Any experience with all native caught aquariums?

[Hallie]

I am dying to get an aquarium for my dorm room. At home I have so many critters to keep me occupied, I need some at school with me to. I was never able to get a 10 gallon aquarium like I wanted, but I have a little plastic 1.5 gallon aquarium, and I have been looking into stuffing it full of plants and shrimp. Then I started looking into freshwater shrimp that are native in my area and I was thinking, maybe I could get every thing for my mini aquarium set up from my backyard. It so happens that I live withing walking distance of a river/wetland.

My major is wildlife and fisheries so a little living replica of our environment would be awesome. What would be the safest way to collect the plants and sand to use for the tank? At first I just figured I could heat the sand up to sterilize it, and dip the plants in a bleach solution but at the same time I don't want to kill anything that is naturally good, and then have to start over growing new bacteria.

As for the shrimp I can buy ghost shrimp from a pet store, or try to catch them. I was leaning toward the pet store rout to weed out potential parasites and disease, but at the same time I could still bring them with the plants and sand.

Does anyone have experience with bringing wild plants, substrate, and animals into an aquarium? What would be some good safety precautions to ensure success?

I have a small filter for the tank but I don't know if it would be necessary for the success of the tank. I don't have a heater, but I don't know if the shrimp will need one or if they will do fine at room temperature.

[Byron]

I don't know where you are located, but some countries/states/provinces have legislation governing the collection of aquatic life. You might want to check into that.

Returning the fish/shrimp back to their natural habitat is usually not recommended, as this is a good way to introduce non-native pests that might be in a tropical aquarium (or transferred from another tank to this one) to the natural environment and cause no end of issues for local aquatic life. So make sure you can keep these, or safely dispose of them.

Aside from the above, I wouldn't worry about sterilizing anything, provided it all remains in the one tank. Any successful method of doing this would likely kill the plants themselves.

Byron.

[Strider199]

If your worried about parasites, dip the plants in alum. It is found at the grocery store in the spice section. Do a search here for alum and you'll get the instructions.
I agree with Byron, do not re-introduce your aquarium stock back into the wild.
Shrimp are very tolerant of temperature changes so your right, no heater is needed but you still have to cycle the tank before adding them. They dont do well during the ammonia or nitrite part of the cycle. Even nitrates need to be watched so partial water changes are a must weekly. I'm not sure of your water supply but if it's city type water there will be additives in it that will kill your shrimp. Check into a de-chlorinator.

[Hallie]

I wasn't planning on putting them back into the river system. Really I'm just looking for the plants. The part of the river I would be going to is on private property. I have permission to visit and fish on their property. I never thought about some species being protected. I'm glad you mentioned that. I'll look into it before I try to get anything. I live in south Mississippi by the way.

[mommy1]

I have wild caught fish from a creek nearby my home and before they went into the main tank they were treated for parasites and QT'd for well over a month. I've never had issues with them. I also occasionally grab some plants out of nearby rivers, the fish love to shred them to pieces and eat them. I never treat the plants for anything, just drop them in the tank, I know the possibility of parasites on the plants is possible, but I have never had any problems with plants either but it is a good idea to QT plants taken from rivers and streams as well as the fish, you never know what could be lurking. The only problem with plants I have ever had was actually with some I bought from an LFS, something came in on the plants and wiped out nearly the entire stock of one tank.