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Best 'coldwater' fish?

Wow - thanks for all the replies. Didn't think this would evoke such a reaction!

First off I have 3 beautiful Walstad bowls in my class that the children maintain, although the kids in my class are 10. Another teacher wants the same sort of thing for her class of 4-5 year olds but anything plugged in is a no-no. Believe me, I understand about water movement and so on. I have a 6 gallon nano tank in my classroom that I was about to break down, heavily planted with wood and lots of cherries. I've offered her the nano but it can only be as a 'Walstad' tank. I've kept plenty of fish in school in this type of set-up before and I believe that the educational value is far in excess of the 'traditional' tropical set-up. The kids have to work quite hard in the early stages to maintain the bowls/tanks and learn a lot about water conditions, biological balances, plant growth, CO2, O2...well the list is endless. They effectively create an ecosystem and learn to maintain it. My last class found BG algae in a bowl and then researched it thoroughly. It was gone within a week plus they found out its not actually algae. Many of the class now have their own Walstad bowls at home and I am often asked for new bits of anubis etc from the school nano. We just want to extend this learning and love of aquaria throughout the school but their are many restrictions placed upon us, especially when it comes to water and electricity!

I can see that the WC minnow are a no-no but I'll have a good look at some of the other species mentioned, especially the guppy/endlers.

Cheers
 
Obviously an air pump can be mounted well away from the water, so just use that supply/tubing for the filter instead of it just producing bubbles, like what's used in breeder tanks for example. There are "posher" versions available to put whatever media you want in.

Pretty sure it won't supply you with a flow capable of keeping salmon, but should give you half decent active mechanical/biological filtration 🙂
 
I've gone for some guppies - might provide some fry to add to the excitement!
 
viktorlantos said:
If the tank would be bigger i would recommend notropis chrosomus. A perfect cold water beauty whst you also can place in your pond. But since tha tank is small these are out
Click to expand...
never seen them, they look amazing
 
I would look into killiefish and pygmy sunfish. They can be a little difficult to get in some areas, but are great for filterless planted tanks.
 
Well I wouldn't recommend the true annuals for young children in a classroom.....raising and feeding the young predators can get a little taxing. But some of the longer living shorter incubation period aphyosemions or epyplatys are great and you can handle the eggs with clean hands with few issues. Not to mention that there are some wonderful colors in most of the killi genuses.
 
Thanks for all the amazing ideas. Never knew there were so many choices (if it was a larger tank anyway). But...it's a small tank and I've gone for some lemon guppies as they stand out well in an unlit (apart from natural light) tank. Cheers
 
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