Advice for stocking 65L (17gal)

[Corn_The_Elius]

Planning on stocking my tank with:

• 5 Sparkling Gourami (Trichopsis pumila)
• 2 Croaking Gourami (Trichopsis vittata)

I am thinking of making a Mekong river inspired Biotope however I am not sure what kind of plants would be appropriate.
On one hand i'd like the tank to be accurate to the Wetlands they inhabit naturally but on the other hand I have no experience with managing live plants and am not opposed to mimicking their natural habitats with whatever plants are easiest to deal with.

any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

[CassCats]

I'd pick one or the other, not both for the gouramis to avoid possible hybridization.


As for plants, it's helpful to study other examples done for a biotope setup of the mekong, such as contest entries.

Mekong River, Nakhon Phanom province, Thailand, 100 L – Biotope Aquarium

biotope-aquarium.info

I also like to search reference sites such as iNaturalist, EOL, and GBIF for occurrence maps of plants and fish of specific regions.

I'll take a few moments to do some further digging for you, see if I can come up with anything for you

 

[CassCats]

so using GBIF, here's the occurrences map for sparkling gourami:

Trichopsis pumila (Arnold, 1936)

Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Free and Open Access to Biodiversity Data.

www.gbif.org

It helps now to also search some plants you know are from Asia, to see if any occur in the same area as the occurrences of the sparkling gourami.

If it's legal where you live, there is hygrophila polysperma

Hygrophila polysperma (Roxb.) T.Anderson

Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Free and Open Access to Biodiversity Data.

www.gbif.org

Hygrophila corymbosa

Hygrophila corymbosa (Blume) Lindau

Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Free and Open Access to Biodiversity Data.

www.gbif.org

When in doubt, hornwort is a great go-to

Ceratophyllum L.

Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Free and Open Access to Biodiversity Data.

www.gbif.org

Limnophila sessiliflora

Limnophila sessiliflora (Vahl) Blume

Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Free and Open Access to Biodiversity Data.

www.gbif.org

Pogostemon stellatus

Pogostemon stellatus (Lour.) Kuntze

Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Free and Open Access to Biodiversity Data.

www.gbif.org

Cryptocoryne crispatula

Cryptocoryne crispatula Engl.

Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Free and Open Access to Biodiversity Data.

www.gbif.org

And there's likely many more. Keep in mind, the main channel of mekong isn't going to have a lot of submerged plants, most will be riparian in nature and most sparkling gourami will be among the edge of the rivers or quieter spots, and a lot of these will contain a lot of riparian (emergent) plants.

So it heavily would also depend how authentic you want it to feel. You could grow all of these except hornwort as emergent plants and turn it into such an environment. Or just stick to using these plants under water. Your call.

 

[Corn_The_Elius]

thank you so much, using iNaturalist and those other sites to figure out what kind of plants work is genius

 

[CassCats]

It helps to reference all three of those, because if one lacks it, another may have information. It takes some digging but it's good. GBIF usually pulls records from sites like inaturalist as well as long as it's a credible report.

 

[Corn_The_Elius]

Apparently Hornwort is illegal to distribute in New Zealand because its messing up our waterways hahaha

Anyways, right now the only plants that i'm certain on getting and are accessible to me are

• Ambulia (Limnophila sessiliflora)
• Cherry leaf (Hygrophila corymbosa)
• Indian swampweed (Hygrophila polysperma)
• Dwarf rotala (Rotala rotundifolia)

Are these plants hardy and easy to take care of? Again, ive got no experience with live plants so i'm just a bit worried.

Also I found this guy who's documented species present in Thai rice paddies/Swamps/Marshes. i've been using his videos as a resource/reference as to what my tank should look like.

TikTok - Make Your Day

I really would like some type of floating plant as well as some kind of tall reed/grass but i frankly have no idea what to look for or if having grasses/reeds is feasible in 65 litre haha

 

[CassCats]

You could look for some sort of persicaria genus plant if that's found in that region and grow it as an emergent plants (most of them are emergent, emergent meaning growing out of the water).


As far as I am aware, rotala is not native to the mekong area, most rotala are an American plant.

All of what you have listed should be fairly easy with liquid fertilizer and half decent lighting at least. Rotala can be fussy for some people but rotundifolia is one of the easy rotalas.

Now an idea, if you want natural just like the swamp in the video, consider collecting dried phragmites reeds. Leaves and stalks. You can use them in a scape, though they break down fast so you'll have to replace them every now and again. You may be able to find some wild where you are if they're invasive or perhaps have a native species you could use.

 

[Corn_The_Elius]

I really like the idea of using reeds and foliage to give my tank a more naturalistic look, but the challenge is finding them where i'm from.
The good news is I know that barnyard grass (Echinochloa crus-galli) is found in rice fields and has a similarly reedy, stalky appearance and there’s even some growing in a park not far from me. If I were to use barnyard grass parts for the biotope, should I boil them as a precaution? I want to make sure it's safe for my tank and i've heard about potential risks of introducing mold or bacteria when adding leaves and stuff.

As for the biotope itself, I’ve updated the plant selection. The biotopes based on marshlands and swamps are beautiful but i’m just not a huge fan of the lack of submerged vegetation. (look below for what i mean) so i think i'll just base it off of rice paddies



There are a few other species i wanted to add but they were invasive and illegal to distribute in new zealand
right now the selection is:

• Barnyard grass stems and leaves (Echinochloa crus-galli)
• Common duckweed (Lemna minor)
• Mosquito fern (Azolla pinnata)
• Indian swampweed (Hygrophila polysperma)
• Dwarf rotala (Rotala rotundifolia) (apparently these guys are actually native to south east asia and often found growing at the edge of rice paddies )
• Ambulia (Limnophila sessiliflora)

However i'd also like to use some kind of leaves to mimic the substrate better.
I'm not sure what kind of leaves are safe and or best for this kind of look.

Speaking of substrate how reasonable are deep (8-10cm) substrates? I hear alot of fear-mongering when it comes to deep substrated tanks, particularly about hydrogen sulfide buildup but i also hear alot of good things. i'd like to try using half aquasoil and then a surface level mix of gravel and sand to mimic the images above

Also, hybridization between the two species is much less of a concern for me than the compatability of the two species in a shared envrionment.
Unfortunate however there simply isn't any straight forward advice or information I can find when it comes to putting sparkling and croaking gourami together.
It seems like there is alot of variation in behavior in sparkling gouramis judging from how mixed everyones opinions are. im just hoping having a heavily planted tank will be able to minimize any potential territorial aggression.