Vietnamese biotope (planted)

[Yo-han]

I've been gathering info on this forum for a long time and wanted to share one of my tanks with you.

It is mentioned as a planted Vietnamese biotope on a budget resembling a Vietnamese river stream. I've a 100 gallon planted community tank and used this 10 gallon as a breeding tank for my angelfish. I sold my angelfish and wanted to turn it over cheap. I took out the corner filter and used the pump only with a sponge. Took out the broken 15W ballast and replaced it with a 36W and added another 15W t8 (see pictures), one 3.000K and one 14.000K old but still grows plants and algae Painted the inside white to save on reflectors and added a free 95gram co2 set which I later replaced with the 500gram spare bottle of my big tank.

There is no heater because I the room won't come below 18 degree celcius and the tank is usual a few degree warmer thanks to the lighting.

Flora & fauna:
25 x Tanichthys micagemmae
4 x Sewellia lineolata
10 x Paracaridina sp. Princess bee (lost a few)

Rotala sp. 'vietnam'
Ultricularia graminifolia
Limnophila aromatica
Riccardia chamedryfolia
(Blyxa japonica)


All fish and plants are from Vietnam but the Blyxa japonica didn't do very well. I will try again later because I've enough in my big tank.

As you can see in the pictures I had some trouble with snails (there number decreases a lot) and also cyano bacter, staghorn algae and some other algae (morning sun on the tank). The algae on the stones is intended as food for the sewellia's.


Modified hood:



The setup:



Growth:






Details:





The tank isn't finished jet but getting better more bushy and healthier every week so I was even thinking about entering the iaplc contest. (Although it will be hard to get the UG good with the Sewellia's in the tank) Was wondering whether you think I need to clean the stones before a final picture or not. And also all comments regarding layout are welcome!

Yo-han

[DogFish]

I like the 'scape, nice effort! I particularly like the Algae on the Rocks very natural look.

[vincenz]

I like the fauna and the moss/algae on the rocks is a nice touch.

[kuni]

Nice tank. You should enter it in the biotope contest.

If you choose to, here are a few things to think about that the judges will probably bring up.
-hillstream loaches are usually found in fast-flowing water, not near plants
-princess bee shrimp aren't found with plants at all, they leave in leaf litter in rocky pools
-Tanichthys DO generally live near plants in clear flowing streams
-'carpet' plants often look unnatural in a biotope. Most of what we use as carpet plants in the hobby live using the "dry start method", growing next to streams.

It's not enough to simply have "plants and fish from Vietnam" for a biotope, you need plants/fish that would be found together in nature.

[GMYukonon24s]

That's a beautiful tank. Also great job on the pics.

[CagneyM]

Beautiful. I love the Sewellia. How active are they?

[Yo-han]

Thanks for the nice comments!

The Sewellia are quite active, especially the big male (not sure on the gender of the other 3 fish, although I expect to have 2 males and 2 females). They graze on the algae stones all the time, but the big male is dominant and pushes the other 3 away sometimes. If they don't leave (I see this happen ones every other week) it starts in a little battle. This is always the other Sewellia in the picture, which I guess is also a male although no clear 'fences' on his fins.

About the biotope part, I know this is not a biotope in the classical way but more a designed interpretation with flora and fauna from the same region (not even the same river, I know). So about entering a contest, I think I lose lots of points in the biotope class because of this. On the other end, in a planted tank contest like iaplc, I probably lose points for the algae on the stones...

Found very small fry in the filter yesterday (this is an extreme macro, so imagine how small they are, true size about 2 mm):


Not sure whether they are Sewellia or Tanichthys. The tanichthys males are more colorful the last week compared with before but my guess would be Sewellia...

[DogFish]

I think the Bio-Type should have to divisions Strict and a "Loose.

>>>Strict would be just that one specific area of one body of water. Great from an educational aspect but maybe not what most would want in their living room.

>>>Loose would be from an area/region. What I try to do in my display tanks S.E Asian Plants & Fish, S. American or African only in said tank. I try to limit the Sp. 3-4 plants if I can and plant one variety of each.

I limit my Collectoris to my grow-out tanks and various experimental tanks.

[Yo-han]

I would join your 'loose' biotope competition