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Best 'coldwater' fish?

Manrock

Manrock

Member
Joined
15 Dec 2007
Messages
225
We have a small planted tank, no filter or heating, in the class at school and want to introduce the children to the world of fish. I kept a small shoal of white cloud minnow in the same tank with success but it had a filter then and quite heavy flow rates. Will white clouds be ok in a 'still' tank or should I look at another species?

Cheers
 
Sacha said:
You shouldn't keep any fish in a tank without a filter.
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Sorry - I've seen plenty of planted, filterless tanks with healthy, even breeding, fish stocked in them. You obviously have to keep up the water changes and make sure you have a well balanced eco-system (lots of plants, scavengers, etc). The question is more about whether the wc minnows would do well in a tank with no water movement.

Cheers
 
Hi Manrock:wave:
If you plant your tank heavily enough, filtration shouldn't be a problem. You would be surprised to find that most 'tropical' fish are very happy in low temperatures. For example, I have 10 Ember Tetras in my Mini M at a temperature of 20 degrees ( unheated) and they are very happy! Do some research and try out a species!🙂
 
Manrock said:
I was just wondering about the wc minnow?
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TBH, I think the fact that they are minnows means that they come from quite fast moving streams and rivers that are high in oxygen and flow. I might be wrong though and someone else could maybe chip in. I personally wouldn't put them in if it meant unhappy fish but it's worth looking into!🙂
 
Manrock said:
That's what I suspected - there will be an airstone going?
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Couldn't the air stone be replaced with a cheap power head, you could add some sponge to the power head to stop any accidents, I think they would prefer some flow, seriously fish states they come from sluggish streams so full on river type flow may not be nescersary, in fact I have an old hob filter knocking about if you want it manrock drop me a pm.
 
tim said:
Couldn't the air stone be replaced with a cheap power head,
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Cheers Tim - Thanks for your kind offer, I have explored that option but because the children are so young (4-5) I wanted to keep it electrics free. I would restock with chilli rasporas but the LFS never has any in!

Thanks again.
 
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How big is your 'small' tank? Paradise Fish, or American Flag Fish would be happy with low flow and low temps, if the tank is big enough for them.
 
This is really interesting, I've been reading about some topical fish preferring cooler temperatures - Neon Tetras being more comfortable at about 22 and now I find out Ember Tetras and Chili rasbora are also OK at room temperature Cool. Any others?
 
Encouraging such young children to try and keep a fish in such a small volume of water electrics-free will just be misleading to their education IMO...

It can be done, but either requires lots of luck or lots lots knowledge of which species, substrate

A filter may not be necessary, but some form of water movement would be hugely beneficial, a powerhead would be ideal! I wouldn't try without.
 
As long as you do frequent water changes and keep fish that are not from fast flowing habitats (like white cloud), i would not worry about the lack of a filter. A good choice for a smaller tank are celestial pearl danios. They come from highland lakes in Myanmar where winter temps can get quite low. I even kept them outside in the Danish summer some years ago. Otherwise many livebearers come from Southern USA and Mexico and will be well suited for a low flow cold water tank.

Thomas
 
With all respect but education needs to start proper. a tank without a sort of filtration isn't advisable. Yes I know that it can, Yes I know that you do it yourselves but in too many cases it fails. we are talking about 4-5 years old which you want to introduce in our beautiful world of fish keeping, great wish that more parents were doing this. But keep in mind they are kids, they want to see fish, they want feed fish , preferable every day etc. and what you don't want as a carer is that they see dead fish.

I can see your point about electricity buy if you consider an air stone for water movement please consider in this case instead of an air stone a small air driven filter, available for a couple of quit and will benefit your fish.

Please don't understand me wrong there has been a survey a while ago that in our hobby we get between 100 and 150.000 new fish keepers every year, but also we are loosing the same amount because people are fed up having problems. and those problems are caused by bad education.

spend the money, or if you don't want to send me a pm with your address details and I will pay for this internal air driven filter and you can keep again those lovely wc mountains.

best regards, Maurits
 
I had a small tank for a while (about 1 year) without filtration or water movement with guppies and shrimp, lots of plants. The plants, fish and shrimp did really well and I had to give away many guppies to keep stock at bay. Even the shrimps kept getting young but seldom had a chance to grow big as they got eaten. Did a 30 to 40% water change every week.
The only reason why I stopped having this tank is that I always had to ask someone, with no knowledge of fish keeping what so ever, to take care of my tank with different rates of success.
 
Don't know when school let's out in U.K. but here in U.S. it is May 28th.
Have worked as maint worker/custodian for local school district for past 16 year's, and have set up many class room tank's for small children.(love this part of the job)
Children were taught about proper fish care icluding cycling, feeding, filtration,and maint.
Sadly,,once school let out for the summer,I and crew were left holding the stick so to speak with regard's to these tank's.
Folk's just up and leave em,bird's,hamster's,turtles as well.
No air conditioning run's during summer to save energy, and 80 to 100 degrees F temp's are not uncommon in these building's during July ,August.
Many fishes including White Cloud's prefer cooler temp's than those seen in closed up building's during warm month's.
Hope arrangement's to home these fish during summer break are more fruitful than what i have expierienced over the year's.
 
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