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Sri Lanka or Bust: Discussion of a Biotope Aquarium Part 1 and 2 by
Phil Edwards
My
passion for biotope aquariums began when I was a young child.
At that time Seattle had one of the best aquariums on the West Coast, and
probably still does. Whenever we
went I could spend hours sitting in front of the stream ecosystem watching the
bass, perch, and sunfish swimming around in their habitat.
Since then I've loved the idea of keeping such a system myself even
though I had no idea what a biotope was. When
I was in college I came across an image of Perfection.
Nanne de Vos had created the most beautiful rendition of a small stream
on a high plateau of Cameroon. His
creation was complete with a custom created background and everything.
If one didn't know better it would be hard to tell the difference between
it and nature. I knew at that
moment that biotopes were where I wanted to go.
That was five years ago and it wasn't until recently that I finally had
the chance to create such an aquatic ecosystem of my own.
This article is a discussion of the various steps I took in creating my
very own slice of nature.
Sri Lanka? Of all places on
earth why choose Sri Lanka? Why not
Brazil, Guyana, or Thailand? Surely
there must be more beautiful fish and more abundant, not to mention diverse,
flora available from those places? It
was all the fault of a plain little labyrinth fish, the Pseudosphromenus dayi,
or Brown Spike-Tailed Paradise Fish. I
had purchased one of these little treasures to house in my Eclipse 3 and fell in
love with him. In researching the
species I found out that it originated in Sri Lanka.
Once I discovered that my fate was sealed.
My next project would be a Sri Lanka biotope.
Unfortunately Spike, as he was not to originally named, died of a
parasitic infection and couldn't be around to see his home created.
As
should be the first step for designing any new aquarium I set out to research
what I would need to know in as much detail as possible before starting out.
This process took the better part of a year.
Once I had my region chosen
I needed to decide on a specific location/habitat within that region.
This was probably the easiest choice to make of them all. I
wanted to simulate the marginal area of a small jungle stream that was a
tributary of a larger river. This
way I had a broader range of fish species to choose from when the time came.
Now that I had the location and specific biotope chosen I needed to find
out what sort of flora and fauna inhabited it.
To my extreme pleasure crypts were the dominant plant area and some of my
favorite species of fish were also native to that area.
Before I write any more I should let you know that in many ways I'm a
neurotic purist. I'm of the opinion
that anything less than strict re-creation of the very specific biotope from
which one draws his or her aquascape is to create something less than a true
biotope. This has caused me no end
of difficulty. When creating a
biotope, I believe one should strive to simulate, as closely as is possible, the
water quality, substrate, and flora and fauna of that ecosystem.
I have attempted in my design to maintain as true to a very specific
location as I was able. In this
case it was a stream outside Kandy, Sri Lanka of which I'd seen some pictures. I previously chose to use C. walkeri and went about looking for a foreground plant to offset the height and deep reddish purple of the walkeri. C. parva fit the bill perfectly. Not only is it a very small plant, it has also been documented in the same location that C. walkeri has. I now had a perfect combination of plants. Little did I know that the hard part was yet to come. I now had to find some fish that were suitable for such an aquarium. Easier said than done, but that's for the next installment.
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