Biodotomo and Discus

[cbzoo]

Is there anyone who has kept both biodotomo and discus in the same tank?
I am planning on setting up a 90 gallon "biotope" type tank. inhabitants will be
6 F1 Hypancistrus sp. (L340) "Mega Clown" plecos
6-10 F1 Corydoras sterbai
6 Biotodoma cupido
2 W/C Mesonauta festivus (pair)
4 W/C Symphysodon aequifasciatus
I know this is not a true biotope tank but a rough approximation of one.
Tank is a standard 4' long 90 gallon tank
Filtration will be a 40 of 50 gallon sump with a section of the sump containing fast growing stem plants to help stabilize the water. (kinda of like the 'fuge' concept in salt water tanks) the sump will be lighted for plant growth and the lights will be on oposite schedule of the tank lights. tank lights go on sump/"fuge" lights off. I may also add a small agea scrubber to this. The goal with the filtration is to allow for a small 300-600 GPM filter flow but make the filter as effective as possible.

Decor in the tank will be slight I am planing a small rock background to cover the intakes of the sump filter. I will also use apisotmasters concept that he used in his Heckle breeding tank and make a small "wall" area in the back of the tank that will have a deeper sand bed and be planted with some sort of Valensaria. The rest of the tank will have a light layer of sand of around 1/2 of an inch.
There will be some sort of floating plants like frogbit and some java fern/anubis tied to the drift wood. Did I mention driftwood????? lots of branchy manzanita wood hanging down.
Lighting in the main tank will be DIY LED lighting on some sort of timer. I hope to put these lights on a timed dimmer system so that the lights in the tank gradually come on over the course of several hours.
This whole process will take over a year to complete as I am also finishing the basement portion where this tank will reside.
W/C's will be accomplished once a week with over 70% water changed. Water will be a 60-40 mix of R/O and treated tap water to give me a TDS of around 100-150 ppm.
PH should settle around 6.5ish.. I may have to use peat to get the PH down to that level or a higher mix of R/O water not sure on that yet.
I am not looking to breed any of the fish in this tank except for possibly the plecos. If it happens wonderful if not that is not going to be a disappointment to me.
I have been working on this concept for a long time and the one piece missing is if these "earth eaters" will coexist with the W/C discus any opinions? I have other tanks to put the earth eaters in if this does not work out.

 

[cbzoo]

newest arrivals

Well Jeff over at Aquatic Clarity did another wonderfull job packing and shipping fish to me and the 6 Biodotomo Cupidos (3 large and 3 small) arrived as planned and were successfully acclimated and are now swimming around in a temporary home of a 40 Gallon breeder. Once I get a W/C done today I will post pictures of them!
Good job and thanks Jeff for providing high quality W/C fish at reasonable prices! I cant wait to see these grow up and be swimming around with some discus and festiums.
Jeff What water parameters were these kept at in your tanks and what were you feeding them?

 

[Mike Wise]

Biotodoma are wonderful fish. In a sligtly decorated 4 ft/1m tank with much larger cichlids, I really don't see them surviving very long.

 

[cbzoo]

Mke,
Thanks for the reply.. I am not sure on the arrangement with the 'Cupidos'.. and the other fish but if they dont work out in the 90 with the discus and festivums then they will have their own tank. I already have that in mind if it does not work out. I have seen a few people over in the Simply Discus site that have tried this and it worked for them. I am unsure if it will work for me so I am asking the dwarf experts over here for advice.

 

[Mike Wise]

I would be more conserned about the Biotodomas being out competed for space and food by the plecos and especially the festivums than the discus. Any thoughts on adding mid to upper water schooling fish? Personally, I think that the bottom will be busy enough with the catfish and festivums, but the top of your tall tank will be a bit sparce.

 

[aquaticclarity]

Holding tank water: 7.6pH and 300ppm

I've kept several different Biotodoma sp. with wild angles in larger tanks with out issue but the Biotodoma were the dominant bottom dwelling fish. I've also had some Biotodoma in with some larger Aquedens sp. and dwarf pikes, again in a larger (6') tank without issue.

Thanks for the order and kind words! Enjoy the fish and post some pictures once they will out and mature some.

Jeff

 

[cbzoo]

Pictures

Well when playing around with the PVC overflow setups I got some real low flows... I was hoping for around 400 GPH instead I got something closer to 75 GPH using a 1/2 inch and a 3/4 inch PVC overflow... I am going to play around with the placement of the elbows and the vacuum break tee on the outside to see what difference that will make to my flow.. but for now here are some picts of future residents of the tank. I can not wait to see them grow up into their full colors!!

LF B/N grow out about 2" long

L340 grow out... one of 6 in the same tank but this is the only one I see reguarly...

 

[Mike Wise]

I must be going senile! I was thinking of Biotoecus instead of Biotodoma. Biotodoma should be fine with the other cichlids.

 

[cbzoo]

I must be going senile! I was thinking of Biotoecus instead of Biotodoma. Biotodoma should be fine with the other cichlids.

Well Thanks ALOT Mike now because of your mistake there is ANOTHER fish that I did not know about that I would love to have in a tank in my house... That is one neat lookihg dwarf SA...

 

[EBRbreeder]

What kind of pleco is in the 7th picture down?

 

[cbzoo]

What kind of pleco is in the 7th picture down?

That is a L340 pleco. commonly confused with a L129 pleco. one of the few plecos that I have bred.
cool little Hyphan pleco but very shy as usual with most Hyphan type plecs..
Funny story about that particular breed.. My wife bought a single one at a swap... did not know much about plecs then.
tried to find out what is was so I started doing research into this pleco....Learned a lot about lots of different plecos....
Finally determined that it was an L340 and spent the next two years looking for mates for the first one....
I had about given up on finding any then a guy posted on my local site "Midwest Chichld Assoc." that he had L340's for sale...
he was only about 90 miles away so I drove over and picked some up and 6 months later I had fry.. This was the first pleco I had ever bred!
So that one little Pleco started my interest in plecos... and as a side note it also restarted my love of cory cats as lots of the pleco sites also have areas dedicated to corys..