The Least of my worries.

[Dimidiata]

Got some shrimp and plants for my 2gallon planted solid glass jar today...i know, pics wanted.

Disguised as a shrimp, a little least darter somehow found its way into my purchase. The store doesn't sell them, they dont even order them, apparently they just show up in the shrimp packages some times. And they had NO idea what the fish was.

Needless to say, its the cutest little thing EVER. And i have No idea as to what im going to do -_-. They are temperate from what i know. I keep my 29 at 76-78 for my gold barbs sake so i set up a QT breeder box(inside of a plastic bag to separate fully) in the 29. Acclimated and released. Now comes the fun part, i want to set up a species tank. It should take me 1-2 months to get it all together, luckily i dont need a heater right now as my room stays nice in the summer.

My idea is this
10gal
large filter(buffered slightly, i just want the filtration)
small gravel on the bottom with larger river stones or slate.
Plants, java fern and water sprite.
an adjustable heater for the cooler months.

Ill probably add 3-4 more darters as well, 1 male and the rest female(like the one i currently have.)

Coming from a feeder tank, i dont expect the little guy to do so well, tbh.

 

[Dimidiata]

Well....shes still alive this morning soooooo YAY!

 

[katie_]

Looks like a gudgeon to me

 

[Dimidiata]

That was my initial thought, but it has 2 dorsals, gudgeon do not.

It also turns out after a long talk with a store owner at a diffrent fish store that 50% of all ghost shrimp shipments they get out of florida have swamp darters in them. Looks like i have a swamp darter, this makes me very happy.

The least darter was nice and all, but they are a cool temperate fish(low 70s down to freezing). Swamp darters are a warm temperate fish(mid 60s upper 70s)

This means i can add another florida native, the blue fin Killi, to my stocking.

 

[katie_]

We get so many refugees in our feeder shipments. Mostly tadpoles and crayfish.

 

[Dimidiata]

Daw! Well, i will offically feel bad now everytime i see one of them in a shrimp tank -_-.

Now, what on earth are they doing in there???? Are ghosts bred in open water ways?? Or are they collected?

 

[katie_]

Pretty sure theyre commercially bred.
Possible theyre bred in open ponds where other wildlife migrates to?
I'll ask!

 

[Dimidiata]

My only other theory is that they add these crays and darters to help clean up scraps and dead shrimp? The darters really are cool little guys though, they make for an excellent species/biotope tank. I just realized that i could pull off keeping hillstream loaches with them in a 20gal.....now the gears are turning.

 

[katie_]

I'm not allowed any more fish tanks
How sad.

 

[Dimidiata]

Thats....thats....omg thats horrible.

So, i thought id mention that im stuck with a semi wild fish that has probably never seen pellet or non live food once in it life. Yeah. I have tried EVERYTHING so i finally broke out the frozen blood worms, it looked at them and when they didnt move, it ignored them. So i was stuck wiggling worms in front of its face much like how i do mice with snakes. At least it ate some. It also Killed and ate a very small ghost shrimp 0.0 Like a friggin tiger shark.

So, me thinks i will have to get some brine shrimp for initial feeding.

 

[animeavatar]

Hillstream loaches? Me die of extreme jealousy. I want one or 2 or 3 hehe but since they prefer cooler temps compared to my fish... I can't have anymore fishy tanks too. Life sucks but at least I have one!( my optimism)

 

[Dimidiata]

Yeah, their going to have to wait a year or 2 lol .

 

[katie_]

Yeah it is terrible. I own my own house and everything.

You'll find something. All salt water fish are from the ocean and they manage to eat flake over time.

 

[Dimidiata]

I figured, its just going to be fun trying to convince them to do it. Also, we have SW fish farms all over Fl, what do you mean by from the ocean, i know we have plenty of farm bred clowns, damsels and so on?

 

[The Gecko Person]

So that's what it was! I catch them in lakes in the wild all the time. I thought they were some kind of freshwater goby. They are very widespread in their native habitats.

 

[Dimidiata]

Well, yeah . I mean, that doesnt make it a Swamp Darter, but it could be any number of darter. Swamp and least darter look extremely identical. I can only ID them by the situation on which they are found or obtained.

 

[RampantReptiles]

Thats such a cute fish! It does look like a gudgeon, I love it
What a lucky find.
I got a blue fin killifish from the local Petco that they tried to pass off as a Black Neon Tetra. He didnt look like much at the time, like a really small flying fox but now he has nice red and when the light hits the fins just right its a brilliant blue color. I wish I had more of them they are pretty
Like this guy: http://www.fishbase.org/images/thumbnails/jpg/tn_Lugoo_m2.jpg

I have an ulterior motive for visiting the fish section... looking for advice but I will start another thread