South American Biotope (Planning)

[dw1305]

Hi all,

This threads are long and my English is a bit rusty, I will make a good reading of them

Claire there are a couple of Portugese speaking members on the UKAPS forum, I can put you in touch with them if it might help.

cheers Darrel

 

[Claire M.]

Hi Darrel,

I know some of them , LondonDragon (Paulo) and Ceg4048, helped me a lot in my planted thank wen i changed my ferts regime to dry salts ...
and a few more that I know from Portuguese forums

You can see my planted tank journal here : http://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/cristalrio-300l.25112/#post-280999

This English threads are good for practicing, the downside is the chemistry part as i'm not very found of it ....

But willing to learn

Thank you for the help once more

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

LondonDragon (Paulo)

Paulo (or Luis) were the people I had in mind. I'll leave the CO2/EI stuff to Clive, as I'm a strictly low tech planted tank keeper.

cheers Darrel

 

[Claire M.]

Hi everyone time for an update ..

Everything is on track now, the water values are where I want them to be using 100% ro filtered with peat.

pH - 6
dHº - 1
gHº - 1
NO3 - 0 - 5 ppm
NO2 - 0 ppm
NH3 - 0 ppm

Leave you some photos

Rain Forest









Still waiting for the N. Marginatus to come

Claire M.

 

[Claire M.]

Hi everyone, just came here to show you a video of my Eremnopyge pair , flirting with each other ...
I shoot it 08/06 ...

And today a behavior that I think it's really good, not raising any expectations but I think the female spawn meanwhile as she is protecting a burrow from the male don't letting him get closer, since now she was very submissive running away from the male and now she is ruling and has yellowish color , I found the same behavior of the female on my Bitaeniata pair when they spawn on the community tank.

Keeping my fingers crossed

Claire M.

 

[thenameless]

really like this thread, your tank looks amazing!!!
I have a pair of agassizi. they are amazing, already have about 30 2 month's old babies. they are amazing to watch!

for my water, i use almond leaves and i have malaysian driftwood in there, which bring my ph to 6.4 from 7-7.5.

 

[Claire M.]

Hi all,

Haven't had much time to update so leave you with the tank actual state

I've changed the Eremnopyge 'Fresa' pair with my Bitaeniata 'Shishita' that were on my planted tank,
They adapted real well and have a totally different behavior, love seeing them in blackwater .

Finally managed to get the Nannostomus Marginatus 45 of those entered early this week

Here are some photos of the tank

Regards, Claire M.

 

[slimbolen99]

Wow. What a tank! Great work.

 

[Claire M.]

Hello everyone,

Been a while since my last update , yesterday I've made a water change and took the time to do some basic water tests ...

NH4 - 0
NO2 - 0
NO3 < 5
GH - 20ppm - 1.2ºdGH (perfect)
KH - 0
pH around 5 maybe less (also perfect)

Each time I like more this aquarium, the fish are showing awesome colors and behavior , here are some photos

General

Apistogramma Bitaeneiata Sp. ''Shishita'' Male (Beautiful colors)

Apistogramma Bitaeneiata Sp. ''Shishita'' Fêmea (As you can see she is with fry and today they appeared in free swimming I'll post some photos tomorrow)

Nannostomus Marginatus (They don't stop surprising us, was a good choice to use as a dither fish and are awesome when in group)

Hope you like it

 

[Claire M.]

I took the camera from the bag and sooner than I promised here it is

Apistogramma Bitaeniata sp. ''Shishita'' female with free swimming fry

Best regards, Claire M.

 

[DBlauj]

What kind of floating plants are those in the tank? Congrats on the spawn!!

 

[Claire M.]

What kind of floating plants are those in the tank? Congrats on the spawn!!

It's Limnobium Laevigatum

Regards, Claire M.

 

[DBlauj]

Have you had dwarf water lettuce before? Are the foots of frogbit the same as DWL? Are the frogbit roots frizzy like (not sure if that's the best way to describe it)? I ended up giving away my DWL because the roots would fouled my water too much.

 

[Claire M.]

I had Pistia Stratitoides when I first set-up the tank but preferred the Frogbit roots as they give much more ambiance ...

I don't know what you mean by DWL ...

Regards, Claire M.

 

[DBlauj]

DWL = Dwarf water lettuce (Pistia stratioes)

 

[Claire M.]

DWL = Dwarf water lettuce (Pistia stratioes)

They are very different the frogbit has long roots and pistia has short strands , I like them both, but to use with small fish I like Limnobium better, if you have Discus or Pterophyllum , Biotodomas etc... I think the Pistia is more appropriated as it doesn't interfere much with the fish free swimming ...

Regards

 

[DBlauj]

THanks

 

[Claire M.]

Ap. Bitaeniata sp. "Shishita" - 11 days free swimming fry!







Tks.

 

[Claire M.]

a very quick video but we can see who is the dominant little male

 

[Claire M.]

Hi everyone,

The AGA Aquascaping Contest 2013 results are out , and know I can post the photos of my entry , there were several things I wished to be better on the photos, like some little waving on the water surface and a bit more sharpness on the N. Marginatus school nonetheless I'm very happy with the final result and still can't believe I placed on the top ten biotope category.

And here are the entry photos
AGA 2013 Biotope Aquascape - Rain Forest - Rio Shishita Biotope

AGA 2013 Biotope Aquascape - Rain Forest - Rio Shishita Biotope

AGA 2013 Biotope Aquascape - Rain Forest - Nannostomus Marginatus

AGA 2013 Biotope Aquascape - Rain Forest - Apistogramma Bitaeniata Sp Shishita (M)

AGA 2013 Biotope Aquascape - Rain Forest - Apistogramma Bitaeniata Sp Shishita (F) AGA 2013 - Biotope Aquascape

I want to give a special thank's to Mike Wise for showing me his collecting trip journal to Rio Shishita 2008 on witch this biotope was inspired as well for pointing me to the N. Marginatus as an ideal dither fish and for sharing his experience with me regarding some water parameters for this species on some private messages. (I've made reference both to you and for Tom C. on the scape entry hope you don't mind about it)

I also have a tank you for Darrel (dw1305) , how enlighten me for some water chemistry and helped me mold my R/O Water, since this the fish are showing awesome colors and a spectacular behavior.

And a thank you for everyone that followed this tank and give their contribute.

Here's the link for the AGA 2013 - Biotope Aquascapes

Been learning a lot here at apistogramma.com

Best Regards, Claire M.