White cloud testing

[ali]

I'm against species mixing, of course, but people keep asking about keeping fish with newts on the forum. People claim to have had good luck with white clouds, so I thought I'd give it a go to see if I agree with the practice or not.

Today I bought 5 white cloud minnows to test this theory of keeping them with newts. I have two of them in my five gallon with my C.O and three in my ten gallon with my t. grans.

We'll see how it goes as far as the behaviour of both the fish and the newts.

I've had ghost shrimp before (they all ended up being snacks eventually, which was fine with me). But we'll see how the fish go. My c.o. is easily startled anyway, so if she seems worse I will move her two minnows to the t. gran tank.

And, if I have poor results all around, I'll move the minnows into another tank all together. Anyway, I'm interested to see how it turns out. Have other people had good luck with this?

 

[kamil]

Hi Ali,

I don't know what kind of fish "White clouds" are. Anyway I had my Cynops orientalis once together with Tanichthys albonubes (see picture)

Source of the picture: http://www.zierfischverzeichnis.de/ordnungen/cypriniformes/cyprinidae/tanichthys_albonubes.htm

My Cynops orientalis got pretty shy then and have hidden a lot... So I can say it did not work good for me.

 

[ali]

Hi David, that picture looks like the "white cloud minnow" that I know.

Here's my update on the situation for this morning. Suprisingly enough my cynops is out and moving about today (she's normally laying under her turtle decoration with her head poking out.) I seriously doubt she's out and swimming about because of the minnows, but she doesn't seem stressed.

The minnows in either tank aren't bothering the newts at all. In fact, newt curiosity is peaked if anything. One minnow has chosen the anacharis and claimed it as her home. She chases off the other two minnows but doesn't seem to mind that there's a huge t. gran laying in the middle of her cluster. Interesting.

All newts have given a longing eye toward the fish, but haven't even come close to having a chance at a bite. I think if my t. grans really wanted to eat one, they could though. I don't think the cynops has any chance at all, hehe.

 

[michael]

I've been thinking along the same lines. I have those nasty Pachyhynobius and am thinking of putting white clouds or danios in with them. Maybe they could act as a dither fish. When trying to breed aggressive fish sometimes it helps to put other fish in the tank for them to distract them from their mates.
Generally speaking I still think it's not a good idea to mix fish and salamanders.

 

[jennifer]

The photo Kamil posted is, in fact, a white cloud minnow, but it looks like it is the long-finned variety. I have some white clouds in a pond with axolotls. Amazingly, at least some of the white clouds have been fast enough to avoid being eaten.

 

[tyler]

I was thinking about getting a few but then I decided to spread out my chances. So I'm getting one zebra danio, one white cloud, one blue danio, and a ghost shrimp whichever doesn't get eaten is the tank buddy from there on. They also have gold white cloud minnows, but I don't think I should spend $4 on a fish that might get swallowed.

I almost forgot, I saw a leopard danio. It's small and seems like any other danio so I don't think it should be a problem for my newt.

(Message edited by tyler_mcdowell on March 26, 2006)

 

[joseph]

White clouds should work as though they are not little racecars like zebra danios they are busy enough to keep themselves out of harms way from newts.

I actually have a few juvenile karelinii in my 46 gallon bowfront tank for a vacation of sorts right now(wondering if maybe they would do better there with more room). Fish would be montezumae swordtails, a few flagfin shiners, American flagfish, and a single male gardneri killifish. So far I haven't noticed much besides curiosity on both sides.

 

[ali]

I thought danios were too fast and might stress out the newts. So far the white clouds are still doing great and the newts aren't showing any signs of stress.

I'm confident that my t. grans will do fine. They're curious and seem to enjoy watching the fish, lol. Still monitoring my c.o.'s reactions. So far, I actually think her interest is piqued rather than being more stressed which is NOT what I expected from her.

 

[jennifer]

I don't think it makes sense to get one WCM, one zebra, etc. The WCM are schooling fish, so they are happiest in a small group. I'm not sure if they would be happy or stressed if mixed with danios. Again, mixing species (even fish) needs some forethought.