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One of those stupid threads. Suggest fish for....plastic tubs, ha, ha

sciencefiction

sciencefiction

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Joined
26 Feb 2013
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I have these two 80l tubs set up for quite a while and I was itching to put a few fish in them...

One is a cold water tub, no heater but I can put one to prevent extremely cold spells. I haven't checked the temperature for a good while but it gets cold!...down to 12C. It's been running with rumshorn snails and cherry shrimp since May 2017. Substrate is very thin layer of 0.9mm sand.

The second one is is heated, set up for a few years now. It's got 3 old platies in it, snails and shrimp again...Substrate is soil capped with very fine play sand.

Each tub has one of my old Fluval U4 1000l/h filters.

I was wondering if there's anything suitable I can put inside considering the small size of the tubs plus the conditions.

The water is hard, TDS around 260-265 from the tap. KH 5, pH 7.4, GH around 12-13.

I have had success with some softer water fish in same water...

So what would you get?

Picture of the cold water tub:

20180208_190932.jpg


Picture of heated tub:

20180208_190918.jpg
 
I've recently decommissioned my 40L tub which had in it my Doubletail Betta + trumpit snails, nothing fancy looking like yours. It was super ghetto tech with DIY sponge filter, 100w heater, bare bottom but had a few leaves I'd collected, a buce still in the pot and salvinia auriculata. There all in a 30L now tho, got tired of not being able to see the Betta's colours properly.

If it was me for the cold water tub, easy, Paradise fish. If not that a good amount of mixed minnows. Tbf I would probably do the same with the heater tub as well. For a bit of fun tho you could just buy a load of guppies and do a breeding fish for profit tub.
 
Smells Fishy said:
nothing fancy looking like yours
Click to expand...
Ha, ha, not fancy at all, a bit of embarrassment really but who's looking :p

Never thought of paradise fish...have to look into that. I don't think I ever considered to keep these fish.
The white cloud minnows are on my mind. I saw they have long finned ones at the moment. I quite like the look of them.
I also almost got a few endlers the other week. They had some cute coloured males and females guppy endlers in my local shop. I used to love my guppies before, males were probably one of the most entertaining small fish to watch I've kept.

I am undecided yet but I am also thinking of converting those two tubs into a larger 300 l pond but I am not sure I want all the hassle....It may happen, it may not. If it happens, it will also be home to my hillstream loaches that currently live in a small tank so perhaps something that can do in 20-23C max would be best but I am open to ideas
 
There should be a decent number of species that do fine in the 18-22C range

Sawbwa resplendens are interesting fish though I'm not sure how they'd look from above

Some of the dragon &/or marble Bettas have excellent top down colour/iridescence
Koi Bettas as well IFF you can track down quality fish (but then they're rather expensive - HMPK get my vote, especially for community tank)

Pseudomugil sp. 'red neon' - may be more difficult to find (prices have dropped to reasonable this year) but you'd be able to sell on any offspring
 
In some LFS they might have North American spp. like Notropis crosomus - Rainbow Shiner or Notropis lutrensis - Red shiner both about 8 cm adult. They can take lower temps pretty well and are actualy very beautifull fish.

Goldfish also could be an option, only if you have an address in the far future to rehome them. They can get extremely old and to large. But mind this takes rather long. What many people do is overfeed the fish and that accelerates the growth. If you feed them sparsely but enough it takes many years. They don't need a massive amount of food to stay healthy, i guess the more sparsely they are fed the healthier they stay. Like people also have luxury diseases by overfeeding and lazyness. My 3 oldest gold fish also live in tubs are about 7 years old and the largest maybe is 12 cm. I happen to have the rehome option, but i don't yet see that comming the next 7 years. And these fish becomme extremely domesticated i don't need a net to catch them they swim into my hands to play tag with me. :)

Only in the winter they are in plastic tubs, 2 x 80 litre and 1 x 150 litre connected with 110mm PVC pipe vacuumed bridges. They swim from tub to tub back and forth through the pipes. I filter with only 1 filter pumping water from tub 1 to tub 3, the water flows through the pipes and the level in each tub stays equal. The fish love this luna park, some like to travel a lot others more have a favorite tub and don't feel the need to leave it. :thumbup:
 
Thanks alto, will look into these.

I am not worried about how they look from the top, or the sides. I am more interested in watching their behaviour which is quite easy to monitor from the top as they don't think anyone's watching :) I may be getting a Go Pro hero camera for my birthday.....undecided yet if I need it that much...;) but it will be cool, at least for the pond.
 
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He, he, gold fish. I recently saw a lovely tank with gold fish and I was fascinated by their behaviour. But I think I maybe pushing it with the 80l tubs. Do you have any videos of yours? I know they can get very pet like, which I like. If I get the 300l tub, I may consider a couple. Do they go with hillstream loaches or will the gold fish eat my plants :p
 
sciencefiction said:
Thanks alto, will look into these.

I am not worried about how they look from the top, or the sides. I am more interested in watching their behaviour which is quite easy to monitor from the top as they don't think anyone's watching :)
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Than you realy should consider gold fish. :) And build them a submersed cave construction with stacked boulders and slate slabs like a parking lot with different levels. They are extremely inteligent and curious, love to explore and play tag and hide and seek with eachother in and around the caves. Even with you if you want that.. Sometimes i see the oldest swim around with a funny wiggling motion followed by a few of her smaller offspring mimicing the moves. As if they have humor and are making fun.

