Native tank plans

[alter40]

Cool stuff BV! You should post up some pictures of what you found.

What was the water temp? I'm afraid of them going through a larger change of water temperature and killing the fish. I wasn't sure if I just let the bucket of water gradually come up to room temp inside if they would be able to handle that or not. We have had one day that was around 60 but the next day it dropped back down to freezing and we had a pretty bad ice storm. It looks like the temps are staying around 35 or so right now so we will see what happens but hopefully things start warming up soon.

I might not be able to use my spare 10g right away for some of the fish I catch because my GBRs just laid eggs last night so if they survive and hatch I will probably setup the 10g to try and raise them.

 

[Big Vine]

Lengthy reply here, but it details my acclimation process, so I think it would be helpful for you. *thumbsups

What was the water temp? I'm afraid of them going through a larger change of water temperature and killing the fish. I wasn't sure if I just let the bucket of water gradually come up to room temp inside if they would be able to handle that or not.

I was worried about that as well.
In total, I was out for about 2 hours. I filled the 5 gal. bucket 1/3 full of lake water, caught some crays and tossed em' in there. It was sitting out in the sun for probably a good hour or so before I caught the fish and put it in there. Went and caught some more crays for close to another hour before sorting through them and tossing back the non-keepers. Emptied about half the bucket water, then refilled it back up to about the 1/3 mark again right before leaving.

This is my roundabout way of saying that the temperature rose gradually for the fish. By the time I got home, the bucket water was right around 60 degrees F. And remember, not one hour before this I was removing 1/4-1/2 inch thick sheets of ice in order to catch the fish! In other words, the water was pretty cold. I'd guess it to be somewhere in the mid 40's to low 50's at most.

Once I was home, I let the bucket sit (with 4 crays and the 1 fish) for about 3 hours before moving anything into the tank. Every once in a while I'd add several cupfulls of tankwater to the bucket; slowly allowing the temperature to rise. By the time I put the crays/fish in the tank, the bucket water had risen to just over 70 degrees F. My tank was at about 75 degrees at the time. Not a perfect match, but close enough.

I might not be able to use my spare 10g right away for some of the fish I catch because my GBRs just laid eggs last night so if they survive and hatch I will probably setup the 10g to try and raise them.

Cool, congrats on the spawn!

By the way, I can post pics here, or I can just start another thread---it's your thread, so you let me know!

BV

 

[alter40]

Great info BV. I might have to start going out and looking then and see what I can find at the lake and creeks here in town. When I do start this I will probably use the same method for acclimation as you did with yours.

Feel free to post the pictures here just make sure to use the hijack brackets

 

[Big Vine]

[hijack]
Green Sunfish (~4" TL)

He seems nice and all, but my main objective is to get a black crappie.
In other words, the sunfish may have to go (there's a place that'll take it) once I manage to catch a nice crappie. I'll start my own thread once that happens.[/hijack]

BV

 

[alter40]

Looks good BV.

Now your making me want to go out and catch stuff

 

[pwrmacG4]

I'm definitely going with a canister filter on this tank. The XP3 is a good possibility for it as well. Thanks for the offer Ken. I know I won't need the 350 for this tank though because I do want to go the canister route. I don't want to take all your spare equipment from you

I am telling you.. the Rena XP3 is an awesome filter for the price! my water is crystal clear.. even after moving things around and there is debris all over the tank... it doesn't even last a few minutes and then it is cleared up! I would buy one for sure! hey.. wait.. I did! Twice!

 

[alter40]

I will keep that in mind

I haven't really looked into the comparisons of the different canister filters yet and have no experience with them at all but from what I have heard the XP3 is a great filter and was the one that I was thinking about getting for this tank but I will start looking into others in the next few weeks when I begin to start my list of things I will need to buy for this tank. Luckily the only thing I have to actually purchase for this tank is the equipment and I believe the majority of the other parts of the tank will come from my local waters.

Another idea that I have been tossing around in my head for this tank is to setup a paludarium in the tank. This is basically an ecosystem in a tank. There is a small land mass in the tank that you can keep a few small land animals on and some plants that grow in the soggy grounds locally and then have the water portion that is filled only about 1/3 of the way up. This would be pretty neat looking in the end, but I wouldn't be able to keep near as many fish as I would like to in a setup like that so I may in the future look into either doing a tropical paludarium of some kind or even possibly a native one.

I think I have all the ideas bouncing around in my head at the moment in this post. If I think of anything else though I will be sure to post it.

 

[alter40]

Just wanted to throw a quick update in here. I will probably setting up my spare 10g in the next couple of weeks to cycle. I will use this for educational purposes and figuring out the different species of minnows I'm able to find here locally. From this tank I will figure out what I like best and exactly what I will need to look for when I start collecting for my big tank. I will also probably use this opportunity to catch a cray or two as well. This is all going to kinda be used as an experiment to help me figure out exactly how I will want to stock the 75g when I get the tank and start working on that tank.

