals, and some of them are much calmer and more compatible with the other fish. I usually have some creek chubs, which are very hardy but will get too big and start eating the other fish (same problem applies to the bass...the bass in the tank have to be smaller than most of the other fish). The other really neat fish I've had are the madtoms. I had three madtoms that were about 1.5 inches long when I caught them, and grew to "world record" madtom size, nearly 5 inches, in the three years before they died of old age.

Some fish unfortunately just don't do well. I've never been able to keep hogsuckers, sculpins, or northern studfish (the Ozark stream topminnows) alive for very long. The black-spotted topminnows (the green ones with a black stripe down their sides) do very well, however. I tried again and again to keep brook silversides, which look like tiny almost transparent barracuda, but they just didn't make it.

I also keep some crayfish in the aquarium, and kept a couple of hellgramites one time. You never saw them, and I thought they were dead and gone until they metamorphed into dobson flies and flew around the house! Some of the crayfish are escape artists, and occasionally you'll see one crawling across the floor, or find a dried up one in an obscure corner of the house.

[Kayser]

I currently have a logperch and a crayfish in a 55 gallon that I'm trying to convert into Ozark Stream. I am feeding the logperch earthworms that I am able to dig up out of my yard. It's kind of funny to watch him wrestle with on hanging out of his mouth as the worm tries to escape into the rocks. If anyone has a suggestion on an Ozark Stream fish to put in the tank, I would greatly appreciate it.

Rob

BTW- the rock in the tank is Wabash River Gravel, the stuff used for landscaping, the smaller sizes of it.