OK... is it weird to mix fish from different continents???

[Magnum Man]

I have no preference, so it's not me trying to justify anything... I do like my tanks to "look natural" at least to the untrained eye... I like the looks of natural biotopes, though have never had the patience to set one up...

where I have used that "phrase" before, has been in defense of some things, but if our true goal is a "natural" environment, we fail... we can't have a tank big enough, we can't naturally control changes of the seasons, temperatures, changes in the water conditions between the rainy & dry seasons, light & interactions with any & all native species our fish are likely to encounter... the slice of nature we replicate is in of itself un-natural

in this case, of all one species, I'm sure the interactions are different & interesting, & worth study, particularly to the owner that finds that species interesting, & certainly its just as natural as anything I can duplicate myself... but we certainly shouldn't look at the actions witnessed as "more natural" than a mixed species tank... maybe more interesting, & different, but the conditions may not be duplicatable in the wild... it a nut shell any behaviors' we witness in an aquarium is to some extent un-natural

 

[GaryE]

The aquarium is very unnatural. Always.

But here's an example based on seeing nature. In Gabon, I caught some Epiplatys huberi, a killie with a reputation for being difficult to maintain and breed. I found them where I didn't expect, in a knee deep, fast moving stream. I thought they lived in slow water. They were all along the banks, under overhanging plants, and every sweep of the net brought up gravel. Some sweeps brought up fish - Epiplatys, Characins, Phractura catfish, small barbs and African gouramis.

I set up a tank with a back wall of Vallisneria, and a current along the front. I added a couple of handfulls of gravel along the back, since the quick moving sections of their streams seemed muddy. I assumed the gravel was swept to the sides, where the water was quieter but still strong enough to push my hand. I added some traditional killie mops to catch eggs.

I also kept two pairs in two tanks with coarse gravel and no mops, just to see what there was to see.

I got to watch the fish in the 40 gallon (4 fish, 2 inches long) ignore the mops, and spawn along the bottom, over the gravel. They're good dancers. Eventually, I've found tiny numbers of eggs in the mops. But in the mopless tanks, I removed the adults to the main tank (now it has 8 fish) and was rewarded with fry appearing in their old 10 gallon QT set up.

You asked if it's weird to mix fish - if it is, how interesting I found this outweirds everyone here! In a community, those fish would have hovered under the surface and never gone down to the bottom. And yet now I know their life is partly where I wouldn't have expected. In time, I may add some tetras from there to the set up, once I have enough fry to be sure of another generation. Then I'll have a biotope with all the wrong plants.

If you're a fishwatcher first, like me, then mixed continent tanks suck, and biotopes to various degrees rule. If you like communities, my tanks are horrible boring things, and mixing is the way to go. The only rule is to figure out what you want to see and make it work in a way where the needs of the fish are met.

Are sculpted gardens better than wild looking ones? Depends who you ask.

 

[Colin_T]

A lot of biotopes only contain a couple of species. There are pools in the south-west of Western Australia with a single species of fish in and nothing else except possibly sometimes a freshwater crayfish.

The Goodga River in Albany (Western Australia) only had one species of fish (Galaxias truttaceus) and a freshwater crayfish. Unfortunately people have been releasing introduced species, which are wiping the Galaxias out.

The upper reaches of the Canning River are home to Galaxias occidentalis, Bostockia porosa, Edelia vittata, Tandanus bostocki, and one or 2 species of freshwater crayfish. One species of crayfish is native, the other is introduced and eats everything it catches.

The upper reaches of the Prince Regent River in the Kimberley (Western Australia) has 3 species of fish (a rainbowfish, grunter and a gudgeon).

A lot of streams up the east coast of Australia only have 1 or 2 species of fish.

In New Guinea a lot of lakes only have 1 or 2 species of fish.

Depending on which section of a river you choose, you could end up with 1 species or half a dozen species. And a lot of waterways don't have many if any true aquatic plants in. Most waterways in the southwest of WA have grasses overlapping the water or even in the water. There are branches and dead trees, lots of leaves and about 2 feet of silt mud that sucks you down and makes you forget about collecting. Some creeks will contain glass shrimp if they are near the coast but there is less biodiversity in the upper reaches.

 

[emeraldking]

OK... is it weird to mix fish from different continents???​

To answer just the question → No..! The majority of tank keepers does that.
If it would be a good combination is something different...

 

[Back in the fold]

The aquarium is very unnatural. Always.

But here's an example based on seeing nature. In Gabon, I caught some Epiplatys huberi, a killie with a reputation for being difficult to maintain and breed. I found them where I didn't expect, in a knee deep, fast moving stream. I thought they lived in slow water. They were all along the banks, under overhanging plants, and every sweep of the net brought up gravel. Some sweeps brought up fish - Epiplatys, Characins, Phractura catfish, small barbs and African gouramis.

