My Asian swamp aquarium!

[GuppyBreeder180604]

in the past in this forum I have mentioned that I had a plan for a Sumatran swamp biotope aquarium, well, I finally started and I decided that I am gonna start a journal so you can all see how my project goes and give me tips and recommendations.
First some backstory:
around June 2020 I convinced my mother to let me have a big aquarium and we settled in a 30-gallon tank so I started planning, but one day while in the local fish store my mom fell in love with the blue gouramies so we bought a pair, they were young and really small so I put them in my then young 10-gallon aquarium until I bought them their 30 gallons, but life just got in the way and by the end of it I had no money (i depend on federal scholarships which suck in Mexico) but the two fish were too big for that 10 gallons so I put them in my 55-gallon pond, this was around march 2021 so it was starting to get warm enough for them and in the pond they could keep growing until they reached adulthood around September, but then winter rolled in and with the temps going as low as 4 degrees at night I knew I couldn't keep them in the pond so I had to make a hard choice which I kinda regret but at the same time I think I had no other option, I took them out of the pond and placed them in a 5 gallon bucket, i couldn't place them in the 10 gallon since it already was stocked to its fullest, this happened in December 23 when winter started.
Well, just yesterday God gave me the perfect opportunity since I found a guy selling a 30-gallon tank of the exact dimensions I wanted for only 24 dollars!! when usually they cost 130 dollars brand new in my area, and in less than 30 minutes of the time he announced it I was already on my way home with the fish tank on the back of my parent's car.

here is the tank right next to my 10-gallon

here I dirted the tank (to lower the Ph and give the plants nutrients)

my dumb self forgot to take photos of adding the sand and other things but here it is how it looked like today:

I added a buddha since my mom liked it.

originally I wanted to use Salvinia nattans, java fern, java moss, hygrophila corymbosa, and cryptocoryne pontenderiifolia as my plants since they all can be found on Sumatra

I was able to get all the Salvinia natans in the aquarium since I already owned and grown it (with some duckweed )

in here you might spot a java fern which is one of 8 I own and have saved for this project only but you might also see some hygrophila bold in its emersed state, and here comes my first question, can H. bold be found in Sumatra or will I have to remove it?

I have also thought of changing the theme from a Sumatran swamp to just a southeast Asian swamp to make it broader and be able to keep the H. bold in and maybe also add some other plants.


now comes the part I think is the most controversial but I will explain myself and my reasons.
There are already fish in the tank, yes it has no filter, no heater, and doesn't even have the hardscape and all the plants in, and yet I already added the 2 gouramies and a few guppies as dither fish, I did this because the gouramies looked so stressed and sad in the bucket, and the female had some injury as a result of hurting herself from the stress of being in the bucket and the guppies have worked excellent so far as dither fish, most of the sand in the aquarium was already cycled sand I had and all the Salvinia should get hem by with filtration until I buy the equipment, as for temperature I don't worry as much since my house is at a nice 21 degrees in contrast fo the 10 degrees currently on the outside.

male gourami

injury on the female, yes that is exposed bone, yes I feel guilty and like an idiot for letting this happen, and yes I am taking close care of her.

I doubt it was made by the male since they hag out together and have never shown aggression, they like each other a lot.

for a closing note on this first post on the thread, I have already ordered the plants and hardscape and will soon go to buy the filter and heater.
I will keep you all updated

 

[Lajos_Detari]

Welcome my friend from Mexico!

It's always nice to create a biotope of some rivers.
All the best!

 

[GuppyBreeder180604]

Welcome my friend from Mexico!

