World themed tank setups

[Tokis-Phoenix]

This is just somthing i have been wondering about and im not sure if there has already been talk about it but anyways;

A short while back i was thinking about various themed tank setups and there fish.
There are many places in the world and their enviroments contain fish that all occur naturally in the wild in the same habitats/countrys living together in harmony or at least stable food chains.
Say you want to have a Japanese fish setup and you want to find fish that all naturally originate from Japan but don't want to look at every single fish species profile there is just to find where it comes from so you can gather japanese fish for your all-japanese fish setup, wouldn't it be a good idea if instead of just sorting fish out into their family groups on the forum, you could also sort them out into their country of origin so you can quickly just click on a country to find where it comes from?
This could not only be used for fish but also plants and other water living animals like snails and newts/frogs for example so with a quick click of a button you can find what you can put in your country/world themed setup.
I think these setups could realy catch on for the more serious fish keepers who not only want a beautitful naturally co-ordinating tank but also an eucational one.
I have seen some country themed setups like african ones but that is about it and there are very few and im sure if the info for them was more readily/easily availabe there would be far more types of country themed setups for almost every country .

What do you guys think? Any comments are much appreciated

 

[SirMinion]

Having a tank that is strictly limited to fish, plants & decor from just one region is called a biotope, and is quite a challenge!

I believe that CFC has a biotope tank, although I don't remember what's in it.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Having a tank that is strictly limited to fish, plants & decor from just one region is called a biotope, and is quite a challenge!

I believe that CFC has a biotope tank, although I don't remember what's in it.

Thanks for the info
Biotope, biotope, biotope- must remember.

What kinds of biotope setups are commonly known about so far?

 

[wrs]

south american and asian are VERY popular.

 

[OohFeeshy]

Umm... generally ones from the lakes (eg malawi etc), but you can do stuff like Thai biotype, where you grow rice and keep a betta, or... ummm... something will come to me later.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Ahh...My horizon is expanding .
I suppose you can get brazilian/amazon ones too with lots of plecs?

Anybody here have a biotope setup other than CFC?
Does anyone think that there should also be a section on the site where fish are sectioned off into their country of origin and not just there family group?
I think it could inspire/encourage more people to do biotope setups.
There isn't a great demand for them i know but it could help our understanding of individual enviroments and fish conservation for endangered species

 

[MAM]

Tokis, do a search on here for the word "biotope", search back 365 days and newer. You'll find plenty of threads showing biotopes, threads with suggestions for biotopes, links to books on setting up a biotope, etc.

You can also do a search on our fish index for a certain regional name and see which ones come up to give you more ideas.

As for the section, that wouldnt' be necessary, but if someone wrote up a detailed thread about the various biotopes and appropriate fish, its possible such a topic might end up being pinned, if it was accurate and thorough...........................

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

For people trying to breed fish that have never been bred before in captivity, im sure they would be far more likely to breed in a biotope setup than mixed nationality setup- i myself would like to attempt this in the near future.

 

[Fishist]

My next set up will be an Asian only tank, but Asia is a huge continent and I am trying to decide whether to narrow it down to a specific Asian location without limiting myself on size, shape and colours of fish. It's quite difficult.

 

[sylvia]

For fish that haven't been bred before, I think it would be common sense to keep them in a species tank under conditions as close to what they live in in the wild in order to stimulate spawning. Keeping them in a biotope setting, however, isn't necessary as long as certain requirements are met. Regardless, besides breeding, I think biotope set-ups are a great way to lear more about your specific fish and the environment in which they live in the wild as it forces you to research all this more closely. The reason I think biotope tanks aren't as common as your typical community is probably more to do with people wanting to mix and match all the beautiful species from around the world as they don't realy care if they all come from the same place - I know when I started fishkeeping I wanted EVERYTHING in my tank. As for more experienced fishkeepers or people interested in starting a biotope tank, I think they need to be the kind of person prepaired to do some extra research as it's all well puting random fish from the same place in a tank but you have to make sure they are compatible in other ways. A prime example would be mixing neons with angels - it is BECAUSE they live together in the wild that an angel will view a neon as food...

