Biotope tank

[elephantnose3334]

Should I pick an 87 litre Fluval Vista blackwater biotope tank for kubotai rasboras (species only) or a 130 litre Aqua One Horizon Congo River biotope with African tetras that are native here? Figuring out my final verdict to get a biotope tank for the first time. I have space from the main cabinet near the kitchen and living room. I am thinking about making fish happier by remaking their national habitat.

The 87 litre Fluval Vista/Curve will have a daytime-nighttime mode for the blackwater setup. It will contain the main piece of driftwood and some leaf litter to imitate the kubotai rasbora's natural habitat. The river sometimes have plants, but I'm not adding plants to this setup.

The Aqua One Horizon 130, unlike the aquarium mentioned above, does not have a daytime-nighttime mode. It does have more room for the fish however. It will have a lot of Anubias and some African native plants. The livestock will be Congo tetras and African moon tetras.

Which one will you pick for me?

 

[Wills]

Should I pick an 87 litre Fluval Vista blackwater biotope tank for kubotai rasboras (species only) or a 130 litre Aqua One Horizon Congo River biotope with African tetras that are native here? Figuring out my final verdict to get a biotope tank for the first time. I have space from the main cabinet near the kitchen and living room. I am thinking about making fish happier by remaking their national habitat.

The 87 litre Fluval Vista/Curve will have a daytime-nighttime mode for the blackwater setup. It will contain the main piece of driftwood and some leaf litter to imitate the kubotai rasbora's natural habitat. The river sometimes have plants, but I'm not adding plants to this setup.

The Aqua One Horizon 130, unlike the aquarium mentioned above, does not have a daytime-nighttime mode. It does have more room for the fish however. It will have a lot of Anubias and some African native plants. The livestock will be Congo tetras and African moon tetras.

Which one will you pick for me?

The 130 isn’t big enough for those tetras you want a big 120cm tank for them around 250 litres. How about putting the neon rasboras in the 130? Would allow for a larger shoal which is more natural and may allow some tank mates.

If you want to do a true biotope check out this profile it lists fish species and plants these are found with in the wild https://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/microdevario-kubotai/

Some really good plant options in there too.

Wills

 

[Byron]

Be careful with a tank light that has different modes. The daylight period when the light drives photosynthesis is the most important, but has to be balanced with the nutrients so algae isn't encouraged. This may be eight hours, or less or more, depending. A "dawn/dusk" period before and after this daylight period will be less intense light obviously, but keep it to a half hour or so. This light is useless to plants, though here you have low-light slow-growers included, but algae again can take advantage. The rest of the time needs to be total darkness, though any light in the room will impact this, but that should be OK.

 

[elephantnose3334]

Be careful with a tank light that has different modes. The daylight period when the light drives photosynthesis is the most important, but has to be balanced with the nutrients so algae isn't encouraged. This may be eight hours, or less or more, depending. A "dawn/dusk" period before and after this daylight period will be less intense light obviously, but keep it to a half hour or so. This light is useless to plants, though here you have low-light slow-growers included, but algae again can take advantage. The rest of the time needs to be total darkness, though any light in the room will impact this, but that should be OK.

Okay. What time in my country will I put own nighttime mode?

 

[elephantnose3334]

The 130 isn’t big enough for those tetras you want a big 120cm tank for them around 250 litres. How about putting the neon rasboras in the 130? Would allow for a larger shoal which is more natural and may allow some tank mates.

If you want to do a true biotope check out this profile it lists fish species and plants these are found with in the wild https://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/microdevario-kubotai/

Some really good plant options in there too.

Wills

Okay! 130 it is. What species in the Rasbora genus live in the songgaria river?

 

[Byron]

Okay. What time in my country will I put own nighttime mode?

It is up to you, you just have to base everything on the "daylight" period. This can be any time of day, usually when you are most often home to view the aquarium. A period of say 8 hours. The 1/2 hour dawn and dusk will be at either end of this. The rest of the time the tank light is off.

 

[Wills]

I'd check out a few biotope websites and contest sites like this one - http://biotope-aquarium.info/ might be the best place to find species lists.

From the seriously fish profile you can see some fish from families that are quite common in the hobby but not the exact fish - there is a Pangio loach which is a type of Khuli loach in there so that could be a good tank mate for them if you have a sand substrate.

Seriously fish lists plants as Cryptocoryne Balansae and Pogostomon Helferi - Helferi is quite hard to grow but some other Pogostomon species are quite easy so work checking out. A tank full of Cryptocoryne Balansae would look good though - the profile mentions riparian plants too so if you can figure out which species of house plant grow in that region you could have them growing out the top of your tank with the roots in the water which always looks good in biotope tanks.

Wills