I am planning for a 400 gallon native species aquarium for the shop I work at.

The tank will be exposed to sunlight and it is my intension to have one engineered that will have a constant current cycling through it. It is to represent the Mississippi River and the species that the Balde Eagle has had in its natural ecosystem for the millenias prior to european settlement.

I am curious as to if any of you have suggestions for me to consider in design and species of fish to try to obtain for the tank. Further, will I need to farm my own food for the tank? I want this to be as sustainable and natural as possible with limited feeding behaviors imprinted on my fishes.

I know its a few questions balled in one and thank you in advance for your input.

My start on a species wish list is;

Gizzard Shad
Shovelnose Sturgeon
Northern Hogsucker
Blue Sucker
Paddle Fish
Mooneye
Goldeye
Paddle Fish
Mooneye
Goldeye
Quillback Carpsucker
Spotted Sucker
Golden Redhorse
River Redhorse
Greater Redhorse
Warmouth
Silver Shiner

I am also curious as to how I should be thinking about the predator species as they will need to be somehow integrated in the mini ecosystem.

thanks again!

If you haven't yet, make sure you contact the good folks at the North American Native Fishes Association at: http://www.nanfa.org/

Careful on how much sunlight you expose this project to! In an enclosed ecosystem like that you will end up with more sporatic algaes than you bargain for. Also regardless of some peoples popular beliefs you do have to maintain fairly pristine water quality remember enclosed systems dont clean and filter themselves. A good sand filter along with a large wet-dry system would work, whatever you choose make sure it has a good oxygen exposed surface area of media to grow the proper bacterias to help break down the unwanted wastes etc. Some of those species are going to be pretty difficult to run together as they will need diff. care. Remember native species and game fish do grow lots quicker than most would think and can be very hard on each other, give them space. Do not over crowd or you wont have the success that you hope for and may lose ambition with it! aka experience. Best of luck! By the way many minnows species. . . goldeye, mooneye, shad, shiners, need fast moving and sometimes cooler water the suckers probly be easy shot with those and a gd mix sometimes a chiller unit is required paddlefish very tough to keep hard when juv. to get to eat and sustain preditory species dont like near as much current slack area would be choice besides they will use to much energy keeping in heavy current which also means more food they will need. Again good luck would love to help.

As far as the sun ligt gos, the tank could get to hot too.

400 gal is to small for paddlefish.

Crayfish

Gars, lots of gars.......

I am assuming that you plan on catching these different species yourself and introducing them to your home aquarium. Something to keep in mind is that our good friends at the MnDnr prohibit the taking of fish for home aquaculture! Of course if you have a youth accompanying you they can take fish for a home aquarium. I find it very baffling that i can catch a dozen bullheads for the table legally; but cannot take one for my fish tank?? As far as gizzard shad go i have had little success keeping them alive for long at all after removing them from native waters, very touchy species.

Good luck, sounds like it will be a very impressive display after completion!

once we get the equipment hammered out I will be contacting my resources at the USFWS and MNDNR for consultation on acquiring and maintaing the fishes.

Mooneyes/Goldeyes would be an excellent addition to such a tank. Paddlefish would be basically impossible as they need huge quantities of plankton several times a day. I've kept spotted suckers, redhorses, quillbacks, etc. and feeding them can be a bit difficult. For whatever reason, they don't adapt well to aquarium feeding. They liked frozen bloodworms (midge larvae) but those get expensive. A composting vermiculture system with redworms might be a good addition. Fish adapt better if you start them as very young juveniles and let them grow up in the tank. You can get a butterfly net and do "field sweepings" to get terrestrial insects to feed fish that will eat insects.

Mooneyes are delicate and tend to die when caught; some people I know who have successfully kept them in aquaria say the only way to do it is to catch them when the water is very cold. Most fish are more durable in cold water when their metabolism is down.

