S/A biotope

[traumatic]

Behold, a dream tank I've been hoping to get running for some time now. The biotope is reflective of a root snag in a blackwater stream.

120 gal A.G.A. 2'x2'x4'
filtration: homemade sump 20L w/ bioballs magdrive 1200 HOB overflow
hardscape: driftwood, rounded stones, sticks, almond leaves
substrate: mix of multi purpose sand, playsand, and couple handfulls of mixed natural gravel

projected fish stock:

5 spotted silver dollars
4 severums
7 BN plecos
1 L075 Peckoltia sabaji
1 LDA31 Panaque albomaculatus(pending I.D.)
1 L239 Baryancistrus beggini
1 L128 Blue phantom
1 adonis pleco ( juvenile 5")
1 rhino pleco ( 6")
1 striped rapheal (platydoras armulatus)
2 spotted rapheal (agymyxis pectinifrons)
1 megalodoras irwini 10"
1 pseudodoras niger 8"
1 hoplosternum thoracatum 6"
couple random others...

Please, no comments on the potential huge size of some of the fishes. I am very well aware and I want to keep the comments related to the aquarium scape and setup only.













L128


Baryancistrus beggini L239



panaque albomaculatus LDA31

[zenyfish]

Yep, I really love your tank!

[apistomaster]

Very good, right down to the fine natural sand.
I set up my 125 gal, 72 inch wild blue Discus tank along these lines but they liked so much that I now have 3 pairs that need their own breeding tanks. Catching them would be as impossible for me as it would be for you.
Now I have to take all the wood out to catch the pairs.
I went for the flooded river bank effect and used Anubias to simulate the flooded tree leaves.
Be careful what you wish for.

[traumatic]

ha ha ha, yes very true. I dare not put anything in here I wish to get back anytime soon. My first mistake was tossing in an UID'd pleco...

I may possibly rearrange the wood a little more vertically on the right to open up some substrate in the middle. I'm growing out some borelli to add as well.

[Jon]

beautiful

[apistomaster]

Apistogramma borelli. I presume?
I'm sure they will survive but I'm not sure you will ever see them again.
I kept a group of them with Heckel Discus and Green Dwarf Pike Cichlids, Crenicichla compressiceps. The Dwarf pikes made sure there were never any A. borelli fry but to my surprise, they never bothered the adults, which kept a very low profile.

[traumatic]

yes, apistogramma borelli. I noticed your screen name and thought I should mention them. I recieved a group of 6 from a fellow hobbyist/breeder. I'd like to believe the severums and silver dollars wouldn't bother them. I did add a very small chocolate cichlid recently which would possibly be the only fish to potentially chase them around or actually be able to eat them. As far as them disappearing and never to be seen again, I'm pretty used to that, but I believe they will be fairly opportunistic feeders, so I'm sure I'll see them once in a while. So far the borelli are just under an inch and are living in my 45 to grow out. Any advice on them?

thank you; jon, zenyfish

[DutchFry]

very nice tank!

i've bred both A. borellii and A. borellii 'opal' and they are very easy to breed and raise, IME. the only thing to keep in mind, the fry need very clean (low nitrates) water and i noticed they will grow very fast when they are fed black and white mosquito larvae. before that, i would feed them baby brine shrimp, but growth rate is much higher with the mosquito larvae.

hope that helps

[traumatic]

more pics...



adonis


L128 blue phantom

[andywoolloo]

it's absolutely beautiful! happy fish in there that's for certain!

I love the arrangement of wood and the sand colour. and the colour of the whole tannined water. Truly great!

[grokefish]

I agree.
This is an example of a really well set up S/A river biotope.
Many people try this set up and fail to capture a truly natural feel, I often take my dogs walking by a local stream/river and am always looking at the snags and general "scene" under the water in great detail.
Rivers and streams the world over look very much the same underwater and I try to take inspiration/notes from them to create aquascapes.
After many years of trying to carefully arrange bogwood in a set plan and failing I have taken to just getting a loads of wood from a stream, making sure there is no nasty bits in there and just dumping it in.
The result is far more realistic and I think the fish know it too.
This tank of yours is really very beautiful and I reckon I could watch that for many hours/days without getting bored.

The Adonis and megledoras are going to grow too big for that tank though
Only joking, however Sales of adonis plecs really annoy me more than megladoras and even redtailed cats because there is much publicity about redtails and many more people are aware of how big they grow. In this country you may see one or two redtails in an LFS now and again but you regularly see tanks full of adonis plecs and they go somewhere.
Have you seen a fully grown adonis in real life?
They are Massive and amzingly strong and agro.
None of this is aimed at your tank, I just like to stick this little speech in where ever I get the oportunity just in case someone reads it and takes note, thus saving some adonis plecs a horrible demise.

Again loverly tank I'm gonna put it on my desktop
Matt

[Martin S]

I like plants in my tanks, but realistically the layout is nothing like the fishs natural habitat, and as Matt says, this is exactly what you will see throughout SA rivers, and elsewhere too. Love the stocking list too - I'm very envious! Only things missing for me are some auchenipterids, definitely some

Liosomadoras oncinus

and a few

Ageneiosus magoi

.
Anyway, very nice tank
Martin

[Richard B]

I like plants in my tanks, but realistically the layout is nothing like the fishs natural habitat, and as Matt says, this is exactly what you will see throughout SA rivers, and elsewhere too. Love the stocking list too - I'm very envious! Only things missing for me are some auchenipterids, definitely some

Liosomadoras oncinus

and a few

Ageneiosus magoi

.
Anyway, very nice tank
Martin

I think the magoi would make short work of any apistos

However a tank set-up done properly for fish benefit rather than the viewing owner - nice one!

[traumatic]

Thank you very much for the positive comments. I still want to make more improvements here and there. I think it needs more leaves and some of the wood can be moved around a bit. I have turned off my large powerhead due to the little Hypselecara temporalis (chocolate cichlid) that likes to hide by it, as I'm afraid he'll be sucked into it! I appreciate the understanding about the potentially large fish. Oh, and auchenipterids are a fish I'm hoping to add as soon as I can find some. They are very scarce around here, and I'm definitely getting to my limit on numbers of fish!!! I am very fortunate to be able to have Fantastic Fins as close as they are because they have the best pleco selection I think I've ever seen available. If you ever go there, you won't leave empty handed.

There are more fish that I haven't highlighted in this post yet, I'll try and get more pics as the days go on... But for now here's some of my beautiful Peckoltia sabaji (L075)

[Martin S]

I think the magoi would make short work of any apistos

Oh yes, hadn't spotted that

[Greg Curtis]

Great looking tank traumatic! Love the pile of driftwood looks like a natural habitat for catfish. Good to see someone do it the right way!

[traumatic]

I did some maintenance and rescaped a little bit, made some "improvements" Hope to post up pics over the weekend.

[traumatic]

[Cory_lover]

Very nice tank! and perhaps you guys could help me out here - what's the purpose of black-water? Is there any difference between black-water, and peat-filtered water?

Like I've seen some peat being sold at my LFS, and my understanding is that it'd make the water soft and acidic. I was thinking of using peat filtration for my tank with hoplos, some corys, a A. dolichopterus juvenile and some neons - but currently the tank is already soft and acidic. Is there a need to purchase the peat then?