It's always nice to create a biotope of some rivers.
All the best!

thanks for the good wishes

 

[Rocky998]

I'm really concerned honestly... Take this as kind advice and not me calling you out, you have to have this tank cycled as well as having way more decor than you have now... These fish are very exposed and have no where to hide. You also said you still need to get a filter and heater? I'm sorryif this is a bit rude but that was a bit irresponsible to not even have a filter or heater before getting fish... You should also get an API master test kit to test for ammonia nad nitrites if any of these go above 0 than do a 75% water change until they stop rising

 

[Tacocat]

I'm really concerned honestly... Take this as kind advice and not me calling you out, you have to have this tank cycled as well as having way more decor than you have now... These fish are very exposed and have no where to hide. You also said you still need to get a filter and heater? I'm sorryif this is a bit rude but that was a bit irresponsible to not even have a filter or heater before getting fish... You should also get an API master test kit to test for ammonia nad nitrites if any of these go above 0 than do a 75% water change until they stop rising

I think they know how to take care of a tank. Plus, there's plenty of floaters as you can see, as well as some plants. Yes this may not be ideal, but it's not the worst, and there is a good chance that the fish will come out of this perfectly fine. As for the heating it should theoretically be fine, as they won't like it, but 21 degrees isn't too bad

 

[Rocky998]

I think they know how to take care of a tank. Plus, there's plenty of floaters as you can see, as well as some plants. Yes this may not be ideal, but it's not the worst, and there is a good chance that the fish will come out of this perfectly fine. As for the heating it should theoretically be fine, as they won't like it, but 21 degrees isn't too bad

maybe... but still not good to do this... there isnt enough plants in there to do walstad...

 

[GuppyBreeder180604]

hello!
so seeing that a few people replied recently and that I haven't had an update in almost a month I will update everyone who reads this in a few things, as well as answer some of the comments.
ok so for starters, I got the filter and heater a few days after the post but forgot to post it here (sorry lol)

here is the filter box, I decided to use a 300l/h filter since it would move enough water without making too much movement (since swamps usually have very still water)

here it is installed

and in here is a top view, I don't like the filter cartridges since I feel they are a scam so instead, I put polyfill as mechanical filtration (change it every week or so), some coarse sponge as biological filtration, and a little pothos as chemical filtration. I took some sponge from a pre-established filter and put it in this one to seed the aquarium filter with Nitrobacter and Nitrosomonas.

and also bought the heater and set it to a nice 24 degrees Celcius.
all this was just a few days after making the post.

as for my plant and wood order, it hasn't arrived because of some shipping problems, but I am hopeful still, that it will arrive and all my plants will be alive. I ordered hygrophila corymbosa, java fern, and some cryptocorynes as well as 2 pieces of wood, I wanted to order some java moss but decided to instead use the moss from a project I had started before all this in which I adapted some land moss to be aquatic moss (i had some great success in that project)

now for some today stuff.
the injured female has recovered quite nicely and she is growing back her damaged fins! no more exposed bone nor blood

here she is today.

and with the male in the back.

the hygrophila bold that I plated are growing quite nicely as well, with 1 of them even starting to throw some new plants to the sides

and the pothos has taken root in the coarse sponge.

On a final and quite cute note, my gourami pair became comfortable with me being right in front of the tank and have started to do the little "feed me" dance that a lot of us pet keepers know and love, and they have even started to eat directly from my hand! it feels super funny and they are always on the lookout for when I put my hand in the water since they know it means food.

now to answer some comments.

I'm not OP, and the only artificial decoration in my tanks is a dish I feed my cory cats on. I just find that the artificial decorations are all weirdly expensive so I don't actually have any, but if I did it would probably be one of the dragons for sure.

Tutuapp 9Apps Showbox​

this one wasn't, that is exactly why we bought it, it was better quality and cheaper price than others we looked at, I usually don use artificial decor, but my mom liked a buddha aquarium she saw once and since this is gonna be an Asian swamp aquarium I thought "eh, why not" and bought it, in fact, I originally wanted a wood stump to be in the middle of the aquarium. And I agree, a dragon would be cool.

