Apistogramma sp. "Breitbinden"

[Ruki]

Few pictures of my A. sp. "Breitbinden" male :wink: Sorry for bad quality but I hadn't got much time and I'm not used to new camera.

 

[Fingerling]

Those are some beauties you've got there. Love the way you setup the tank, care showing a full tank shot please?:biggrin:

 

[Ruki]

care showing a full tank shot please?:biggrin:

Here you go. :wink:

 

[Mike Wise]

Lukasz, It reminds me of some small streams that I saw in Peru!

 

[Ruki]

Lukasz, It reminds me of some small streams that I saw in Peru!

Thanks Mike! It should be a Colombia's stream, but I won't complain for one in Peru. :biggrin:

 

[peterK]

Lukasz, It reminds me of some small streams that I saw in Peru!

Lukasz should show that comment on every Polish forum, where his tanks are commented as "messy, dirty and in which no one can see any fish":biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder". Yes the tank is beautiful, and so is the fish. Is the wood Beech? (Fagus sylvatica).
cheers Darrel

 

[Ruki]

Hi all,
"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder". Yes the tank is beautiful, and so is the fish. Is the wood Beech? (Fagus sylvatica).
cheers Darrel

Darrel, this wood's probably Alnus or Salix. And thanks for opinion!

 

[Tom C]

Thanks Mike! It should be a Colombia's stream, but I won't complain for one in Peru. :biggrin:

The tank is absolute perfect and the kind of tanks I, and many fish, just love.

When Mike and I for a few days visited Colombia last October, we collected fish in streams like this:

The tank looks exactly like some of these streams looked like under the surface.
Therefore, yes, it looks like a Colombian stream
.

 

[Ruki]

Oh, so many good opinions :redface::redface:
Tom, stunning photos!

 

[dw1305]

Alnus and Eriobotrya japonica leaves (loquat)

Hi all,
Lukasz said "probably Salix or Alnus". Interesting, I will see if I can get any Alnus glutinosa (Alder) branches when I go to collect some cones, we have quite few tree here in a wet bit of the wood, although they are fairly young.
I have wondered about Alnus before as the wood is resistant to rotting and was traditionally used for making "clogs" (wooden shoes).

I've also found a good dead leaf for Apisto (and shrimp tanks), it's Loquat (Eriobotrya japonica), the leaves are large, evergreen and leathery, and I noticed that the fallen leaves were very persistent. I collected a few, and whilst I was looking for any information about them I found that they were used in Chinese Medicine (unfortunately it's the green leaf, dried and made into a tea), and had anti-microbial properties. We did an bio-assay here on the dead leaves, but they didn't show any activity against E.coli etc as a water extract, and only limited activity as an alcohol extract.

The dead leaves only had a slight acidifying and tannin staining effect on de-ionised water (but the plant is growing in very lime rich soil), but they are very tough and the leaves in the shrimp tank have been in there 6 months, and are still intact, and the shrimps like "grazing" on them.

It's too cold here to get any fruit, but the plant itself is quite hardy as it's survived at least -15oC.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eriobotrya>

cheers Darrel

 

[Ruki]

Darrel, I'm collecting drift wood by myself at streams and river and also river banks. I'm spending my holidays in mountains and there I've small river "next to" my house. Most of trees growing at banks are Alnus, Salix and Padus avium. I'm just collecting what I find in river. :wink:

Few days ago I collected drift wood like this :wink:

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
Lukasz that is an excellent bit of drift wood, its going to look great. I collected a few bits of wood last year from my holiday in Cornwall (Bodmin moor), but nothing that good. We used to have a lot of wild Cherries (Prunus avium) in our wood here, but it was all chopped down for furniture making.
cheers Darrel

 

[Ruki]

This year I found only one good place with plenty of good driftwood.

Last year was better because of flood.
I was using wood from cherries and other fruit trees(??? I'm not sure of words) like apple, but driftwood from them is really soft and disappeared in tank really fast. :frown:

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
Very good Lukasz, yes Apples, Cherries, Plums etc are "fruit trees". We may well have a flood here soon as it has now rained every day for a fortnight.
I monitor moths, and this morning was my worst July catch since 1994, there were more molluscs than moths in the light trap.

It's interesting how some wood disappears much quicker than others, I've found that Wych Elm (Ulmus glabra), False Acacia (Robinia pseudoacacia) and Box (Buxus sempervirens) are all long lasting. I've also got a peat soaked conifer stump of some description soaking, it may be Douglas Fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii)

Box sinks even when it's green, and Robinia has great bark, just like cork bark. A while ago I saved some lovely Ulmus glabra "bosses" from the wood chipper, but I gave them to a wood turner (to make bowls out of) and now all our Elms have died from Dutch Elm Disease.

The other 2 dense long lasting woods I have found are slightly strange ones, in that they are Buddleia (Buddleia x weyerensis) and Elder (Sambucus nigra), both of which have really soft pithy shoots, but as they get old the heart wood becomes very hard and dense.

cheers Darrel

 

[Ruki]

Few new photos. :biggrin:

 

[Bilbo]

That is really cool. I have been thinking of a way to do an apisto tank for my Bitaeniata. I might have to try and copy that if thats ok. I love it.

What mosses are you using on the wood?

 

[Ruki]

There aren't any moss- on the wood Rhodophyta are growing.
I'll be pleased if my tank'll be inspiration! :redface:

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
He is a magnificent fish.
I wondered about the "moss" as well, I had assumed that it was probably a green alga (Chlorophyta), although I had wondered about some moss mixed in as well.

"Rhodophyta" are the "Red Algae", often in aquariums referred to BBA or "Black Brush Algae", because very few freshwater species are red in colour<http://www.lifesciences.napier.ac.uk/algalweb/rhodo.htm>.

I think Red Algae would be good "plants" for a low light tank as their accessory pigments are very efficient at collecting the blue spectrum light that penetrates furthest through water, and they are pre-adapted to low light conditions.

I've got this by a couple of Brazilian authors:
Necchi, O & Zucchi M (2001)
"Photosynthetic performance of freshwater Rhodophyta in response to temperature, irradiance, pH and diurnal rhythm"
Phycological Research 49(4), pp 305 - 318

from the abstract:
"......Parameters derived from the photosynthesis-irradiance curves indicated adaptation to low irradiance for all freshwater red algae tested, confirming that they tend to occur under low light regimes. .......whereas light compensation points (Ic) were very low (≤ 2 μmol photons m- photons s-1) for most algae tested. Saturation points were low for all algae tested (Ik = 6-54 μmol photons m-2 s-1; Is = 20-170 μmol photons m-2 s-1)..."

cheers Darrel

 

[Ruki]

Few new photos of fishes and tank. :biggrin:

And tank(second filter only for few days):