Amazonian Biotope, Slowly but Surely

Question: What do you get when you combine moving a 200L fully stocked fish tank, a curious Burmese cat who decides he wants to swim in a bucket full of fish, and an exploding power board which nearly sets fire to the whole house? A very long, soggy and stressful Saturday afternoon!

Yes, one of the few downfalls being a young fishkeeper is that when you decide to move out of home, you have to take the whole thing with you. The reward: getting to set up the tank as a main feature in our new home, instead of hiding it away in my room for none but me to enjoy. 

It's been a long while since I last gave an update on my aquarium hobby. As you might imagine, many things have changed since then, which is a good thing, as I'm slowly but surely turning my tank into the slice of the Amazon that I always dreamed of.

I always liked the idea of a biotope themed aquarium, one that attempts to recreate as best possible the "natural" conditions of a river/lake/waterhole of a certain part of the world. This usually means keeping fish that would probably co-inhabit the same rivers, creeks and pools in the wild. Then, depending on how accurate you wish to get, you can also use plants from the same region, along with similar substrate, decor and even water chemistry. It's a cool little side project, and I think it can also cause the fish to behave and interact more natually.

Paradise, anyone? This is the kind of rainforest pool I was trying to emulate in  aquarium form.

Anyway, from the moment I knew I was getting a new tank in late 2012, I had my heart set on an Amazon River biotope. When I first dreamed up the tank, I pictured a gloomy, overgrown section of rainforest with a small, sandy backwater, featuring over-hanging branches and strewn with leaf litter. Like a new relationship yet to blossom, told myself to take it slow... but, as is my character,  I got way too excited, and numerous impulse buys later I found myself with almost the exact opposite of what I wanted: plain brown gravel as substrate, an overgrown mess of plants from all parts of the world, and one big fat piece of wood sitting smack bang in the middle of the tank.

Before: an overgrown, tangled mess.

Fortunately, with a little bit more patience and a long time to mull over my original layout, the tank is now looking far more like the one I dreamed of 18 months ago. 

The best change I made was getting rid of the brown gravel substrate, and changing to sand. I love the sand, I don't know why I didn't swap to it sooner! I guess I was frightened of the unknown, having only used gravel in aquariums in the past. As it turns out, sand is cheap (Richgro play sand - $8 a bag from Bunnings), easy to clean, far more natural looking for my biotope, and most importantly, the fish and plants seem to really enjoy it. The hoplo catfish especially love foraging and playing around in the softer substrate, and the amazon sword plants are growing out nicely.

After: Sand substrate, gold vine, and some serious weeding; the tank is now looking something like how I imagined it to be.

Secondly, I ripped up all of the Vallisneria plants (the tall reedy weeds), which were going nuts and taking over the whole tank, making it look like an absolute mess. I hate mess. I bought them as a "beginner" plant because they are so easy to grow, and I just assumed that I would fail at growing any other plants. As luck would have it, I managed to grow all of the other species of plant successfully, and "Vallis" is nowhere near native to the Amazon River. They simply had to go.

The third change I made was to the hardscape, which was lacking a certain naturalness to it. Eventually, I found that City Farmers sold gold vine, the kind of branchy looking wood which I always planned on using. It's kind of tangled looking and almost resembles mangrove roots. So, instead of the big hunk of driftwood I had sitting at the bottom (I impulse bought the biggest piece I could find in Pet Magic for some reason), I now have two lovely pieces of gold vine hanging from the top, imitating some overgrown branches hanging down into the rainforest creek - or something to that effect.

New addition: a beautiful male gold marble

Unfortunately, I lost two small angelfish midway through last year, when my girlfriend and I went on five and a half week holiday to the USA. The losses proved to me the importance of good water quality and consistent water changes; the fish were healthy when I left, and were well fed while I was away, but even in the most heavily planted aquariums, ammonia and nitrate build-up can definitely take a heavy toll on the health of your fish. Moral of the story: do your water changes! I change approximately 25% of the water in my tanks every fortnight, which is far below what many people in aquarium circles would recommend (25-50% once or twice a week). However, with the current water shortages in Australia and my responsibility as a so called "enviro", I think my regime is appropriate, and it still seems to keep the fish healthy. Fortunately, I managed to replace my lost angels with two more, which I bought off a lady who was moving house and couldn't keep them. At time of purchase they were huge - the fattest I have ever seen - but since then they have lost a bit of weight, and now look much healthier. 

It's so nice to be able to sit here on our comfy couch, and watch my fish as I laze around in the living room of our lovely new place. Even though I know my Amazon biotope is far from perfect, our guests seem to really enjoy watching the goings on in the tank, and more importantly talking about the fish. Although moving the thing was a marathon effort, the reward of being able to set it up as a centrepiece in our loungeroom, and the interest it sparks in the aquarium hobby far outweighs the stress and the strain of that Saturday afternoon.

Tank specs: 200L Amazon River biotope

Equipment: 

- 2 x AquaOne Heaters (1  x 200w, 1 x 150w)

- 1 x Eheim 2213 Canister Filter

- 1 x AquaOne internal power filter

- 2 x 30 watt fluorescent tubes

Plants:

- Amazon sword (Echinodorus amazonicus, Echinodorus tenellus)

- Crypts (Cryptocoryne spp.)

- Java fern (Microsorum pteropus)

Fish: 

- Angelfish (Pterophyllum scalare)

- Pristella (X-ray) tetra (Pristella maxillaris)

- Glass bloodfin tetra (Prionobrama filigera)

- Hoplo catfish (Hoplosternum thoracatum)

- Bristlenose plec. (Ancistrus sp.)

- Neon tetra (Paracheirodon innesi)