When it comes to observing and having fun myself.. with 3 aquariums and several tubs.. I have to most fun with my pet goldfish.. They are realy my water pets.. These are yet the only fish that give the feeling and urge to interact and cuddle them. :) And they love to be cuddled. They notice me and ask my attention as soon as they do and if i don;t give soon enough they all go there own way again and just let me watch.
 
Hillstreams love flow
Goldfish don't really have the conformation for it ;)
- at least not the indoor tank round bumbling soft ... & 300l is too small for the streamlined pond "common goldfish" (carp)
 
Oh a tip, they are very color sensitive, if you want to train them it is quicker succes if you wear the same color when you aproach them. For example suddenly change to different color sweater they get startled and don't recognize you, you will be considered a threat..
 
alto said:
Hillstreams love flow
Goldfish don't really have the conformation for it ;)
- at least not the indoor tank round bumbling soft ... & 300l is too small for the streamlined pond "common goldfish" (carp)
Click to expand...

I have never really researched goldfish. Are there smaller varieties? Yes, the flow might be an issue...Then again, no matter what, I always have too much flow in my tanks...
 
sciencefiction said:
Are there smaller varieties?
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No not realy, they are a small carp breed all have the same potential of growing full size. But they are captive bred for 1000nds of years unfortunately but obvuously also inbred for as many years, hence the monstroseties out there with telescope eyes etc. So a lot of the common ones also mutated into dwarfed versions and stay rather small. I already have them for many years and some keep growing and some of them stagnate in growth at a certain age.

It's the same with color, they all are born black (at east from above its black, from the side it's more greenish. That's the original natural color of the ancester. Some get orange, others get white, others again get spoted and others again stay plain original color. The breeders sellect these dark ones out you wont see them as pet goldfish in the LFS. But the breeders also feed special food to enhance color and accelerate growth. Commet tail versions even bought completely orange all have the potential to turn completely white while maturing when not fed special food.

There is absolute no saying what you finaly will get and how fast that will be, but you have a bit a hand in this as well with feeding naturaly.

In general consensus from breeders and LFS info, they say they grow to fast and too big.. Yes that is true with the super duper high protiene they feed, that's what they do, always did and obviously all they know and advocate. Very unatural food to accelerate and enhance this and that is common commercial practice and info.Feed a lot and buy a lot..

I have my own bred goldfish and feed them sparsely and rather naturaly and they all are still extremely healthy under 5 cm in 2 years time. They feed on plants, like duckweed, salvinia, elodea, froozen food and additionaly every few days a bit pellets. :)

That's all i can make of it. But because you never know what gene is most active, be prepared.. It's a gamble, i might got luky with breeding on a batch mutated to stay smaller for a longer time. You need an address to rehome them if it doesn't work out, beter safe than sory for the fish..
 
We Try Every Species of Goldfish

- cause I just couldn't resist ;)

Most fancy (shortbodied) goldfish will eventually reach 6-8 inches (SL not TL), others (less compressed) will reach 8-12 inches
Usually their growth slows after ~ 4inches
I was looking for some sites I'd visited last year which included some genetics information (and good basics) but have lost them in the morass of inane hits :writing:

Young goldfish can change dramatically as they mature, so if you like certain colours or shapes, buying a 4inch fish is a better gamble
I'm not very knowledgeable about goldfish but have some friends that are very keen - a nice goldfish really is :wideyed:
though there are some extremes of breeding that disturb me (even when the fish is high grade)

It's well worth a visit to a specialist shop
 
Well 7 years playing with mine doesn't make me an expert either. Far from it, can only share experiences. :) I bought mine, 3, from the nothing special cheap mixed grab tub.. 2 girls and one boy i discovered. One girl was an orange semi commet tail and is completely white now, the other girl developed some white spots over the years and white fin tips also is a bit longer finned but shorter than whity, she the matriarch, big mama Jambo and leads the pack, bit over 4 or 5 inch. The boy stayed rather small maybe close to 4 inch a bit stunted goldfish model. All 3 are absolutely different fish in appaerance and shape. Their offspring also is a kakofony of mutations and colors few are still natural color. Hatched in spring 2016 they grow in different rates and also a few of them are still liliput version maybe an inch, with the biggest maybe 2 inch.

I know from the local pond shop, the smallest goldfish fish they sell are all bigger than my 2 years old and say they are 1 year old fish. The breeders use special diet to rear them to a proper commercial size in the shortest time possible obviously. The best food around and likely also recomended and sold in the pond shops from the high end shelfs as also the color enhancing foods.
 
I'm going to setup a coldwater/temperate tank for ricefish when I get around to it. Some people even keep them outside all year round here. Some have pretty colours but the way they carry the eggs on their bodies is why I want to check them out.
 
tubs are great for fishkeeping, if you can get over the limited visibility; I've got a 50 litre tub with gardneri killifish in it just now, have also used tubs for white cloud mountain minnows, betta breeding and all sorts, can't really go wrong.

My only concern I ever had was if the plastic ever leached anything into the water, but I never experienced any negatives, perhaps someone else can weigh in.
 
alto said:
Hillstreams love flow
Goldfish don't really have the conformation for it ;)
- at least not the indoor tank round bumbling soft ... & 300l is too small for the streamlined pond "common goldfish" (carp)
Click to expand...

That's an interesting idea goldfish + hillstreams. It's crossed my mind before because with keeping any kind of goldfish you need high flow/filtration because it's in there nature to be little JCB's so are very messy fish. My waters all ways clear apart from feeding time when my fancys suck up the gravel\food then spit out what's not to there taste. This kind of environment would be perfect for freshwater clams also.
 
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