Hi Mike:
Its great that you are enjoying the "naturals" in your aquarium. I get a big kick out of watching the behavior of them at feeding time too.
Now my tank is converted to tropicals, after making the mistake of over crowding a large selection of various Manitoba native minnows bought from the bait shop.
If I knew then what I know now, I would only have put maybe 6 in the 55 gallon tank instead of a couple of dozen. It sure was an education watching their activities though. Some of them like the Red Bellied Dace were quite pretty too.
You have a pretty large amout of fish flesh in the tank for 55 gallons to support right now.
My biggest problem was found to be overfeeding. You'd be surprised about the small amount of food they need not only to survive, but to thrive.
As much fun as it is to watch them eat, cut your feeding schedule to about once per week and also buy yourself a complete water testing kit and monitor what's happening closely. A good guideline that my local fish guru uses is to feed them only what they will eat in about 2 minutes, once per week.
Also, do regular partial water changes ... about 10% by volume each week .. and use a proper de-chlorinator when you replace the water.
The tendency to overfeed is natural on your part ... after all, its great fun to watch them but you may well be "killing them with kindness" as the the "by products" of the food leads to water quality problems.
I've just started a second 20 gallon tank that I'm just using as a plant tank with plants gathered from my trout pond. Maybe if they survive, they might end up in my main tank. More liekely I'll catch a few local minnows and try and get them through the winter ... and with my typical sense of humor, use them as live bait for the Rainbow Trout next spring ... cruel I know!
Regards,
Lee