Catfishes are easy. Most predatory fishes are easy. Sunfishes are easy. Eels are easy so long as you keep the tank lid firmly locked down. Some east coast bait dealers will ship live baby eels (for striper bait) basically anywhere, so that's one way to get some eels for the tank. I'd be careful with overcrowding the tank with big fish. It's a big tank but when you are talking about river and greater redhorses, blue suckers etc. it's only going to be able to keep a couple of them at adult size, so you may want to have a bigger variety of fishes with a smaller maximum size. Spotted and hog suckers, quills, goldens, shortheads, drum, mooneyes, stonecats, logperch, etc. are all great; if you keep predators out you could have some schools of large chubs and shiners or darters as well.

Talk to Jenny at the MN Aquarium society; she's a native fish in aquaria expert and could help out a lot. She will probably have some native fish to display at their annual show on April 8. Otherwise it might be worthwhile to just show up at one of their monthly meetings and ask around about native fish; there are a lot of knowledgeable aquarium people in MAS (although only a few are into natives, a LOT are into big tanks and big fish and that knowledge will help with your tank). There might be some people even interested in helping with setup.
http://www.aquarium.mn/main/

You need a Bowfin for sure! Plus it is a durable specie for varying temp.s and clarity.

Mudpuppies, Clams, Crayfish, Madtoms. An Eel would be super sweet! Bullhead trio would be sweet too (Black, Brown, Yellow).

Make one of those reef balls like they do for artificial reefs. You make them out of cement and can make them any size or shape you want. You can build ledges and little caves into it.

Live native plants would be cool; plus nymphs and scuds could be added to cling to the weeds for looks and to feed a couple of the species of fish.

Have fun with it!

Crayfish are also another one of those species that are illegal to distribute though the aquaculture chain you may be able to aquire some through legal ways ex. donations or scientific studies thats why schools can still get them. I do still get them in with feeders through the fish store along with many different game fish species and the season is turning out some perfect sizes currently. we also have a couple of really cool gars in about the 4"-6" range. . . always cool!

Thanks everyone!

This is wonderful.

I have scratched Paddlefish from my list.

I will be considering Gar for my predominate predator species.

I understand that I will have to rotate fish stocks regularly and would prefer to rear fishes that belong in the stretch of river that flows past your National Eagle Center as I have an idealism to release the fish in the river.

Although Gizzard Shad are the main forage species for our overwintering Eagles I believe that I will seek an alternative Cyprinid to replace their biomass in the system.

I will be considering the carrying capacity of my ecosystem with that of the sustainably obtained and realistic biomass that I wish to complete it with.

I thank you for the reminder that NANFA is there for such educative opportunities and for the introduction to the Aquarium Society. I am sure that both organizations will be of great benefit by offering fantastic insight to our project.

I am familiar to schools of tiny silver fishes throughout the year in the waters of the Pool 5a system of the Mississippi. I have been told they are Shiners. Is this the case?

I have found similar species in the main channel, the backwaters, and the lowest sections of spring creeks that drain into the river. I would be curious as to if this/these species carries a similar abundance in Pool 5. If so, I suspect these fishes to be an ideal forage base for the predator species.

I will need to further investigate Red Worm farming. I would like to rear a native species of worm in order to support the happiness of my native fishes. Are Red Worms a native species?

If you're North, forget the sunshine and get a timed lighting set-up. Your typical plants, even the native varieties will grow MUCH better in longer light periods. I'm guessing you don't want die off and decay, the longer periods keep them growing nicely.

If you can, get them to eat natural, meal worms and such are very clean food. Fish tend to absord the good parts and poop the exoskeletons. Carp and similar may actually "mouth expel" the indigestible parts. This stuff doesn't foul the water and the fish do great. Keep food that gets missed and rots to a minimum.

Nymphs and live crawly aquatics tend to be great food...for 3 seconds, then it hides and survives. Especially near rocks and gravel. Careful there, they are great at NOT being eaten.

