Question on Iron Colored Shiners

[Dr. Laser]

While out hanging with a friend near a creek I saw and preceded to catch two small fry swimming with a group of mixed age iron colored shiners. The two shiners I caught were less than a quarter of an inch long with the smallest being about 1/8 th of an inch long. I am currently housing these two in a 16 oz container to get them used to frozen ground shrimp and gold fish flakes with plans to move them into a 10 gallon tank. Now here is my question these shiners are not supposed to excede 3 inches will a 10 gallon be enough to house them? Next question involves the filtering of the aquarium. As I mentioned they are currently housed in a 16 oz container and I hope to move them by the end of the month until then what should I use as a filter(biological or man made) now for the transition to the ten gallon tank what brand of filter would you suggest? I did basic research to find out that these guys do not swim deeper than 1 and 1/2 feet and feed on a variety of things from detrious to small crustacians bugs and bug larvae and they will munch on algae and grasses and they like sandy and rocky bottoms to mate. Should I go acquire some algae and sand from where I caught them? The holding cell they are in now is filled with water from the creek I caught them from to maintain water temp and pH until the switch. Sorry for the enourmous post I just want to make these little ones as happy and healthy as possible. In closing I know the rule for fresh water fish is that for every two to three inches means another ten gallons of tank space does this apply hear? K i'm done I swear

 

[bassbonediva]

I haven't heard that rule about for every two to three inches of fish it's another ten gallons. The general rule I follow (and it's a VERY general rule) is two gallons of water for every inch of fish.

You're doing daily water changes on that 16oz container, right? If you aren't, the ammonia your little ones are producing is quickly going to overwhelm them. I'd say change out at least 50% of the water daily to keep your ammonia levels down.

I'm not sure about filtering a 16oz container...I know some DIY sponge filters you can make, but I don't know if you can make them small enough. As far as filtering the 10gal, I like the Penguin filters or the AquaClear filters.

My biggest concern is that these shiners are more than likely shoaling fish (as is evidenced by the fact that you caught them from a schoal) and with just two, they may not be entirely happy. Most schooling/schoaling fish are generally happiest in groups of five or larger, but you wouldn't have room in a 10gal tank to do a schoal of five 3" fish.

 

[Dr. Laser]

So i'm looking at about a 20 to 30 gallon tank correct? If so that's still reasonable and As far as the container goes I have only had them about 13-14 hrs at this point so I guess i will very very carefuly poor out half of the water and introduce tap water every 24 hrs. Will that suffice? What I am worried about is with them being so little will the switch schock their systems too much?

 

[Dr. Laser]

UPDATE roughly Half of the water has been changed and things are going swimingly (no pun intended) I'll post pictures of the two when their colors develop what I saw at the nature center were some very beautiful fish along with a 4-6 lb largemouth bass.

 

[bassbonediva]

I googled the ironcolor shiners and they are adorable little fishes!

Are you on a well or city water? If you're on a well, I'd just keep doing what you're doing. If you're on city water, make sure you use a dechlorinator (like Prime or Tetra AquaSafe) to get rid of all the chemicals they put in city water.

And yeah, I'd say if you want them to be happy and healthy, a minimum 20gal tank (preferably a long tank since I would bet they prefer a lot of swimming space) is needed. Kudos to you for wanting to do this right!

 

[Dr. Laser]

I am on a city system and forgot about the dechlorinator... I will go run and get some tomorrow and I will go pick up a 20 gallon tank with filter

 

[Dr. Laser]

There is a slight odor coming from the tank what could that be? I am also leaving town for a week in about 2 months should i drop them off at a friends house or have a neighbor come in and feed them?

 

[lauraf]

For now I'd focus on getting some Prime to treat your tap water (it takes care of chlorine and chloramine) and rehoming these guys in the larger tank. Don't worry about two months from now.
You should go gather some more water and 'stuff' from your creek to fill the new tank and ensure it is 'cycling', so that as you add treated tap water, a new filter, etc. all the good bacteria is still viable.
Are you familiar with the nitrogen cycle?

 

[Dr. Laser]

I am indeed that bacteria take the amonia use it to perform cellular respiration and produce 2 types of biproduct one of which is good for fish the other is harmful to fish

 

[lauraf]

I am indeed that bacteria take the amonia use it to perform cellular respiration and produce 2 types of biproduct one of which is good for fish the other is harmful to fish

Super! Good luck with getting your fish established in the tank. Keep us posted. (BTW, it will be better to have someone come in once or twice to feed the fish when you are away - they will be fine for several days without food - as opposed to trying to move the whole tank.)

 

[Dr. Laser]

i am in luck i am re purposing a 2 gallon food container to a fish tank for their next stage of life (im trying to keep this as cheap as possible as per my parents request) my question is is how should i go about the transfer? they would be moving up from half a gallon to 2 and they still have some of the original water i caught them in. Should i take the new re purposed container and fill it with water from the area I caught them in? or can i very carefully fill up half the tank with tap water put in declorinator than poor them in??? I still plan to upgrade to the 30 gallon it just will be about 4 weeks till the 30 gallon is open (a friend is using it as a staging tank then giving it to me).

 

[lauraf]

I'd make sure you add some 'stuff' from the creek so that you have enough good bacteria to keep the container cycled. While in theory you should be okay to add treated tap water to fill up the 2g, to be on the safe side I'd use creek water for the move to the bigger container this time. I have no idea how well shiners acclimate to being in a domesticated environment.

 

[Dr. Laser]

What if I take the "dirty" water from the small container and used that to cycle the tank? The spot where I caught them is over 2 miles away and that's a long walk back carrying 16 pounds of pond water...

 

[lauraf]

By 'dirty water' do you mean the water that the shiners are in already? Absolutely you should be using that - it's just whether you might need more creek water or creek plants to keep the cycle going. How big are your shiners right now?

 

[Dr. Laser]

Smallest is roughly 1/8th of aninch wiith the biggest being half an inch.

I'm also building a DIY biological/physcal filter that should be able to handle 4-6 gallons and the container is only 2 gallons.