I'm really concerned honestly... Take this as kind advice and not me calling you out, you have to have this tank cycled as well as having way more decor than you have now... These fish are very exposed and have no where to hide. You also said you still need to get a filter and heater? I'm sorryif this is a bit rude but that was a bit irresponsible to not even have a filter or heater before getting fish... You should also get an API master test kit to test for ammonia nad nitrites if any of these go above 0 than do a 75% water change until they stop rising

I know, I am not a beginner, just in lack of proper funding. My final vision will look way better than this, trust me, this is NOT the final product.
They were just scared for the first few days but now they don't seem stressed at all, but they still fight from time to time for territory, which will be solved once my package arrives.
Did you read the whole post? I didn't just get the fish as soon as I bought the aquarium, I bought them long before that and grew them in my 10 gallons, but because of some problems I had I couldn't buy them the aquarium on time so I sent them to my backyard pond, and as the days got colder I moved them into a bucket, got the aquarium in a stroke of good luck and decided that it was more important to get the fish out of a bucket and in a propper aquarium than to let them be in there for more time. My house being at 21 degrees was better for the few days without a heater than the 5 degrees outside (don't you think?) as for the filter, what did you think was the purpose of the giant ceiling of floating plants??, once again I am NOT a beginner, I do know how ammonia poisoning works and the dangers of it, as well as how to do a water change thank you very much, and I do my 30% weekly water changes.
And once again reinforcing my belief that you didn't fully read the post is the fact that you don't seem to acknowledge the fact that I used sand from a pre-established tank so it was filled to the brim with beneficial bacteria, also I have not bought the other fish I have in mind for this aquarium to prevent an ammonia spike, keeping the stocking low and making sure I don overfeed not even by a little bit.
I know what I am doing.

I think they know how to take care of a tank. Plus, there's plenty of floaters as you can see, as well as some plants. Yes this may not be ideal, but it's not the worst, and there is a good chance that the fish will come out of this perfectly fine. As for the heating it should theoretically be fine, as they won't like it, but 21 degrees isn't too bad

Thanks (no sarcasm here), yes I do know how to take care of a tank, and I know this isn't ideal but I am currently still working on it, and yeah the 21 degrees while not ideal were better than the outside temps and didn't last more than a few days.

maybe... but still not good to do this... there isnt enough plants in there to do walstad...

I have already explained my reasons and I stand by them, all that happened was not the original plan but what I did is what I am sure everyone including you would have made when presented with my situation. Also, I don't recall ever saying here that I wanted to do a Walstad, what I do recall saying is and I quote:

all the Salvinia should get hem by with filtration until I buy the equipment

well, that is all for now. I just have to keep waiting for that damned package to arrive.

 

[Rocky998]

hello!
so seeing that a few people replied recently and that I haven't had an update in almost a month I will update everyone who reads this in a few things, as well as answer some of the comments.
ok so for starters, I got the filter and heater a few days after the post but forgot to post it here (sorry lol)
View attachment 155059
here is the filter box, I decided to use a 300l/h filter since it would move enough water without making too much movement (since swamps usually have very still water)

View attachment 155060
here it is installed

View attachment 155061
and in here is a top view, I don't like the filter cartridges since I feel they are a scam so instead, I put polyfill as mechanical filtration (change it every week or so), some coarse sponge as biological filtration, and a little pothos as chemical filtration. I took some sponge from a pre-established filter and put it in this one to seed the aquarium filter with Nitrobacter and Nitrosomonas.

View attachment 155063
and also bought the heater and set it to a nice 24 degrees Celcius.
all this was just a few days after making the post.

as for my plant and wood order, it hasn't arrived because of some shipping problems, but I am hopeful still, that it will arrive and all my plants will be alive. I ordered hygrophila corymbosa, java fern, and some cryptocorynes as well as 2 pieces of wood, I wanted to order some java moss but decided to instead use the moss from a project I had started before all this in which I adapted some land moss to be aquatic moss (i had some great success in that project)

now for some today stuff.
the injured female has recovered quite nicely and she is growing back her damaged fins! no more exposed bone nor blood
View attachment 155064
here she is today.
View attachment 155065
and with the male in the back.

the hygrophila bold that I plated are growing quite nicely as well, with 1 of them even starting to throw some new plants to the sides
View attachment 155066
View attachment 155067
View attachment 155068

and the pothos has taken root in the coarse sponge.
View attachment 155069
View attachment 155070

On a final and quite cute note, my gourami pair became comfortable with me being right in front of the tank and have started to do the little "feed me" dance that a lot of us pet keepers know and love, and they have even started to eat directly from my hand! it feels super funny and they are always on the lookout for when I put my hand in the water since they know it means food.

now to answer some comments.

this one wasn't, that is exactly why we bought it, it was better quality and cheaper price than others we looked at, I usually don use artificial decor, but my mom liked a buddha aquarium she saw once and since this is gonna be an Asian swamp aquarium I thought "eh, why not" and bought it, in fact, I originally wanted a wood stump to be in the middle of the aquarium. And I agree, a dragon would be cool.