Scrubbers like carpsuckers and such when young? Wait! Let the substrate naturalize a bit and grow some type of nutrient on it. I had a River Carpsucker for a awhile, all it did was scrub clean rock in futility until it died. I don't doubt young Redhorse are much the same, they need a fertile floor in place to do their thing.

Sculpins are beautiful and do well in tanks, they learn to grab food in many forms. Even use current and move into choice spots to intercept it. Mudminnows and Grinnel are awesome posturing fish, native and active especially in lower light periods. Think entertainment value, they are cool to watch. A school of young cats or bullheads is a wondrous thing in a tank, they rarely miss any food. Good clean-up crew.

I suggest going for smaller species that get along well in a tank. Yeah, it's 400 gallons, but these are river fish used to huge spaces. Even adult chubs will dart about wildly in a closed environment as if it's to small. Think of how far even a small sucker scrams when spooked in it's native environment! They'll bang their snouts constantly in any tank that's less than huge and vast once they are of any size.

Careful with predators, at some point everything looks as if it will fit down the throat. Especially in a closed system.

I'm with everyone on the caution when it comes to predatory fish. Any marine aquarist I've known have said they require a lot of attention and frequent feedings if kept with bait fish. So if you still opt for the predatory fish try to keep them limited to the smaller species. As far as your other fish they all sound like great additions as most will be active during the day. As has been mentioned let the substrate mature for a while before introducing any bottom dwelling species such as the redhorse. For a healthy substrate you'll probably need some kind of biological stuff such as muck. If you use something like that it would be pretty cool to watch the redhorse forage for invertebrates. Guess that's my two cents and good luck with all of it!

There are different claypac matrials that most real fish stores will carry thet would be a rooting substrate that would go under the gravel. Remember anything rooting around hevily will tend to uproot most any plants.

I have to second the recommendations for NANFA and Jenny. I once asked Jenny how many tanks she had - she couldn't even guess.

I should start by saying that I would love to have a tank like that...

What are the dimensions on the 400 gal tank? Pool 5 is an amazing place with many diverse habitats which account for the massive species diversity.

I would recommend starting simply. Get a huge filter and be very very thoughtful when doing the plumbing. I am currently plumbing a 30gal (36" long) tank with a 850 gph pump so that it looks like a river. This project has proven much more difficult than I expected. I have had to learn a lot about pipe sizing and suction velocity... when in doubt add unions and ball valves so that you can take it apart!

As far as fish: I would start with one species assembly and expand from there. Hogsuckers, blues, silver redhorse, and river redhorse tend to stick to the bare high current areas.

Spotted suckers, goldens, warmouth tend to be found in calmer weedy areas. If I had to choose I would start out with the slow water species and then add logperch (may prefer some current but very adaptable), mud darter (SGCN), orangespotted sunfish, pirate perach and some shiners. My favorite are spotfin. They are the prettiest ones in the mighty Miss. My bro has some in a tank that are colored up all the time and spawn regularly.

Adding live plants helps reduce algae and maintain low nitrate levels. A high flow rock tank wouldn't have much room for plants and would be more difficult to keep algae free.

If you still can't fill the tank it would be possible to add some magnetic drive powerheads (or a closed loop and external) and place some rocks near one end of the tank. Then you can easily add more darters, shortheads and hogsuckers.

And lastly, I do admire your high expectations concerning food and natural behavior... but you are already putting these fish in a tank. You want them to be visible, fat and healthy. I would try and convert the fish to as much prepared food as possible. Even frozen food is very expensive and can create a lot of waste in the tank. Supplemental live foods will encourage your fish to hunt and patrol the tank - but feeding only live is a high bar.

Speaking of which, shiners will take flake foods easily and somehow this teaches other fish to take the pellets and flakes. I know Corey can feed his darters flakes - a feat I am envious of.

I did a preliminary count and came up with 100 species that have been found in pool 5. I am not sure how much space you have, but could you plumb multiple tanks from one filter system? A 33 long tank (12"x12"x48") would be a better way to display darters and allow you to keep predators in your 400gal main tank with out feeding them a steady stream of darters. Sorry for the long post, I tried listing them as a single column but couldn't get it to format in a readable way...

