Our new winter pond

[Somethin' Fishy]

I need to hurry up with my tank. I am researching minnows for mine, as I love those fish. Want something to watch for the winter, and it sure sounds like a tank will be interesting. Thanks for the update.

That will be neat! There are so many interesting, and really colorful "minnows". Can't wait to see what you come up with!

 

[Somethin' Fishy]

@Tara - Did you ever put together your tank? I'd love to see what you came up with!

I evicted the babies from our tank, and got them transferred into the pond before it gets any colder. They're doing well out there, and swimming around with the adults.

I did some plant work in the little tank and added some celestial pearl danios (tank raised). They are absolutely fascinating! Pretty active though, so its difficult to get good pictures.

 

[Tara]

Still working on it, I have the tank, a table I fixed up and lights. However every time I think I will have a free day something else has to get done. My tank is a twenty gallon long tank so I'm a little concerned that it may be too small, and also trying to find minnows for sale near me is proving difficult, as no one stocks them. I must say your tank is looking good, the plants have filled in nicely and those are pretty fish you added. I am hoping for some active fish myself that can also be added to a pond if they multiple, as I may build a small nature pond next spring.

 

[Stephen Noble]

@Tara - Did you ever put together your tank? I'd love to see what you came up with!

I evicted the babies from our tank, and got them transferred into the pond before it gets any colder. They're doing well out there, and swimming around with the adults.

I did some plant work in the little tank and added some celestial pearl danios (tank raised). They are absolutely fascinating! Pretty active though, so its difficult to get good pictures.
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The CPD's are beautiful with an amazingly long life span for such a small fish. I have kept mine in a species tank over the years. Great photos! Those little guys are fast movers. I found switching to manual focus really helps capturing images of them.

 

[Somethin' Fishy]

Still working on it, I have the tank, a table I fixed up and lights. However every time I think I will have a free day something else has to get done. My tank is a twenty gallon long tank so I'm a little concerned that it may be too small, and also trying to find minnows for sale near me is proving difficult, as no one stocks them. I must say your tank is looking good, the plants have filled in nicely and those are pretty fish you added. I am hoping for some active fish myself that can also be added to a pond if they multiple, as I may build a small nature pond next spring.

Maybe once the long days of Winter roll in you'll find time to play with it. I have always loved the long tanks, and I'm sure you'll come up with something great for your 20 gal.

Thank you. I'm really enjoying this little tank, probably more so than any other set up I've ever had. Years and years ago, before "nano tanks" were a thing, I set up a 3.5 gallon tank as a salt water. It was really neat, but I like having the plants.

 

[Somethin' Fishy]

The CPD's are beautiful with an amazingly long life span for such a small fish. I have kept mine in a species tank over the years. Great photos! Those little guys are fast movers. I found switching to manual focus really helps capturing images of them.

I'm just fascinated with them! When I was a kid I fell in love with butterfly fish, but I think these little CPDs are now the favorite for tank fish. Active, and so much personality. Perhaps as they mature, and the males start to color up, I'll try for more photos.

 

[Stephen Noble]

They are amazing fish. I always get a kick when a visitor looks into their heavily planted tank and says, "Hey, there's little fish there!" It sounds like you are 'all over it' but here is a link that you might enjoy: https://www.petcha.com/keeping-the-celestial-pearl-danio/
If you feed them live baby brine shrimp the males will 'pop' in color. So vivid.
One thing I learned is they breed like rabbits. But the nice thing about them is pet shops will eagerly accept them.
I wish you success!
Stephen

 

[Somethin' Fishy]

They are amazing fish. I always get a kick when a visitor looks into their heavily planted tank and says, "Hey, there's little fish there!" It sounds like you are 'all over it' but here is a link that you might enjoy: https://www.petcha.com/keeping-the-celestial-pearl-danio/
If you feed them live baby brine shrimp the males will 'pop' in color. So vivid.
One thing I learned is they breed like rabbits. But the nice thing about them is pet shops will eagerly accept them.
I wish you success!
Stephen

Thank you for the link @Stephen Noble, I really enjoyed your article!

 

[Tara]

I finally decided on a placement for my tank @Somethin' Fishy, it turned into something of a process as it was moved all over the house before I was finally happy with its location. So between been busy and moving the poor tank all over the house these weeks, I'm excited to finally be putting it together next week.

 

[Somethin' Fishy]

I finally decided on a placement for my tank @Somethin' Fishy, it turned into something of a process as it was moved all over the house before I was finally happy with its location. So between been busy and moving the poor tank all over the house these weeks, I'm excited to finally be putting it together next week.

I'm excited to see what you do with it @Tara !

I've been slowly re-modeling my little tank. I pulled the anacharis, pruned stuff back, and removed one of the large rocks to replace it with a driftwood piece. Just waiting for the wood to waterlog so I can add it along with the new plants I ordered. Looks pretty boring in there right now, but the fish don't seem to mind.

 

[Tara]

I keep looking for nice things to put in my tank, I'm going boiling some wood today and I just hope it dose not fall apart. Re-modeling sounds fun @Somethin' Fishy because small tank or large there is so many options to explore. Hope your new fish are settled and doing well, I'm thinking that fish even appreciate a change of scenery every now and then.

 

[Somethin' Fishy]

I keep looking for nice things to put in my tank, I'm going boiling some wood today and I just hope it dose not fall apart. Re-modeling sounds fun @Somethin' Fishy because small tank or large there is so many options to explore. Hope your new fish are settled and doing well, I'm thinking that fish even appreciate a change of scenery every now and then.

Just don't mistake the driftwood pot for the soup pot! What type of wood did you get?

I didn't intend to remodel....I just wanted to phase out the anacharis and find some driftwood twigs as an accent. I had to order driftwood, sight unseen, and just hoped I'd get something usable. But the piece I got was so lovely that it needed to be a focal point! So out with one of the rocks! Maybe all of them before its all through... But I wanted to go about the changes slowly enough that it didn't freak out the fish. Turns out, my activity doesn't bother them at all! They follow my aquascaping tools around like puppies, and inspect each new thing I do. Love their personality, and they are starting to color up nicely... They remind me of miniature brook trout!

 

[Somethin' Fishy]

I got sick of waiting for the spider wood to water log, so I chipped off a piece of slate, drilled it, and attached it to the back side of the wood with a stainless screw. Perfect!

I ditched the other big rock in the tank and I'm much happier with it. The fish have more swimming room, and more nooks to explore. The shrimp were on the new wood right away, collecting biofilm from the pond soak. Now I'm just waiting for the rest of the plants I ordered to arrive.

 

[Tara]

I did like like your first tank but I think the way you have it it now is even better. I'm sitting here wishing I had seen your post earlier, as it would have saved me some major aggravation trying to sink the piece of wood in my tank. That was a nice bit of clever on sinking the wood with a piece of slate @Somethin' Fishy .

 

[Somethin' Fishy]

I did like like your first tank but I think the way you have it it now is even better. I'm sitting here wishing I had seen your post earlier, as it would have saved me some major aggravation trying to sink the piece of wood in my tank. That was a nice bit of clever on sinking the wood with a piece of slate @Somethin' Fishy .

Thanks @Tara - I can't take credit for the idea. When I was a kid our family owned a fish shop, and all the driftwood pieces we stocked came already cleaned, trimmed, and mounted to slabs of slate. Too bad I can't find anything like that these days, but I suppose if I did, they would cost an arm and a leg!