My rainforest river biotope aquarium

This is my 145 liter freshwater aquarium I have been working on since early January this year.

My main goal with this aquarium that also happens to be my first and only aquarium so far is to emulate the tropical rainforest rivers of south america .

I have plenty of driftwood in the tank which is commonplace in these types of rivers along with plenty of plants and a few black rocks along with a black background.

I also really like having tannins in my tank which I add by putting roibos tea bags in my aquarium and it really gives it a more natural look .

I also add seedpods and dried oak leaves in there to make it that much more authentic along with plenty of floating plants such as salvinia or amazon frogbit.

I have also been considering buying myself a dimmer to adjust tank lighting and getting my hands on some peat moss which should do an amazing job in terms of adding tannins.

In total I have 15 wild caught cardinal tetras , 5 wild caught marbled hatchetfish(they used to be 6 but one of them jumped out of the aquarium and died) , 8 corydoras duplicareus catfish , 2 blue ram cichlids , and 3 octocinclus catfish.

In fact having this aquarium is the reason I started to do photography and producing YouTube videos during my spare time.

This is by far one of the best experiences I have had keeping pets besides having a loving male dwarf bunny for 8 years.

I will also buy a replacement hatchetfish soon enough along with some new colourful schooling fish.

That’s so awesome that the fish are wild!

Do you notice any differences between wild and native kept cardinal tetras? @Byron should see this...

The tank is very nice! The only thing I would recommend is maybe getting two or three more octocinclus. It's really impressive that this is your first aquarium!

PheonixKingZ said:

That’s so awesome that the fish are wild!

Do you notice any differences between wild and native kept cardinal tetras? @Byron should see this...

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Appearance wise they look pretty much the same but there are differences in water chemistry requirements when wild caught specimens are compared to captive bred ones because wild caught fish do not tolerate hard water but captive bred fish can get used to it.

From what I have seen so far I don't really see a visual difference between wild caught fish and captive bred fish.

Nice first tank. You should enter it in our August Tank of the Month contest which will feature tanks sized at 30 US gallons and larger. Meanwhile please vote in our present TOTM contest . Just click on banner at top of the forums, view the entries and then cast your vote at the top of the thread.

FishFinatic77 said:

The tank is very nice! The only thing I would recommend is maybe getting two or three more octocinclus. It's really impressive that this is your first aquarium!

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I would say this is because I did a ton of research and planning several months before getting my aquarium and I also have aspbergers so fish keeping became one of my special interests besides technology and I would say it has helped me out when it comes to learning about fishkeeping and increasing my level of knowledge.

My dad also helps me out when it comes to maintenance and feeding and in fact he has too become very interested in keeping fish and as a child he briefly had goldfish so I guess that's why.

Looking great! Excellent tannins!

Id switch over to sand, better for corydoras plus looks a bit more natural.

NCaquatics said:

Looking great! Excellent tannins!

Id switch over to sand, better for corydoras plus looks a bit more natural.

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Yeah I wish I was using sand but I have an undergravel filter so switching over is impossible because my fish would die quickly with no filtration .

Blackwater guru said:

Appearance wise they look pretty much the same but there are differences in water chemistry requirements when wild caught specimens are compared to captive bred ones because wild caught fish do not tolerate hard water but captive bred fish can get used to it.

From what I have seen so far I don't really see a visual difference between wild caught fish and captive bred fish.

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Very interesting!

You really did a great job on your tank, I know you have been planning and working on this for awhile and it paid off.

Well done! You did a great job.
A very nice tank!

So I just got myself a dimmer and this is how it looks with the dimmer installed and my god does it make a difference in terms of appearance.

Really nice tank

Lovely!

Defiantly makes a difference. the T-8 plant lights I use in my tetra tank give an orange tint to the tank but yours really does.