 

[brian1973]

good plan, you'll still going to have to post pics.

BV nice pics,

 

[alter40]

I will post plenty of pictures. Hopefully I can find some beautiful native minnows. I will take my camera with me collecting and also take pictures of everything when I get them in the tank.

 

[alter40]

Well since thread has just been me blabbing about all my plans I figured since I had about 3 hours between classes today that I would take a trip out to the lake where I will be catching the larger of my natives for my tank (perch and rock bass).

Its still frozen over but must be too thin for ice fish, because nobody was out walking on it. In only about 8 or 9 weeks the boat will be out in the water and ready for some fish.

Here are a few pics I took this afternoon. Not the highest quality because they were taken with my phone.

Here is the good old Kinzua Reservoir aka. Allegheny Reservoir
About 25 miles of nice, quiet, peaceful water (ice at the moment)

Looking back towards the empty marina

Here is a nice natural stream running down the side of a cliff just beside the Kinzua Dam

And here is the Kinzua Dam. The water is currently about 25ft below the normal summer pool. During Hurricane Agnes in 1972 the water had risen within 3ft of the top of this dam. The estimated that it saved over $247 million and surely many lives as well.

The dam was built in 1960 to help control flooding on the Allegheny River and also to be used for power generation. The dam however flooded the valley and forced Pennsylvania's last Native Americans, the Senecas, to move northward into southern New York.

Here is a picture from on top of the dam looking down into the spillway. Many people (including myself) used to fish right in the spillway, usually catching large walleye. Unfortunately this area, as well as the top of the dam, has been off limits since the Sept. 11th terrorist attacks.

Here is one last picture showing the power station closest to the camera and the greenhouse looking buildings across the river is a fish hatchery.

Hopefully this didn't bore you. I just love history and thought I would share some history with others about my local lake. This is where I spend many weekends in the summer fishing, and I also plan on catching my new pets from these waters.

Thanks for reading everything and I hope you enjoyed it!

 

[d3sc3n7]

See, thats easy to read. It like the picture books I'm used to reading. It looks like a very nice lake. I say you just go rob the hatchery though. Much easier than fishing!

No really, good article!

 

[brian1973]

to bad that spill way is closed off, thats were the best fishing can be, and with that power plant right there the water is probably still warm in that area.

 

[Big Vine]

Nice pics!

In only about 8 or 9 weeks the boat will be out in the water and ready for some fish.

'Only'?!
Think you can wait that long?

BV

 

[alter40]

Nice pics!

'Only'?!
Think you can wait that long?

BV

No I can't wait that long. I will be setting up a 10g tank probably this weekend to start cycling so I can go out and catch a cray and some of the native minnows. I want to see what species I can easily find and which ones I do and don't like.

Yes 8 weeks is too long for me

 

[pwrmacG4]

I know all about the waiting game!

 

[alter40]

Looks like I will be starting up a 10g native tank in a couple of days now

I have started up a blog for my tank that I will use to post tons of pictures that I take while collecting fish and also showing all the different fish I'm able to catch.

Not too much on the blog yet but I will put a link in my signature on here so hopefully some people here are able to follow along and see what I find.

 

[brian1973]

alright Eric I checked out your Blog good to see you getting it up and running, hopefully we will see minnows in there in a couple weeks.

 

[alter40]

I'm really hoping to be able to start getting some fish in the tank soon.

The sand is really more like mud and the water is still pretty cloudy, but its starting to clear up quite a bit. I think I might let it go another day or two and see how it looks. If it seems clear I will do a water change and see what it does as far as clouding the tank back up.

I don't think that I will leave that substrate in the tank because I don't think it will completely setting and stay settled if I do a water change in the tank. So since I have my doubts about it I picked up 15 pounds of the brown, natural looking gravel that I will probably use instead, but I may give it some more time till I put that in the tank.

I also ordered one of those little things that the LFS uses to put fish in before they bag them so I can take pictures of minnows I catch. This will allow me to come back home and ID different fish and help me to figure out which ones will and won't work in my tank.

I hope to get out to a stream in a couple of days to pick up some rocks and hopefully a piece of wood to put in the tank as well.

This is about all I can think of at the moment, but hopefully I will be able to post some pictures soon.

 

[brian1973]

I know it can be hard to tell minnow species and you will probably have a hard time finding information on rather they are good to keep captive or not. Hopefully you can find it, but I am guessing this is going to be a big experiment overall. I would recommend keeping very meticulous records that detail every aspect of this tank.