Hey all! So this coming April I plan on having a new tank and i already set to my mind that it would be a native community tank. I would like to hear from all of you any tips on how i should start this cause i have only had experience from relatively species-only setups.

Some questions:

• should i use substrate sourced from my area?

Fish species in my area:

• Swordtails
• Unknown species of halfbeak

Inverts:

• Caridina-like species of shrimp
• Freshwater crab of unknown species
• Pond snails
• Malaysian Trumpet Snails
• Some kind of big mts

Plants:

• Vallisneria
• Java moss
• Riccardia chamedryfolia
• Duckweed
• Salvinia
• Azolla

So thats all i know of of the wildlife here, I was planning to go like swordtails, halfbeak, shrimp, mts with vals, duckweed, and driftwood that have moss and riccardia. I would gladly like for anyone to have an opinion on this, thanks!

Did you get a friend for the solo molly you had, and are the native shrimps still doing well?

You are very lucky to have so much native stuff for your tanks, we don't have anything here I can think of! I assume you won't need a heater if they live happily outside where you are,  or a light unless the tank will be away from windows. It would probably still need a filter though as it is a closed system?

Most crabs need to be able to get out of the water occasionally and are great escape artists so probably best keep away from them, and they would almost certainly attack fish or shrimp as well.

It sounds like a fun project. Hopefully some-one with knowledge of your location can give you some advice? I don't know whether it is as easy as just foraging everything locally, but look forward to hearing others views who have tried it maybe? I guess water changes would be really easy if you are using local products? I used to collect leaves from the lake to put in the tank but don't do that anymore as you never know what is hitching a ride and I ended up with waterlouse om the fish tank, yuck!

I did keep a newt I caught 'when I was lad' for a while but they are protected species here now, there are some in one of the ponds though!

Simon

Hi there Simon

Im terribly sorry for this very late reply but yeah i have bought my molly 2 friends for her to be distracted with.

The natives are surely getting better cause im starting to notice that some of them are developing these white stripes on their back. But ive had a problem because ive had few to no juvies in the whole time i caught them. I dont know if these kind of shrimp need brackish water or they may simply just be eaten by the molly.

Oh and by the way i have this really really annoying planaria infestation in the cull tank which could be an explanation to the lack of juvies but ive no comprehensive evidence of their absence.

Have you even seen a berried shrimp as they may not be mature enough, or as you say they may need brackish water for a larvae stage?

I had a hydra problem and used AquaSL Z-1 and it worked so it would be worth trying that if you can get it. It is a natural product so didn't harm anything and you just treat it the once. I did have to do a second treatment but it is easy enough and it is supposed to also work on Planaria!

Simon

Thanks for the recommendation Simon I'll try and find those online soon.

Oh and ive found that the natives dont give birth in brackish cause i found a tiny baby shrimp this morning and i was thrilled because it also had good patterns on it. Ive also found out that the shrimp were mainly divided into two which were bluish and reddish coloring and i have pictures of them