My Tank And It's Inhabitants

[pinkdolphin_113]

thanks for looking

 

[natural blue nina]

I have no idea if it looks like an amazonian biotope - but it is lovely!!!

 

[paul_219]

Looks really nice.

 

[Straydum]

love the whiptail? (is that a whiptail? ) you bgk looks a little skinny

 

[madgap]

Golden Nugget
Nice tank. If it was mine, I would only change one thing. A darker background. But hey, thats just me.

 

[jayjay]

You have Asian plants in there so it's not a complete Amazon tank. Also normally there are very few plants in the Amazon river except when it floods the surrounding forest. The water is normally also very murky. There are a few different types of bio type in the Amazon, depends on which type you were aiming for, to judge how close it is.

Two quotes from CFC.

True Amazon set ups don't include substrate rooted plants, the heavily coloured waters of the Amazon allow very little light to penetrate which supresses the growth of submerged aquatic plants, it is only in the peak of the wet season when rivers flood into the forest that plants are in abundance, and these are mainly terestial plants which are able to survive a few months submerged. A true Amazon set up will be made up using roots and vines to form tall structures in the tank with a few pieces of riccia tied to them close to the surface and floating plants such as salvinia on the surface.

The first thing about most Amazonian biotopes is that for the majority of the year there are no substrate rooted aquatic plants, the murky water doesnt allow much light to penetrate which prevents them from growing and often the pH is so acidic that it burns the leaves!

There are 3 main distinct biotopes in the amazon basin, blackwater, white water and Oxbow lakes

Blackwater flows in and out of jungle streams and as the name suggests is heavy with tannins from rotting vegetation and fallen leaves and trees which give it the colour of strong black tea, it usually has a KH of 0 and a pH in the region of 4 which doesnt allow many plants to grow. A lot of our common aquarium fish like Discus, Angelfish, dwarf Cichlids, knife fishes and many species of Characins and catfish come from this biotope which makes it one of the easiest biotopes to recreate.
A blackwater biotope tank will have a silver sand (play sand) substrate and will be decorated with many pieces of bogwood which should be arranged to replicate broken tree stems at the back of the aquarium and fallen twigs and branches in the front, taller pieces can have mossy plants such as Riccia (or java moss if riccia is unavailable) tied to them near the waters surface. Floating plants such as water lettuce (Pistia stratiotes) and Salvina can also be used if desired. The water should be stained a golden brown colour through the use of peat filtration and/or a blackwater tonic to acheive a natural look. Ideally the water in the tank should be soft and acidic with a pH of 6 and a KH of 3-5, this is higher than in nature but a lot more stable for a captive enviroment.
For a variation on a blackwater biotope you can have a leaf litter zone biotope which is the same but has a 3 inch layer of beech or oak leaves used as a substrate rather than silver sand. Collect the leaves in autumn/fall and store them in a dry place until needed, before adding them to the aquarium boil them for around 10 minutes to ensure they sink and any bugs they may be carrying are dead.

White water (which incedently has nothing to do with the white water you might go rafting on) flows from mountain streams and carries huge ammounts of sediments with it which give it its milky coffee colour. The pH here is usually closer to 7 and the KH around 5 from the mineral deposits washed from the mountains. Again few substrate rooted plants can grow here as little light can penetrate the murky water. Many of the Loricarid species and larger catfish and Characins found in the hobby come from this habitat.
To recreate a white water biotope again use a silver sand substrate and pieces of bogwood arranged as they would be if they had been washed down by the current but this time rounded pebbles and river cobbles can be added as decor too as these would be washed down off of the mountain sides by the flow, the current in this type of habbitat is usually quite strong so a couple of decent sized powerheads placed at one end of the tank will replicate this.

Oxbow lakes are formed when flood waters receed at the end of the rainy season leaving large inland waterholes rich in plant and animal life. Typically the water will be gin clear as the lack of current allows sediments to settle and there is not as much tannin present as in the blackwater rivers and streams. The species present here are very diverse and changes constantly but would typically be made up of mainly Cichlids and Characins.
To replicate an oxbow lake again use a silver sand substrate and decorate with pieces of bogwood arranged as they would be found had they fallen from trees above the tank. The tank can be densly planted making use mainly of Echinodorus plants (Amazon swords) and floating plants such as water lettuce and Salvinia. The pH should be neutral and the KH 5-7 though water chemistry isnt vital here.

