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Help Picking Small Fish For School Project

Brewster320

Brewster320

New member
Ok for my AP Enviromental class I have a project that I have to do thats right up my ally. I need to make a eco-bio-bottle type thing, its basicly a self-sustaining vivarium in a bottle(well more lik 2 bottles connected to each other). The top land part I'm not going to have a problem with, I'm good at making vivariums and have two large ones in my house right now. The bottom part, water, though I need some help with. the whole idea of the project is that it self maintains and for the water half I have a plants( keeps the water clear and produces oxygen) and a snail(eats fish/plant waste and algea). I also need a small fish or 2. I've been planning on using mosquito fish because they fit the niche perfectly, omnivorous and will eat anything( bits of plants, algea, snail eggs, ect.), are real hardy, don't mind cool water(obviously there isn't going to be a heater in bottle), and can live fine at low oxygen levels. However they have actually proven to be difficult to find and I may have to resort to finding another species of fish that fits the niche. Any ideas of fish I could use? I've though guppies but I've noticed they can be pretty sensetive to the water quality so I'm not sure how they'd work out. Also NO BETTAS! I have never had luck with them, have killed every betta I've ever owned. So inorder to prevent the needless suffering of bettas I will be avoiding these fish.
 
Hmmmm.... you can try some male Endler's Live Bearers. The females might get too big but the males stay nice and small. Mine are so prolific I got garter snakes to eat them. If the garters aren't hungry it's amazing how long the will live in the water bowl.
 
Nothing is more bullet proof (in my aquatic-based pet shop) than the aforementioned white cloud. That said, I never lose a betta, either. White clouds are temperate, so require no heat in an average home, eat ANY foods you offer, and I regularly find babies growing up in my sumps! They sell for between a dollar and a buck fifty around here. And, it's cool to have something so prolific in your tank that is extinct in the wild!
 
I was all ready to say get a betta but since you don't want to do that, I also vote for the white cloud, those little guys can survive all sorts of stuff!
 
Whiteclouds, all the way. They dont need heat, they're small, and thrive easily.
Plus, i find them quite pretty. :)
 
Also meant to add, labyrinth fish (bettas, gouramis, paradise fish etc) might get kind of big for what you want to do, and need more surface water to draw air....also usually they like heat as well (most like it around 75*) so they don't sound very ideal...but you were already steering away from bettas so i guess this is just a side note. :)
 
wstphal said:
Maybe zebra danios, they are tolerant of cool temps & iffy water quality.
Click to expand...

I love my danios, but they love their heat, need to be heated. My heater failed once, and all my breeding stock died...

Steer clear of all the tropical fish. Including, Glowlights, Neons, Tetras, So on...

The mountian minnows are great. So are Bettas
 
I would skip fish all together and use some cherry red shrimp. Just because while some fish can live in tiny spaces I wouldn't necesarrily put them in tiny spaces. Also the red shrimp are SO interesting and hardy.. Only thing that might prevent their use is the temperature. Lori knows every dang thing about them, you might want to pick her brain a bit! And she has the yellow ones I believe. Even cooler!
 
Well unfortunately I haven't been able to find any cloud minnows and the fish were due today so I went with a back up plan and got two zebra danio. I did research and apparently they do find in water temps as low as 64 degrees so they should be ok. I also have a snail, java moss, and 2 other plants I don't really know what they are lol. For land I have lucky bamboo, ivy, an xmas catus, a very large earth worm, 2 pill bugs, a red backed salamander and flightless fruit flies. It looks really good and I'm pretty confident it will work for awhile. I'll try to get some pictures tomorrow for you guys.
 
I was going to comment earlier that most people use brine shrimp, (sea monkeys), as the aquatic animal. For those that want to know more about them, just search Ecosphere, where you can buy them in a sealed globe that thrive with just sunlight...
 
Brewster320 said:
Well unfortunately I haven't been able to find any cloud minnows and the fish were due today so I went with a back up plan and got two zebra danio. I did research and apparently they do find in water temps as low as 64 degrees so they should be ok. I also have a snail, java moss, and 2 other plants I don't really know what they are lol. For land I have lucky bamboo, ivy, an xmas catus, a very large earth worm, 2 pill bugs, a red backed salamander and flightless fruit flies. It looks really good and I'm pretty confident it will work for awhile. I'll try to get some pictures tomorrow for you guys.
Click to expand...

I bred danios in junior high & high school. Mine survived multiple winter power failures. I know their water got down into the low 60s, because I was busy boiling water on a cast iron stove to keep the temps in the other tanks high enough to keep my higher end fish alive... I think they will do OK.
 
I'd actually like to set-up my own tank soon with guppies, mollys, platies, and swordtails and just let them breed and use them as feeders. I'd look nice and cut done on the cost of some of the feedings.
 
It's great that you're teaching kids about eco-systems! But I see a few problems with your setup that I'd like to point out.

Snails don't eat fish poo. They themselves poop quite a bit and therefore produce ammonia, which is mainly what makes fish water dirty. They do eat some forms of algae and leftover fish food, but not fish poo. No fish or snail eats fish poo. There are two ways the ammonia that fish poo can be removed. One is to do a physical water change, the other is to have beneficial bacteria absorb it, then convert it to nitrites. Nitrites are bad for fish, but not as bad as ammonia. Over time the level of nitrites goes down, though this all happens with a filtered tank.

The kind of aquarium you're making is actually a challenging thing to do successfully, and for an extended period of time without having everything die.

How big are the bottles? I can't think of any sized bottle that would make a good home for a salamander to be honest. What do you feed it? How do you feed the fish? Also, don't let the leaves of the bamboo go underwater. They'll die and pollute everything, not fun lol.

You should post pics of your other aquatic plants, as I know Petco and Petsmart sell "aquatic" pants that are actually more like bog plants and will die when kept underwater for too long. I could probably identify them for you.

I don't mean to be rude or anything, so I'm sorry if anything I've said was pushy. I just want to make sure the fish/animals live and that the kids learn not only about eco-systems, but about proper animal care. n____n
 
The bamboo doesn't touch the water, its in the land part. Also the salamander is a redbacked salamander, tiny, thats why I put fruit flies in there(with a large piece of banana). And the fish are suposed to eat parts of the plants, they're omnivorous. Also I know the plants for the water are true water plants because they can't even suport themselves out of the water. I watched out for that Cause I notced they were selling some plants as aquarium plants when really they are land plants.
Best Pic I could get, everything fogged up because of the humidity.
DSC03893.jpg
 
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