I know, I am not a beginner, just in lack of proper funding. My final vision will look way better than this, trust me, this is NOT the final product.
They were just scared for the first few days but now they don't seem stressed at all, but they still fight from time to time for territory, which will be solved once my package arrives.
Did you read the whole post? I didn't just get the fish as soon as I bought the aquarium, I bought them long before that and grew them in my 10 gallons, but because of some problems I had I couldn't buy them the aquarium on time so I sent them to my backyard pond, and as the days got colder I moved them into a bucket, got the aquarium in a stroke of good luck and decided that it was more important to get the fish out of a bucket and in a propper aquarium than to let them be in there for more time. My house being at 21 degrees was better for the few days without a heater than the 5 degrees outside (don't you think?) as for the filter, what did you think was the purpose of the giant ceiling of floating plants??, once again I am NOT a beginner, I do know how ammonia poisoning works and the dangers of it, as well as how to do a water change thank you very much, and I do my 30% weekly water changes.
And once again reinforcing my belief that you didn't fully read the post is the fact that you don't seem to acknowledge the fact that I used sand from a pre-established tank so it was filled to the brim with beneficial bacteria, also I have not bought the other fish I have in mind for this aquarium to prevent an ammonia spike, keeping the stocking low and making sure I don overfeed not even by a little bit.
I know what I am doing.


Thanks (no sarcasm here), yes I do know how to take care of a tank, and I know this isn't ideal but I am currently still working on it, and yeah the 21 degrees while not ideal were better than the outside temps and didn't last more than a few days.


I have already explained my reasons and I stand by them, all that happened was not the original plan but what I did is what I am sure everyone including you would have made when presented with my situation. Also, I don't recall ever saying here that I wanted to do a Walstad, what I do recall saying is and I quote:


well, that is all for now. I just have to keep waiting for that damned package to arrive.

Ok this is good to hear... I must've missed the parts about usibg other sand and stuff but now I see you had everything under control... All I read was basically: "I set up this tank and put some plants and fish in and I wasnt able to get a filter or heater"... That is what I got out of your first post... Now that you filled me in on the rest I can see that you did things well...

 

[GuppyBreeder180604]

Ok this is good to hear... I must've missed the parts about usibg other sand and stuff but now I see you had everything under control... All I read was basically: "I set up this tank and put some plants and fish in and I wasnt able to get a filter or heater"... That is what I got out of your first post... Now that you filled me in on the rest I can see that you did things well...

thanks, I did things as well as my resources allowed me, now let's just hope my plants arrive soon so that my beloved gourami pair can have the biotope they deserve

 

[Rocky998]

thanks, I did things as well as my resources allowed me, now let's just hope my plants arrive soon so that my beloved gourami pair can have the biotope they deserve

Definitely... Depending on where you got your plants they usually arrive in four days or under

 

[GuppyBreeder180604]

Definitely... Depending on where you got your plants they usually arrive in four days or under

yeah, if they arrive by the 25th then it will have taken them a whole month to arrive...
there seem to be some problems in the Mexico delivery system, a few other packages from family and friends have taken up to 3 months to arrive so it doesn't really surprise me.

 

[Rocky998]

yeah, if they arrive by the 25th then it will have taken them a whole month to arrive...
there seem to be some problems in the Mexico delivery system, a few other packages from family and friends have taken up to 3 months to arrive so it doesn't really surprise me.

JEEZ! What store are you buying these from?

 

[GuppyBreeder180604]

JEEZ! What store are you buying these from?

its not a store problem, its a FedEx problem

 

[Rocky998]

its not a store problem, its a FedEx problem

ah ok