30g Lake Inle Aquaponic Biotope

[WhistlingBadger]

Ok, here we go! I’ve been wanting to do this one for a long time. Lake Inle, as many of you know, is in northern Myanmar. It is famous for its floating vegetable gardens. So any Inle biotope should really have some emergent veggies, don’t you think?

It’s a unique environment in that humans are an integral part of it and have been for thousands of years. There is no division between natural and human in this environment, which I find fascinating and rather reminiscent of the rice paddy I did a few years ago.

Stocking will be 15 Sawbwa resplendent, a similar number of Inle loaches or rosy loaches, and a single thick-lipped, banded, or snakeskin gourami.

Pics! Here is the floating veggie platform. Blue foam painted with enamel and drilok.

My first plant! A Chinese five color pepper. Decorative and delicious. Soon to come: chocolate cherry tomatoes, Corsican mint, water cress, and dwarf basil. We’ll see what works.

 

[MattW]

Can't wait to see this tank, the fish will definitely love that floating island! Those choc cherry tomatoes sound interesting. I've been thinking of getting some Rosy loaches in with my Sawbwa, but no one local sells them right now

 

[Magnum Man]

Dan's ( over this side of the pond ) regularly has Rosies... I know that doesn't help you there, but looking, some he gets from across the pond??? so, I don't know if they are Czech, German, or???

https://www.dansfish.com/product.detail/6027/Cyprinidae-Barbs-Super-Red-Rosy-Barb-(Pethia-conchonius)

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Dan's ( over this side of the pond ) regularly has Rosies... I know that doesn't help you there, but looking, some he gets from across the pond??? so, I don't know if they are Czech, German, or???

https://www.dansfish.com/product.detail/6027/Cyprinidae-Barbs-Super-Red-Rosy-Barb-(Pethia-conchonius)

Those are rosy barbs. We're talking rosy loaches, an undescribed Petruichthys species from Myanmar. Completely different critter.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Can't wait to see this tank, the fish will definitely love that floating island! Those choc cherry tomatoes sound interesting. I've been thinking of getting some Rosy loaches in with my Sawbwa, but no one local sells them right now

They say that indeterminate tomatoes can be trimmed rather severely and trained to be low-growing, which of course is what I want from this. Chocolate cherries are the most delicious cherry tomato I've ever tried--they taste like heirloom slicer-type tomatoes, complex and savory, instead of just sweet sweet sweet like most cherry tomatoes. IME they're dead easy to grow and produce like crazy, too. We'll see how they work.

 

[Essjay]

@MattW Maidenhead Aquatics has rosy loaches in their database, but that doesn't mean they have them in any of their branches.

There does seems to be discrepancy over their name. MA calls them Physoschistura mango; loaches on-line calls them Tuberoschistura arakensis (and uses the same photo as MA) while Seriously Fish calls them Petruichthys sp 'rosy'.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

@MattW Maidenhead Aquatics has rosy loaches in their database, but that doesn't mean they have them in any of their branches.

There does seems to be discrepancy over their name. MA calls them Physoschistura mango; loaches on-line calls them Tuberoschistura arakensis (and uses the same photo as MA) while Seriously Fish calls them Petruichthys sp 'rosy'.

According to Aquarium Glasser, they have been scientifically described fairly recently and are classified as Physoschistura mango now. I'm inclined to believe them; I think Seriously fish is out of date on this species.

 

[Essjay]

That means a chain fish store in the UK (Maidenhead Aquatics) has the correct name for these fish

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Well, that doesn't happen every day!

 

[MattW]

it seems these fish were trying very hard not to be found out..

 

[WhistlingBadger]

it seems these fish were trying very hard not to be found out..
View attachment 368854

Hard to blame them.

This species, whatever it's called, probably isn't found in Lake Inle, but I doubt real Inle loaches will be available, so this will be a close-enough species. I do a lot of those in my sorta-biotope tanks.

Also thinking about a few Thai micro crabs to simulate the endemic freshwater crabs in Inle...but I'll probably stick to snails and amanos shrimp. Everybody says Thai crabs are very short lived, which is usually fish-seller code for "they aren't really freshwater."

 

[Magnum Man]

With all the name calling... I'm corn fused... these...

Rosy Loach (Petruichthys sp.)

A popular and active schooling species, the Rosy Loach is found in shallow waters throughout Eastern Myanmar where it occurs in large groups. An active, outgoing fish perfect for planted or nano aquariums, they are highly social and should be kept in groups of no less than 5 fish. They are...

www.aqua-imports.com

 

[seangee]

CPD would go in well.
Don't try to find true biotype shrimp - they farm massive (and ugly) ones for food in there , I substituted with RCS in my biotope(ish).
In the UK I had a real problem finding native plants, and those I did find died - so it was never really a biotope.
Looking forward to seeing the result.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Not sure about CPD, but might add some emerald dwarf rasboras, red dwarf rasboras, or Indian glass fish down the road if things are going well.

 

[gwand]

Not sure about CPD, but might add some emerald dwarf rasboras, red dwarf rasboras, or Indian glass fish down the road if things are going well.

Why Danio erythromicron and not Danio margaritatus? I find CPDs more robust.