There is a fourth Amazon biotope which is only present during the rainy season which is the flooded forest biotope recreating when the flood waters rise well into the jungle flooding many miles of forest and covering all the plants and trees that grow there. This one is more difficult to replicate naturally as the plants are terrestial ones which die and rot after being submerged for long periods but good quality silk plants which look like ferns can be used instead, java fern could also be used but it would not strictly be a biotope then. Decorate with tall upright pieces of bogwood at varying lengths allowing some to rise out of the waters surface and use shorter ones in the foreground to look like snapped off stumps of smaller shrub like plants. The substrate should be of a silver sand and peat mix as to recreate the jungle floor. Fish from any part of the Amazon can be found here feasting on the rich pickings of insects and fruits caught by the rising water.

From this your tank is mainly Oxbow lake style, so if you didn't have the Asian plant species it would be closer still.

 

[beechey]

you should move that random rock on that log coz it could fall and land on a whiptall or a plec

 

[kamber]

Looks good, what kind of wood have you used?

 

[benji1452]

brilliant pic of the black ghost knife was thinking about getting one of those and the tank setup is great im working on a new one atm

 

[pinkdolphin_113]

thanks for the nice comments everyone

that rock on the wood is the only thing keeping the wood from floating around as its a pretty new peice lol it's pretty safe on there though, and it has never even wobbled never mind fallen off *touch wood* also, it wouldn't land on my whiptail coz it died during the week don't even kno why

the wood in the tank is a mix of mopani and just plain bog wood. i think the mopani is much more beautiful lol the main peice has been adopted by one of my pictus cats and my clown pleco. thats just the underneath bit. the ottos and my bristle nose rome around the top of it. i love it

ok well i guess my tank isn't really any biotope but i think it looks pretty natural... in one sense. which plants are asian though? so i can decide whether to remove them or not.

i did try a black back ground a while back but it just didn't look right and i haven't been able to find any darker blue back ground. i would get a back ground with plants on it but i'm just not too keen on them.

thanks again!

 

[xingumike]

Golden Nugget

No nugget there, i assume you are looking at the BN

tank does look good, i agree with the background comment though.

 

[Jules H-T]

you should move that random rock on that log coz it could fall and land on a whiptall or a plec

I didn't notice that rock to start with, but you're quite right it should be moved. I'd move it to stop it from falling possibly into the glass and cracking/smashing it though.

Also that BGKF looks fine now, but he looks like a sub 8" baby. In a couple of years he could cause you problems. Can you clarify, how big is that tank?

The tank does look good, obviously a lot of thought and work has gone into that and it's really paying off.

 

[pinkdolphin_113]

you should move that random rock on that log coz it could fall and land on a whiptall or a plec

I didn't notice that rock to start with, but you're quite right it should be moved. I'd move it to stop it from falling possibly into the glass and cracking/smashing it though.

Also that BGKF looks fine now, but he looks like a sub 8" baby. In a couple of years he could cause you problems. Can you clarify, how big is that tank?

The tank does look good, obviously a lot of thought and work has gone into that and it's really paying off.

lol i forgot to mention the tank size. it's a 30 x 12 x 15, would anyone be able to say how much water this holds. i can say that i am getting a 264l/59gallon tank for christmas though. it's gonna be 4' long

i've taken the rock off now and it does look alot better lol it was just on there to keep the wood down but it's thoroughly soaked now

 

[Jules H-T]

lol i forgot to mention the tank size. it's a 30 x 12 x 15, would anyone be able to say how much water this holds.

You would have serious problems very quickly with that fish in that tank.

i can say that i am getting a 264l/59gallon tank for christmas though. it's gonna be 4' long

That's a bit more like it, although in 2 years time you'll probably be thinking he's running out of space (that's exactly what happened to me, right down to the 59 gal tank which I've just replaced and not a moment to soon really). You could either upgrade or sell him on/rehome him and buy another small one at that point, but remember- don't hang onto him past the point at which he is happy, just because you have grown attached to him.

By the way, if you're happy to devote the time dangling your fingers in the tank, it will not be long before you have him trained to come and eat bits of prawn out of your hand.

 

[pinkdolphin_113]

By the way, if you're happy to devote the time dangling your fingers in the tank, it will not be long before you have him trained to come and eat bits of prawn out of your hand.

thats sounds pretty fun lol think i might try it. he hides alot though, thats why i thought he'd be fine in a 4 footer. it's like he acts like a moray eel and slides from behind my filter when the pictus cat gets too close

You could either upgrade or sell him on/rehome him and buy another small one at that point, but remember- don't hang onto him past the point at which he is happy, just because you have grown attached to him.

thats okay, i've never grown attached to any of my fish really. once it's time to move them on, i do so and don't really get too worked up about it. i once had a weather loach for a few years and it grew from 4 inches long to 8 inches long!! she was huge and spawned quite a few times. i had to move her on as she was way too big for the 30" tank