Marbles as substrate??

[TwoHedWlf]

Marbles used to be a very common substrate to use when breeding egg scattering fish. Downside is any debris, waste and leftover food drops down into the marbles and you can't get it out easily.
But, otherwise, it works fine.

 

[esoxlucius]

My main consideration is the welfare of the fish, always.

Placing incompatible fish in a tank that is only half full that, on occasion, sloshes about due to choppy waters on the lake sounds absolutely absurd. And what for, just so someone can play i-spy with bits of crap that litter bugs have discarded.

There's no mention of filtration on this tank. Though you do mention that you prefer to get rid of the coral substrate which harbours essential bacteria which keep the tank healthy, and replace it with useless marbles!!!! And the tank is cleaned once a season!

Honestly, i'm staggered that the fish have to live like that. I'm sorry, but the welfare of the fish come first in my book, end of rant.

Footnote:
And whatever you do don't post a picture of yourself dressed like that in your avatar. You're a walking TOS disaster!
(Read the forum "terms of service" to understand that one)

Oh, and welcome to the forum.

 

[Joshuakahan]

I'm curious what folks thoughts are on marble substrate? We run a marina with a 180 gal aquarium - it is used to display fish from our lake, as well as other items one might find in the lake (sunglasses, bottle caps, wallets, gas caps, anchors, fishing poles, etc.). Since the fish in the aquarium are local fish - they are pretty hardy, and we have a pretty good supply of fish if they start to die - so, we're not as concerned about toxicity - just want to make sure the tank water is clear so folks can see the fish.

The attached photo shows the aquarium in the background.

Anyway, would love to hear folks thoughts on using marble as a substrate - other than it seems to be an expensive option.

View attachment 1459951

It depends on the fish, like the others said, they might get eaten and cause a blockage. I threw some marbles in with a Flowerhorn and it was fine

 

[toejam]

My main consideration is the welfare of the fish, always.

Placing incompatible fish in a tank that is only half full that, on occasion, sloshes about due to choppy waters on the lake sounds absolutely absurd. And what for, just so someone can play i-spy with bits of crap that litter bugs have discarded.

There's no mention of filtration on this tank. Though you do mention that you prefer to get rid of the coral substrate which harbors essential bacteria which keep the tank healthy, and replace it with useless marbles!!!! And the tank is cleaned once a season!

Honestly, i'm staggered that the fish have to live like that. I'm sorry, but the welfare of the fish come first in my book, end of rant.

Footnote:
And whatever you do don't post a picture of yourself dressed like that in your avatar. You're a walking TOS disaster!
(Read the forum "terms of service" to understand that one)

Oh, and welcome to the forum.

Well, I appreciate feedback, it is always good to get another's opinion. To (hopefully) assuage some of your concerns, I should note:

- We too are concerned about the welfare of the fish - it serves no purpose to have dead fish floating a our tank in a retail store. The fish we select are hardy, not prone to disease due to change in ph, temperature, algae, etc. We already have an environment where the fish can survive, just am searching for alternatives to the substrate.

- The fish are compatible - they all come from the same lake where they all live together.

- The fish are not large, we only put in smaller fish due to the tank not being completely full.

- One person's crap is another person's treasure. We see this every day when customers run to the tank to see what has been added.

- The tank has filtration, which is monitored and changed/cleaned weekly.

- We basically have a Memorial Day through Labor Day season - typically around 4 months. Using the tank to setup a meticulously monitored environment for breeding, long term utilization, or exotic fish is nonsensical. At the end of the season everything is cleaned and shut down for about 7 months, then we start over for the next season. The way we currently use the tank takes advantage of our environment, business cycle, staff experience, and provides entertaining value to our customers.

- The fish live like that in the lake.

I appreciate where you are coming from. You probably spend countless hours every day reading comments about how to best keep fish alive and improve on the quality of the tank environment. This probably drives you all day, every day. Then someone comes in with less of a focus on how to keep fish alive and that may tend to irritate some. I appreciate where you are coming from.

Please take a moment to step out of your bubble and see where we are coming from.

 

[duanes]

One of the biggest problems I see with marbles, is that fish waste and other debris get caught in the large intersticial spces between them, degrading water quality, and making those spaces look like Krapp depositories.
And are hard to vacuum between, unless done daily.

 

[esoxlucius]

several guessed correctly that the welfare of the fish is not paramount.

We too are concerned about the welfare of the fish

I'm not sure what to say about those two statements you made.

The only fatalities we've had are Crappie that were bullied by the other fish,

The fish are compatible - they all come from the same lake where they all live together.

Course they're compatible, in a multi billion gallon environment.....but in a glass tank, come on.


Listen, i'm not a bad guy. If you stay around long enough you'll get to find that out for yourself. We all have different views on things and this is a situation where we'll have to agree to disagree, no hard feelings.

 

[toejam]

One of the biggest problems I see with marbles, is that fish waste and other debris get caught in the large intersticial spces between them, degrading water quality, and making those spaces look like Krapp depositories.
And are hard to vacuum between, unless done daily.

This thread is constructive, thank you very much for those insights. I have heard this issue as well, but, do not know the time horizon for this issue to manifest. Since our tank is active basically 4 months I am unsure if this issue will become dominant in that time frame. We definitely do not want to display a tank that has Krapp depositories - it will end up being more of a deterrent.

If it is an issue, we would need to know how to mitigate. You suggest daily cleaning, which could be done, but, adds to the overall overhead of maintaining the tank. In this case, adding marbles to reduce cleaning does not sound reasonable if we have to transition from weekly cleaning to daily cleaning. If daily cleaning is not required, the marbles may still be feasible.

 

[toejam]

I'm not sure what to say about those two statements you made.

Course they're compatible, in a multi billion gallon environment.....but in a glass tank, come on.

Listen, i'm not a bad guy. If you stay around long enough you'll get to find that out for yourself. We all have different views on things and this is a situation where we'll have to agree to disagree, no hard feelings.

The two statements sound contradictory - the reality is that the fish welfare has not been an issue (hence a concern) because we have identified hardy fish that will survive and are compatible in our tank environment. It's not that we don't care about their welfare so much as that we have already solved that issue. We simply don't want to introduce a change that would alter that dynamic - hence, the inquiry regarding changing substrate.

Positive, constructive feedback that we can take action on is greatly appreciated and creates a collaborative atmosphere. I look forward to seeing that from the more experienced members of this forum.

 

[celebrist]

Since you are going with a "natural " look, litter and all I would think that marbles would not fit the theme. I also agree that fish waste would settle in the spaces between the marbles and both be unsightly a d require more upkeep not less. A moss bed might work and could partially hide some of the searchable items

 

[Bbuckley]

You could try installing a air curtain under the marbles to help keep some of the dirt up in the water column for the filter to take up ?