| There will be a substantial difference in
the natural setup you will find in the field and the actual set-ups in your tanks at home.
I knew that before my first collecting trip but also knew that I could make adjustments as
I went along. It is important to make
observations in the field that can be duplicated at home. Some of the things you see you
can not duplicate and some you can. You are really looking for concepts to duplicate and
not actual details.
For example...the types of darters we like
to collect are generally found in swiftly moving water which is flowing over some pretty
substantial gravel. The gravel is not aquarium gravel sized stuff...it's big. The water is
not merely flowing...it's actually pretty dawgone swift, sometimes hard to stand up in.
The water is also cold to touch (generally in the 50s and low 60 F). Scattered across the
bottom are larger stones the size of one's fist and larger. The larger stones seem to
create eddies in the current which the darters learn to use as part of their unique style
of motion...darting.
 So we set up the tanks with some pretty impressive rocks and
gravel...install a power head (AquaClear 301 in a 15...Otto 1500 in a 30) and keep the
water flowing directly over the fish day and night.
The gravel that we observed in
the field had a more angular edge to the stones...sharper if you will. While there were a
few choices that exhibited such an edge, the rounded stones were chosen for their darker
color and ease on the fish-keepers hands while cleaning the gravel. The sized however
seemed to be universal in a number of collection locations where we have either observed
darters or collected fish for the breeding program.
We put about 2 1/2 - 3 inches
of the gravel in the bottom of the tank and then place stones the size of one's fist into
the gravel base. On top of those we place a couple of handfuls of pebble about the size of
a 50 cent piece along one side of the tank. The fish like to hide amongst the rocks,
scooting from site to site through the rushing water
You can tell by the air bubbles in the next photo that the water is pretty swift...the O2
is probably pretty high and the fish are happy. Darters love the fast water and when they
are content and happy you will find that they like to perch themselves on the tops of the
signal rocks.
Because we live in a temperate climate, our summer temperatures don't normally get too
high...but there are those times when the air temperature might be in the 90s or pass the
100 mark. When the temperatures go up we reverse the time of day for the fish and
set the timers to light the fishrooms during the nighttime and let the rooms go dark in
the day. The room has fans and they blow all day and night. With the fans and the reverse
lighting we seem to be able to keep the fish in good condition despite the high
temperatures.
The reverse of the situation is in the
winter. We can get some pretty cold temperatures but generally speaking it does not freeze
in the unheated portion of the fishrooms. Those area are great for over-wintering the
native fish. We don't heat the tanks in the winter and have had absolutely no problems
with freezing.
 
(click on the photo for larger images)
Feeding the darters has not proven to be too difficult. While we are fortunate to be able
to feed all of our fish live foods, we have found that these fish will take flaked foods
on a selective basis. They are pretty picky when it comes to flakes but they will take
them. We really doubt the ability to achieve any long term success with these types of
fish without some sort of live food in their diet...probably the core of the diet.
You can count on the fish relishing
mosquito larvae, daphnia, blackworms, live brine shrimp, baby brine shrimp, and Grindal
worms. We have fed each of these live foods on numerous occasions. Even the freshly
collected fish will tear into any of these foods.
We change water in the darter tanks on a
very regular basis. Twice a week, the fish get a shot of new water...20% each time. The
tanks all have sponge filtration and a powerhead for circulation. We use our standard tap
water (sans chlorinates) and the water is about 110 ppm in general hardness and has a pH
of 7.0. |
