2011-07-24 South American Tanks Collage

[slimbolen99]

Took some shots of the South American tanks this morning. I'm going to add more driftwood here soon when the plants get established a bit more. Hopefully the vallesneria will take off and cover up those ugly sponge filters!

From top to bottom...if you see a *, that means I haven't gotten those fish yet, or they are in quarantine waiting to go in.
75 Gallon - Dicrosus maculatus, Hemigrammus bleheri*, Ancistrus dolichopterus L183
75 Gallon - Taeniacara candidi*, Pterophyllum scalare wild Columbia*, Hemigrammus bleheri, Ancistrus dolichopterus L183
75 Gallon - Biotodoma cupido*, Hyphessobrycon sp. "White Fin" 511, Ancistrus dolichopterus L183
75 Gallon - Papiliochromis altispinosa*, Hyphessobrycon megalopterus, Ancistrus dolichopterus L183

[Bas Pels]

I think the tnaks are very similar - but Biotodoma needs a sandy area

The tanks look OK for Discrossus and so on, but not for Biotodoma.I'd suggest at least an open area of 45 cm / 18 inches across without plants.

[slimbolen99]

While they are very similar, when you look at them close up, they are very different. One of my ideas when I was planting and placing the driftwood in my new tanks was that I was going to try and make it look as random as possible. Granted, I did place some plants strategically to hopefully cover up the sponge filters, but mostly everything was thrown into the tank, and then planted where they landed. I kinda like it that way.

Thanks for the info on the Biotodoma. I had not read anything about the 18" open area before. Is that an 18" radius? These tanks have a top 2" layer of 1 to 2 mm sand. Should that be sufficient?

[Bas Pels]

@ randomeness - to me they looked designed to look random. I think you managed what you intedned to do

@ area for Biotodoma - perfect circels don't happen in nature, but why do Biotodoma prefer the sand? for 2 reasons:
1 To be able to feed - they do eat from the sand, but they don't go very deep.
2 To be able to see predators coming.

Therefore, a sand road, 5 or 6 inches actross does not work. But an area, more or less kindney shaped, 12 inches across and 24 long? I think that will work

After all, you would not want to destroy the randomeness which characterizes all 4 tanks