There are a number of wise old adages cautioning aquarists against the problems caused by overfeeding. However, when trying to get fish prepared for healthy spawning, _sometimes_ it is good to _overfeed_ as long as you compensate by _over cleaning_. Feed more? Water change more. So, here's a video sort of "journaling" a day in the life of our Rainbow Shiners. Bear in mind that there is a shy pair of Rainbow Darters in this aquarium as well that need the presence of uneaten frozen food (and live food when we feed that) available on the substrate. Shiners are "drift feeders" so once things settle down low, they do not dig for it like a cichlid might. These males are really coloring up!
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These are some super happy fish!!!!! They are beautiful thanks for introducing them to us.
Got the Darters from Jonah's Aquarium in Columbus Ohio. The Rainbow Darters are from the Ohio River drainage. I'll attach a photo of our male here since they don't really feature in this video. They do not have very buoyant swim bladders, so they scoot around the bottom. Sometimes they'll climb up the wood and perch there. They are in the perch-family. NANFA has a lot of helpful archived articles on both Darters and Shiners here.
The Rainbow Shiners (Notropis chrosomus) I got from the breeder who runs White Cloud Dynasty YouTube channel (Blong Yang). I've already promised to share some of this batch of his with several PVAS members. However, if I can successfully breed them this year, I'll be very glad to share more!
They're a cold water fish. Temperature in the tank is between 63-66 degrees Farenheit. Cold water changes dunk the temp down to 55 degrees Fahrenheit. They're excellent fish to put outside in the early spring, before normal "tubbing" season for most fish. They'll breed in aerated, flowing water over shallow stones. Put a few breeders in a floating basket in a pond with good flow, and they'll drop eggs like crazy all over through the pond basket holes. Check out how White Cloud Dynasty does it on his channel. He gets . . . hundreds and hundreds each year! Photo of his set up below. Basically, a sewn together darice mesh basket, partially immersed with stones underneath to allow eggs to drop through holes, other stones inside on bottom, water flow through PVC into kiddie-pool outdoor makeshift pond . . .
Beautiful fish! Thanks for sharing.
Where did you get the fish from (both the shiners and the darters)?