World themed tank setups

[dwarfgourami]

Part of the challenge would be to find fish that are on the same level in the food chain in their natural habitat. A fishtank is always going to be a unnatural situation since you are aiming at peaceful coexistence, which is not what life in the wild is about; they would all starve to death.

 

[CFC]

The leaves in a leaf litter biotope do slowly break down which lowers the pH and hardness of the water, however the pH will not drop below 6 which is the ideal range for the fish found in this locallity. I found that adding another layer of leaves every 3 months or so worked out fine, old leaves do not need to be removed.

The water values of rift valley set ups depend on which lake you are replicating, generally for lakes Malawi and Victoria you are looking for a pH of around 7.5, a GH of 12 and a KH of 12 or more, for lake Tanganykia a pH of around 8.5, a GH of 20 and a KH of 20 or more.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Part of the challenge would be to find fish that are on the same level in the food chain in their natural habitat. A fishtank is always going to be a unnatural situation since you are aiming at peaceful coexistence, which is not what life in the wild is about; they would all starve to death.

yes but not every fish is eaten by another fish in food chains and in most fish enviroments you will find alot of fish that are the same food chain level and do not eat each other.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

The leaves in a leaf litter biotope do slowly break down which lowers the pH and hardness of the water, however the pH will not drop below 6 which is the ideal range for the fish found in this locallity. I found that adding another layer of leaves every 3 months or so worked out fine, old leaves do not need to be removed.

The water values of rift valley set ups depend on which lake you are replicating, generally for lakes Malawi and Victoria you are looking for a pH of around 7.5, a GH of 12 and a KH of 12 or more, for lake Tanganykia a pH of around 8.5, a GH of 20 and a KH of 20 or more.

Thanks again for the info

 

[One_Trick_Pony]

cheers cfc it is of interest to me to you may remebr i was thinking of an amazon biotope tnak!

i think im just gonan go for a loss south americn theme to ebign with at least

s. american plants and fish, but the leaf litter may now have to wait until autum.

also i may well not stain the water as i personally perfer the clear look!

 

[MsDad]

I have a heavily planted 37-gal Amazon tank. Its residents are two 100% wild-blood Scalares, 3 Corydoras Melanistius, 2 Corydoras Julii, 2 Farlowella and one lonely Neon. I'm going to add either some more Neons (to be moved later - the angels are only a little larger than quarter-sized right now) or a few Colombian tetras. Haven't decided on that yet. The neons would have to be moved in a few months, but I can have more - the Colombians could live there forever, but I could probably max out at only three - not much of a school. Decisions, decisions. Anyway, I digress. I have a mixture of SeaChem Black Onyx sand and Fluorite gravel, plus some laterite as my substrate, so while not exactly true to nature it gives a similar look to leaf litter, plus 95% of the plants are all true Amazon system plants. A few pieces of wood add to the authentic look. And I do use peat, so the water is discolored. But the fish stand out so much better - in clear water they actually look dull and washed out. It's the most beautiful tank I've ever had!