The Tanichthys, so happy outside!

The Tanichthys, also called the "poor man's neon," is a flagship fish of natural fishkeeping.

After my female guppy in 2004, which accidentally led to the creation of the poubellarium concept, the Tanichthys was the obvious first fish to continue the adventure.

It was reputed to live between 5 and 26°C in my fishkeeping manual.
Some research on its original habitat convinced me that it was the ideal candidate to live outdoors year-round.

 

Indeed, in the Chinese mountains where it lived before nearly disappearing, it faced a climate quite close to ours. The small streams where it was found wound through banks covered with snow in winter, and the water did not freeze simply because it was moving.

 

This small fish, which likes to live in groups, has limited needs. Its weight, more than 200 times less than that of a goldfish, says a lot about its metabolism. A few mosquito larvae, some daphnia, and a few worms fallen from the banks are enough for it. Consider this: a school of 200 Tanichthys weighs the same as a single poor goldfish!

While a goldfish swims in circles in the 1,000 liters of a small pond, your Tanichthys have enough room to swim in all directions, chase each other, spawn, and so on. A few bunches of plants quickly become a small jungle for them…

 

And, while most of my fish could only spend the summer outdoors in a poubellarium, the Tanichthys can stay outside permanently. Since the question of retrieving them at the end of the season does not arise, it then becomes possible to offer them a true pond, a nearly natural and vast playground at their scale.

In winter, they live under the surface ice, in conditions quite close to their origins, then living with a slowed metabolism.
These colder temperatures give them a longer lifespan than they would have in an aquarium at 24°C year-round. Indeed, the metabolism of a fish slows down or speeds up according to the surrounding temperature (cold-blooded animals), and this one is made to face cold seasons unlike tropical fish.

 

I personally have a preference for the veil variety ("long-fin"), whose fins are longer but in a very reasonable way. Its silhouette remains harmonious and natural, and its colors are slightly brighter. But a Tani given back to the wild life takes on colors almost unknown in an aquarium anyway. Happiness makes our fish more beautiful…

You will enjoy it little, since nature gave it an olive-green back meant to camouflage it from the eyes of the bank predators, who see it from above.

Your pleasure will rather come from knowing it is happy, guessing the groups moving among the plants. A light bottom (pebbles, sand…) will make them much more visible.

 

These fish are also small enough not to devour everything living in your pond. Even though it is very important never to introduce them into a natural pool (a natural pool should not receive fish), you can, with a nice pond, create a very pretty mini-pool, planted and even flowering, which will attract dragonflies, frogs, or even newts, your Tanichthys being, due to their size, able not to wipe out the other species. Another huge advantage over goldfish.

And to be even more certain, just introduce a lively group of 20 Tanichthys into a pond of 1,000 or 2,000 liters. They will form an observable school from the bank, while leaving room for all other forms of life.

The natural fishkeeping that Aquazolla supports aims to give life to the water, not to sterilize ecosystems!

 

If you put in more (the temptation is great!), you would then have to feed them properly, as the pond's resources would no longer be enough. This compromise will allow them to have at all times some daphnia depending on the season, ostracods living on the bottom, and so on.

Fish well-being, pleasure in knowing they are happy year-round and reproducing naturally, compatibility with a garden aquatic ecosystem… This fish actually has all the qualities to become the discreet inhabitant of a world on the edge of wild and familiar, one that is accessible to us while reserving every day the surprises that only nature can provide.