Re: NANFA-- Golden Shiner Question/duckweed eaters

R. W. Wolff (choupiqu_at_wctc.net)
Fri, 19 Sep 2003 00:14:03 -0500

I would say golden shiners are the best , but here are some others.
Pearl Dace, over four inches
I found this out on accident. I needed some dithers in a sunfish tank. I had
seined up some large ones in a ditch trying to get feeders. At the time the
tank had a lot of algaes and duckweed. The Pearls took a bit, but suddenly
started to eat it. They are listed as preferring insects and crustaceans.

Carp, not native but hey
Goldfish, the same
Flagfish, large ones

I don't usually keep many cyprinids, but would guess that is the group to
look to. I had an unidentified minnow that looked like a cross between a
mimic shiner and a common shiner ( in other words, I have no clue what it
was, but that is the best I could do to identify it). It had a large mouth,
and would eat other minnows a third its size. That is why I brought it
inside. It also ate duckweed, but seemed to ignore
algaes.

Likely candidates I don't know for sure, buffaloes and finescale dace.
Northern redbellies would be, but they normally don't get big enough to do
the job.

Ray
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