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I will soon be moving my 3 White Cloud Minnows into a unheated 10 gallon. I only plan on using a double sponge filter for this tank. Regular weekly maintance will be done, 10%-20% water changes with sand vacs and sponge cleaning in tank water.

I know I'd safely be able to add a few more White Clouds to this setup, but how many is too many? Let me hear your thoughts.

I'd say you'd probably be able to put about six or seven in there, maybe a few more if you have a lot of live plants.

You might want to start out with fewer though - White Clouds are arguably the most prolific egg-laying fish in the hobby, so don't be surprised if you see some babies make it to adulthood.

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

Thanks for the comments!

I will definitly only be starting this tank with the 3 White Clouds that I currently have. And I'm still not sure if I actually will add any more to this tank. The main reason for moving the 3 I have, is to make room to breed my solid yellow Platies.

The sponge filter is already seeded. And I will also be using a couple of silk plants and media from an established tank. So with only 3 small fish this tank shouldn't even go through a cycle. I hope.

Although I wasn't planning on live plants for this tank, I might throw in some floating anacharis. I already have the lights and plants so that won't be a problem.

I wasn't even thinking about breeding the White Clouds, but now that you mentioned it, I have 1 confirmed female and 1 confirmed male, the other I'm not to sure about.
With the setup that I have planned and with the gravel that I just decided to use, I might not have a choice in adding more fish.

Last edited by T/A at 04-Jan-2006 11:48

Slight worry here. Yes WCMM's can handle colder temps, but like all fish they don't like sudden swings in water temp, and a 10 gallon will shift considerably.

What is the room temp in the room you're planning on having the tank in? Do you ever leave the window open? Will the tank have a light on it for plants?
All these factors will contribute to temp swings which ich loves and fish hate.

otherwise yeah for white clouds .
sorry I'm going to blame the pain killers again .

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Woohoo WCMM tank!
I love these little guys.
I have found them to be incredibly hardy and long
lived. I have not lost one to any illness, only
to old age.
I kept mine in cold water for awhile, but found
they were much more colorful in warmer water.
I would highly suggest a small heater, if only to keep the water temp stable, maybe at 72 or 74 or 76F.
I also would say 6-8 white clouds would be appropriate,
and indeed they will spawn regularly if given a cooler water change night before and allowed to have morning sun.


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No need to worry about sudden temperature swings. I am using a 50 watt heater to gradually bring down the temp, about 2*F a day. I was originally going to remove the heater after a few days, but I changed my mind. I will be keeping it in now.
This tank is also in a middle hallway room, so there are no windows.
I am currently using just one 13 watt fluorescent bulb over this tank. I checked today, and with the light on the water temperature was just 1 degree higher than normal, so that shouldn't be a problem.

The water temperature that I originally planned on using was 68F. The only reason behind this was that I have always kept the WCs in temps from 76F to 81F, and they never seemed to thrive. So I figured I'd try them around their low/mid range for temperatures.
Using Sneaky's advice, I'll first try splitting the difference and use 70F. If their colors fade I'll bump them back up another 2*.

T/A, are you going to try breeding them?


Come Play Yahtzee With Me!
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Mine have been in 68F for the past 4 months or so....active and colorful as ever :%).

sounds a good plan.


^_^



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I'm not really going to try to breed them. But I plan on giving them the best enviroment that I can.
If they produce some young, great. If they don't, no big deal.
I'll just try and find some healthy WCs at a local store to fill the tank. Heck, I still haven't tried WCs from ThatFishPlace. I'm sure I can get some quality WCs there.

Thanks for all the comments, everyone!

I'll take some pictures tommorow and post them on here, if anyone wants to see the setup.


Since you girls have experience with WCs, I figured I should ask this here.

What types of foods do you feed your minnows? Live, frozen, flake, freeze-dried, human foods, whatever they seem to prefer let me know.

Mine seem to have very picky tastes. Some days they eat one type of flake, but most often they will only eat freeze-dried blood worms. I haven't tried them on live, frozen, or human foods yet so any info would be appreciated.

Last edited by T/A at 08-Jan-2006 00:03

Hi T/A
If you want to encourage spawning, then definetly
have some java moss on hand! I know several people
who have had great success spawning them in tanks
with java moss as a spawning mop.

I have never found my clouds to be very picky.
They eat everything and anything. They espescially
seem to love the HBH 8 Veggie Flake and Frozen Bloodworms.
All my fish love chicken - a great cheap human food,
myself, I cook a whole chicken, and there is always pickings on the carcass for the cats, dog, and fish.
I just mince it small and crumble it in the water
and the fish grab it up.
I have found all my fish prefer BigAls flake food over any other.
Oh, and my white clouds love frozen daphnia or live bbs. Great cheap source of small food for small mouths!

Oh and p.s. would love to see pics!

Last edited by So_Very_Sneaky at 08-Jan-2006 00:57

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Mine eat everything too!
Shrimp pellets, peas, they like the big al flake too .

Yup anything and everything.

Never tried to breed mine, never even really bothered to figure out who's male and whos female .

^_^

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It's not fancy, but that's what I wanted for this tank. Very easy maintance.
http://community.webshots.com/photo/423858046/540467143IKuUKm

Nice!

Unfortunatly the glass bottom will start to get a layer of yuck on it....it just happens usually it's diatom algae but yeah...that pretty reflective glass look doesnt work *sulks*

Any chance of some more rocks in the near future to help hide the equipment ..... sorry sorry sorry just can't keep my aquascaping mind where it belongs!

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Yep the glass side will start to get yucky.
Oooh, how bout a contrasting gravel for
that side, like black?
Could be a journey from the normal world
to the world of the gargoyles lair!
watched too many fantasy / sci-fi / horror
movies!
I like it!
Im sure the white clouds do too!


Come Play Yahtzee With Me!
http://games.atari.com
Http://www.myleague.com/yahtgames

I normal prefer a more natural looking tank, but this setup was just for ease of maintance. And everything in the tank I already had, so there was no cost to set it up.
The gargoyle decoration is my brothers. He wasn't using it, so I just put it in to give the fish something else to swim around.
I also have a bare bottom Betta tank, so I've already experienced the messy bottom. At least it's easy to clean any dirt that settles on that section of the tank.