I set up a tank with a back wall of Vallisneria, and a current along the front. I added a couple of handfulls of gravel along the back, since the quick moving sections of their streams seemed muddy. I assumed the gravel was swept to the sides, where the water was quieter but still strong enough to push my hand. I added some traditional killie mops to catch eggs.

I also kept two pairs in two tanks with coarse gravel and no mops, just to see what there was to see.

I got to watch the fish in the 40 gallon (4 fish, 2 inches long) ignore the mops, and spawn along the bottom, over the gravel. They're good dancers. Eventually, I've found tiny numbers of eggs in the mops. But in the mopless tanks, I removed the adults to the main tank (now it has 8 fish) and was rewarded with fry appearing in their old 10 gallon QT set up.

You asked if it's weird to mix fish - if it is, how interesting I found this outweirds everyone here! In a community, those fish would have hovered under the surface and never gone down to the bottom. And yet now I know their life is partly where I wouldn't have expected. In time, I may add some tetras from there to the set up, once I have enough fry to be sure of another generation. Then I'll have a biotope with all the wrong plants.

If you're a fishwatcher first, like me, then mixed continent tanks suck, and biotopes to various degrees rule. If you like communities, my tanks are horrible boring things, and mixing is the way to go. The only rule is to figure out what you want to see and make it work in a way where the needs of the fish are met.

Are sculpted gardens better than wild looking ones? Depends who you ask.

That’s awesome Gary ! I like that you copied nature .

 

[simonas]

Never know there to be an issue personally and I have mainly amazonian fish but also have a fire eel from Asia and Goonch and African Tiger fish in the same tank.

 

[GaryE]

There isn't really an issue.

It's a style of tank - some people believe a carefully assembled biotope tank is superior.
Others like a "high tech" plant tank.
Some think you're a loser if you don't have a predator tank.
Others think a single species tank is the way to go.
There's someone who posts here who thinks a filterless, still tank rules.
We've had posters who denounced water changes as fake news.
There are people out there who think your set up is inferior. Always. If the fish are healthy, and the tank has been designed with the needs of the fish put slightly ahead of the wishes of the fishkeeper, I figure you're good. I may think your tank is ugly as can be, and that your choices are mind boggling. I could possibly say the same thing about your shirt. Who cares?

If the fish can get along, live as normally as our resources allow and don't murder each other...

Aquarists are like everyone else. There are fashions, styles, differing interests, different levels of engagement. Personally, I have biotope tanks, which are fun. There are my single species tanks, which are fun. An African a South American and rainbow community live in my 120 and 2 75s. So everyone can either yell at me or buy me beers.

 

[glyn]

Agree with the earlier comment that providing the right habitat is crucial. And, of course, South Asian Harlequins can live in the same aquarium habitats as some Amazonian tetras.

However, some of us may suffer from what might be called "geographical over-sensitivity". That is to say, when I look at a tropical freshwater aquarium, I notice the geographical provenance of the fishes' origin. I can't help but shake my head [metaphorically at least] when I see honey gouramis in with cardinal tetras. "Not right," I mutter to myself.

Now, this is very questionable behaviour on my part; the cardinals and gouramis may have actually come from the same fish farm in [say] Thailand. And I never felt like this when I started keeping tropicals in the 1970s. At one point I even bred Blue Acaras in a Malawi tank. [They all got on very well, amazingly.] And, of course, just because a tank contains lots of Amazonian tetras and Amazonian dwarf cichlids, doesn't mean that those species would have ever come across each other in the vastness of that river basin, with all its tributaries and lakes.

Strangely, this never applied to my marine tanks. My last one had an Atlantic Royal Gramma living happily with a South West Pacific Copperband Butterfly for many years, and I couldn't have cared less about their oceanic geography.

Nonetheless, when it comes to freshwater fish, I can't help my geographical over-sensitivity now. The worst of it is, I'm starting, but only starting, to feel the same way about plants. I'm planning a tank with only South American fish in it. If I don't get a grip, I'll be ruling out the use of crypts and Anubias. That would be awful, and I'm not sure that there's a cure ....

 

[Acorno]

I never do a biotope at all. I just don’t have enough tanks to justify it in my mind. I love south and Central American cichlids though and tend to keep them according to compatibility.

 

[CaptainBarnicles]

I may think your tank is ugly as can be, and that your choices are mind boggling. I could possibly say the same thing about your shirt. Who cares?

I really love this and I think it's valid to acknowledge. There are some absolute snobs in this hobby, hoity-toity and so high on their own c02 supply. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder is it not? Health and wellbeing of the fish are the only strict rules we really need to follow, everything else is subjective in my opinion