Hara Jerdoni nano tank

[Rocco]

Hello everybody!

Recently, I decided to do something with the empty glass nano aquarium I had laying around after I dismantled my paludarium. Due to a lack of space, and to keep it low cost as I don't have to purchase lighting, I decided to place the aquarium on my (east-facing) window sill. At first, I wasn't planning on stocking it with anything and just have it as a planted tank. However, I think the tank would be a lot more interesting if it has some life in it. And then I stumbled upon Hara Jerdoni.

The dimensions of the tank are 50x15x22 cm (or 20x5.9x8.6 inches), so the tank is pretty long and thin (ground surface is 50x15 cm). The tank is only 16.5 liters (or 4.5 gallons), which I know is very small.

The thing that makes this tank hard to house fish in is mainly the size. It is possibly too small for fish and on top of that fluctuations in water parameters and temperature may occur. On top of that, because it is situated in my window sill temperature fluctuations might be very strong.

However, after reading about Hara Jerdoni I found that they are very small fish, who are very inactive. On top of that I have read that they have to deal with temperature changes in their natural habitat. And therefore I wondered if it would be possible to house one or two Hara Jerdoni in this tank. Given that the temperature changes aren't too severe and given that I use good filtration to ensure stable water parameters.

I am currently monitoring the temperature to see to what degree it actually fluctuates. And before actually adding them I would of course moniter other parameters to see if they remain stable.

So my question is if these fish would be able to live a good life in this tank. If this is not the case I will of course not keep these fish.
And I was also wondering if there are perhaps other possibilities of stocking this tank (preferably with catfish but it's not a must). On top of that I would like to know to what degree temperature fluctuations would be considered safe.

Thanks in advance! If there is any more information you would like to know please let me know.

[MarcW]

Hi Rocco,

I've never kept Hara, but I have kept a few other fish, outside in a small pond in the south of the UK.

The pond is about ~220 litres and above ground, so the temperature fluctuates frequently. I was keeping Scleromystax barbatus, and Mimagoniates lateralis (small tetras) in it last year, and all fish survived temperatures as low as 9c and as high as 32c, I think the biggest swing I saw in one day was about 15c.

This was ok for these fish, once you have measured the temperature changes let us know, and hopefully someone with experience of keeping Hara can let you know the extremes of temperature they have been kept in.

That said, I would be concerned that such a small volume of water may change temperature too quickly.

[Rocco]

Thank you for replying!

That is good to hear. I had the same concern regarding the small volume. I will keep measuring the temperature frequently for the next few days and then I will post the results. But since the tank has to cycle anyway I will certainly keep my eye on the temperature during that period to ensure my results during the next few days are fairly accurate.

[WhistlingBadger]

Hey, Rocco. I know this is an old thread, but I'm wondering what you decided and how it's going. I kept Hara jerdoni in my 55g tank for a while, and based on their behavior I'd say one or two would be just fine in a tank this size.
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