Hi. I've been thinking about starting up a native tank for a while, I used to do saltwater but decided to quit after repeated fish loss. I'm not very knowledgable on native species asides from game fish and minnows. Anyway my tank is 30 gallons and has a high output light for native plants. Any suggestions for species ( was thinking green sunfish x pumpkinseed or som sand shiners) and or other advice?
First Native tank
- Thread starter Dako
- Start date
I'm honestly not sure what is "natice" to Toronto, but pan fish of some sort are pretty cool and smaller ones will be OK in a 30 (at least for a while). I find the local river bream here to be fascinating. Not sure what the correct scientific name is and too lazy to look it up right now. They have an electric blue banding across the face that is quite attractive. You will just have to research in your area. Make sure keeping wild fish is legal there and search for fish that will be OK in that size tank. I'm sure you can come up with some attractive and interesting species.
One more thing, make sure you find species that can be maintained in the temp ban of your home year round. Many natives require a cooler than normal temp especially in the winter. I'm assuming you do not want to invest in a chiller for a 30 with native species.
The natives will be fine with the room temperatures all year around. Perhaps you should leave this to the experts?
I wouldn't keep a hybrid green x pumpkinseed in a 30gal tank...the hybrid sunfish get larger, easily surpassed 10-12". Also your 30gal tank is too small for all gamefish species. You can do shiner/daces/darters/madtom combo if you want a native community tank. Or do a mini predator tank such as scuplins, larger topminnows/killifishes, mudminnow, pirate perch and small Enneacanthus species. Small Lepomis species (Orangespotted, Northern Longear, Bantam and Dollars) may work in a 30gal depends if its well planted and not overcrowded.
Blacknose Dace would be great for your 30gal tank but I wouldn't house large shiners, especially common and golden shiners which can get up to 10" and they need more space for swimming. Fathead minnows and redbelly daces should be great novice natives for you.
I maintain a aquarium for a small museum with muskie. TWRA (Tennessee Wildlife Resource Agency) would not permit it unless we agreed to get a chiller, so that is not necessarily true. You are closer to him than I and probably more knowledgeable, so I'll go with your wisdom. Sorry to get off topic and best of luck to you both.
Muskies prefers cooler water, but panfish prefers warm water even though they can survive fine under ice. Don't think muskies will work in a 30gal. in any case, so I don't think a chiller will be necessary.