American brook lamprey
American eel
bigmouth buffalo
bigmouth shiner
black buffalo
black bullhead
blackchin shiner
black crappie
blacknose dace (eastern)
blacknose shiner
blackside darter
bluegill
blue sucker
bluntnose minnow
bowfin (dogfish)
brassy minnow
brook silverside
brook stickleback
brook trout
brown bullhead
brown trout
bullhead minnow
burbot
carpsucker
central mudminnow
central stoneroller
channel catfish
channel shiner
chestnut lamprey
common carp
common shiner
creek chub
crystal darter
emerald shiner
fathead minnow
flathead catfish
freshwater drum
ghost shiner
gizzard shad
golden redhorse
golden shiner
goldeye
green sunfish
highfin carpsucker
Iowa darter
Johnny darter
lake sturgeon
largemouth bass
logperch
longnose dace
longnose gar
mimic shiner
Mississippi silvery minnow
mooneye
mud darter
muskellunge
northern hog sucker
northern pike
orangespotted sunfish
paddlefish
pallid shiner
pirate perch
pugnose minnow
pumpkinseed
quillback
rainbow darter
river carpsucker
river darter
river redhorse
river shiner
rock bass
sand shiner
sauger
shoal chub
shorthead redhorse
shortnose gar
shovelnose sturgeon
silver chub
silver lamprey
silver redhorse
skipjack herring
slenderhead darter
smallmouth bass
smallmouth buffalo
spotfin shiner
spottail shiner
spotted sucker
stonecat
tadpole madtom
trout-perch
walleye
warmouth
weed shiner
western sand darter
white bass
white crappie
white sucker
yellow bass
yellow bullhead
yellow perch

Thanks for the list Tyler!! This is a HUGE step for us to have this information.

It has been suggested that I have two walls that I can consider for this project.

The tank is suggested to be three feet wide and about five feet high with wall lengths of 34-feet and 20 feet.

Our building is all steel beams, etc. however I am a little concerned with adding three and a half tons of water weight to the structure and suspect that an 800+ gallon tank, as such, will need to be developed and installed incrementally.

thanks again and again.

H

A quick back of the envelope calculation....

A cubic foot is equal to 7.48 gallons.

3'x 5'x 8'x 7.5 gal/ft^3 = 900 gallons.

Water alone weights ~8 lbs/ gal but I know many people figure that a tank weighs 10lb/ gal (with rock).

So, that becomes 9,000 lbs or 4.5 tons for an 8 foot long tank.
Or roughly two Ford Explorers parked in 1/2 of a parking spot.

Is this going to be a custom built acrylic tank? And do you have a basement under this wall?

If you made the tank only 3' deep the gallons would drop to 540 gallons and also make it easier to create a sustained "river" effect.

Since, A*V=Q (A = area, V = velocity, and Q = discharge)
Then then the easiest way to increase your velocity is to reduce the cross sectional area.

If anyone tries to discuss water velocity in multiples of the tank per hour (i.e. "this would turn over the tank 10 times an hour) feel free to ignore them. That may work for calculating filter sizes, but to get actual water velocity you need to take cross sectional area into account. For example to get the same horizontal velocity in a 29 gal tank (A=1.5'x1') as in a 33 long (A=1'x1') it is going to take 50% more GPH. The total volume of the system doesn't affect the horizontal velocity.

I have been able to find water velocity preferences for many species of darters. A little research may give you actual numbers to work with and allow you to recreate very specific habitats. This is one heck of an undertaking. But, I trust it will be very very cool (and educational) when it is all said and done.

math is no longer a strong suit for me.

with the dimensions of 5' x 3' x 54' and a cubic foot equal to 7.48 gals it would really be 6058 gals and 25 tons?! thanks for checking my math.

this is a second floor classroom...not so sure this is realistic and maybe be better suited for a building addition.