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Yeah i see what you mean but i think if you go about a biotope in the right way you can make it just as beautiful as any other tank; not all my fish are fantastic looking and some have quite boring colors but i find the boring colored/looking fish tend to compliment the more interesting ones and make them stand out more.
Besides, im sure everybody agrees here that fish keeping is about the fish and not how beauitful they are

 

[sylvia]

I completely agree but most newcommers to fishkeeping (that's what I was reffering to), don't want to bother with biotopes or specialising they just want all the pretty fish

More experienced fishkeepers who do want a biotope should be prepaired to do the research anyway.

That was my point.

 

[CFC]

Some common biotopes are as follows.

Leaf litter biotopes; These can be from any continent as are set up to resemble the river bed close to the shore line where fallen leaves from jungle trees cover the substrate, generally tall pieces of bogwood and small pieces of mangrove root are used to resemble broken tree trunks and roots in the back of the aquarium. Oak or Beach leaves can be used to cover the bottom of the tank to a layer around 3 inches deep.
To prepare the leaves collect them in Autumn/fall and dry them out well in a outside cupboard or shed/garage, collect enough to keep your tank going for the whole year, usually a refuse sack full is enough for most people. When you come to use the dried leaves boil them in a old pot for 10 minutes before adding them to the tank to ensure they sink and any nasties they my be carrying are killed. Plants are generally left out of this type of set up though some floating plants and mossy or fern like plants like riccia, java moss or java fern can be used if wished. The fish found in this type of biotope vary from continent to continent but are generally small catfish, tetras, barbs and dwarf Cichlids.

Mountain stream biotopes; Again these can be from any continent and are set to resemble the small fast flowing mountain streams that feed larger rivers. A substrate of gravel and large smooth pebbles is used and the tank is sparsly decorated with larger pebbles and rocks, plants which anchor themselves to rocks can also be used if they are geographically correct. Place one or two (depending on tank size) powerheads on one side of the aquarium to provide the flow that fishes from this type of biotope enjoy. Fish found in this biotope are Danios, small barbs, Ballitorid loaches, some gobies, tetras, some plecs and hillstream catfishes to name but a few.

Asian Cryptocoryne stream; As the name suggests a biotope set up with just Cryptocoryne plants and fishes from Asia. A sand substrate enriched with a good plant growing media should be used and small pieces of bogwood are placed on this to decorate the tank. Provide a gentle current with a small powerhead or internal filter. If possile the water should be soft and acidic. Fishes from this biotope would be mainly Labyrynth fishes (gouarmies), Rasboros and other small Asian Cyprinids.

African Rift valley biotopes; Probably the most common biotope tanks, these are set to resemble lakes Malawi, Tanganykia and Victoria. For a shoreline rocky biotope use a substrate of coral sand to buffer the water and cover the entire back wall of the tank with rocks right to the water line creating may caves and rock passageways for the fish to hide/breed in, small Cichlids (mbuna) are the main fish found in this biotope though some Synodontis catfishes may also be found here.
For a deeper water tank again use the coral sand substrate but decorate sparsly with just a few rocks partially burried in the substrate, tall grass like plants such as vallis/giant vallis can be used here too, this biotope is home to mainly larger Cichlids and some catfish species.

I had a South American leaf litter biotope for a while but due to having to create space for new fish it had to be abandoned until such a time as i have more space.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Thankyou for the info CFC, i found it realy helpful
I have some questions though;
a. in the leaf litter biotope i would have thought the leaves would have just rotted after a while and cause water quality problems- how regually should you replace the leaves with new ones?
b. In the african rift valley biotope, you talk of using coral sand to buffer the water; what ph/kh/gh should i aim for?

Thanks again

 

[Fishist]

Yeah i see what you mean but i think if you go about a biotope in the right way you can make it just as beautiful as any other tank; not all my fish are fantastic looking and some have quite boring colors but i find the boring colored/looking fish tend to compliment the more interesting ones and make them stand out more.
Besides, im sure everybody agrees here that fish keeping is about the fish and not how beauitful they are

I feel this way too. If you spend the time researching like Silvia said and set the whole thing up from sand/gravel all the way up to the top in a specific theme, you really can have a great looking tank that exhibits a "close to natural habitat" environment.