Framingham Nature Blog - New Shiners For 29 G Aquarium

I had brought a net to Saco, ME, hoping to find some native killifish or shiners to put in my 29 gallon aquarium. They would act as a replacement fish for the newts I released last month. I did not find any fish at the Saco Heath Preserve, or Timber Point. Right before we left, I casually decided to check the little, hidden stream behind my grandpas house. Voila! Schools of minnows were living in it. They were fighting the current and foraging at the same time. After scanning the stream up and down, and slashing my net through the water, I only managed to catch 3. I then decided to put them in a container and pickle jar on the 2 hour ride home.

We stopped at my aunts house on the way back. When I got to my house, they had been in small containers for around 5 hours. That's five hours too long. They swam into my tank, and all was going well. One of them may have been pregnant and was acting strange, shooting up and down. The other 2 were healthy though, In fact, they started feeding only a few minutes after being released into the tank. They were so active and fast moving that it was impossible to get a good picture of any of them.

The next morning, The maybe pregnant one was dead, and on the floor. She had clearly been stressed and jumped out. 2 fish remained. They spend almost all their time close to the filter output. After a few days, the second one disappeared. I do not think it is ethical to keep a schooling fish alone, so the released the last one in a nearby stream.

On the 13th, My friend and I went fishing at Wayland Town beach. Our goal was to catch banded killifish. We accomplished our goal of 10 fish and went beyond-to around 15. My logic was that a certain amount of fish would die during the first few days. I am going to release the most unhealthy and fin-rotted fish first, so i will be left with a manageable amount of fish. As of now, it is actually tempting to keep the whole school, but that is irresponsible, and could cause an insane ammonia problem. Below are pictures.

The killifish turned out to be great aquarium fish so far. A few of them have fin rot (fungal parasite that causes a fishes fins to decay). I am going to treat it by removing any infected fish and making water changes more frequent. I am also going to release like 2/3rds of them anyway so they dont overcrowd the tank. I made the thumbnail by editing the picture to the top right. Below I drew up an informational guide to the Banded Killifish using Sketch.io

On the 14th, I dumped most of the killifish into the Sudbury River. I origionally had 27, but that was an unreasonable amount. I now have 8. I tried to get an equal ratio of small to medium to large killies, but too many medium fish had fin rot, and I have 3 large, 3 small, and 2 medium. The caddisfly larvae, Wood frog tadpoles, and a chain pickerel are now all living temporarily in the 29 G with the killies. The chain pickerel was caught on the 15th at the Assabet River. It is too young to pose a threat to my fish. Pics below.

The Pickerel does not seem interested in any food I offer it, so i might release it soon. On the other hand, the killifish had spent a few days without recognizing food, but now, they are some of the most competitive eaters i have had in this tank. As soon as one of them curiously peck at a blood worm, it starts a chain reaction as seeing others eating turns the other fish into feeding mode. They can eat both food off of the aquarium floor, and worms still falling, suspended in the water.

On the 18th, I released it into the sudbury, with the froglet.