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Sri Lanka or Bust: Discussion of a Biotope Aquarium by
Phil Edwards
Part 3 of 4 –Plant and fish selection Read Part one and two here In the previous section we discussed the reasons I chose a biotope as well as a general overview of the plant selection process. In this installment I’ll talk about why I chose those specific plants as well as the process of finding suitable fish species. This step in the design process was, by far, the most difficult and time consuming. I had previously mentioned my choices of C. walkeri and C. parva. Why did I choose these species and how do they fit together in the biotope? I had come across C. walkeri when designing a general planted aquarium and loved the dark greens and reds found in mature plants. This plant also grows to a perfect height and has large, broad leaves when mature making it perfect for my needs. As I was looking to recreate a slow water area I needed a plant that would grow tall and take advantage of the surface. I needed a species of plant which would take advantage of the height of my aquarium to provide good leaf cover near the surface as well as leave plenty of room in the lower strata for other fish. I had seen photographs of huge stands of large Cryptocoryne growth and decided this was exactly what the setup should be like. After considering what the C. walkeri would look like in a mature aquarium I felt that there needed to be some sort of ground cover. The reasons for this were twofold. Firstly, small plants living among the roots and shadows of larger species appeal to me visually. Secondly the lower strata fish would appreciate some sort of cover, especially since I had planned on not using any wood in this setup. This is where the C. parva fit the bill amazingly; not only is it a short species, but it’s won’t completely cover up the substrate like Glosstigma would, even though it will spread throughout the entire tank. The fish will be able to swim in and out of the stalks, almost like a miniature scale of the C. walkeri in the upper strata. In my previous installment I mentioned the difficulty of finding and locating suitable species of fish to inhabit this biotope. As I said before, easier said than done. The first step in this process was to find a source of information that was specific enough. I must have searched through fifty websites, books, and magazines, which gave the location of origin as Sri Lanka. This is great, as long as one is creating a Sri Lanka “biotope”. Unfortunately I’m more specific than that. FINALLY, I came across a source, which had the very specific information I was looking for. This place had it all, pictures, location, height of location relative to sea level, pH, even strata which the fish inhabit. I thought I’d died and gone to heaven! While there are many popular plants and fish that originate in Sri Lanka I found that the vast majority of them are found on the eastern side of the island and a different river system that that which I had been planning. This was a very unfortunate turn of events for me with my too strict sense of biotopes. Not to mention I had already found and ordered a large number of plants from a different location!
However, the puzzle of where to get algae eaters and which species to choose was boggling me. I knew I’d have to get either Siamese Algae Eaters (SAE’s) or Ottocinclus. While the SAE’s are at least from Southeast Asia they grow too large for this setup. I decided to go with the Ottocinclus for while they’re an Amazonian species they’re small enough to be fairly unnoticeable in the scheme of things, especially with the amount of plants in the aquarium. Sri Lanka, or Bust Part 4 of 4 –Aquascape planning and installation. Once all the wrinkles had been ironed out of the fish and plant process and all my hardware came in the mail it was time to get to the stuff of every aquarists’ dreams…. the aquascaping and installation. After seeing Nanne de Vos’ superb backgrounds I’ve been spoiled. I needed a similar background in my tank! With my technical skills being as deficient as they are I chose the easy way out. I took a flat cork bark board and glued a beautiful cork bark “stump” to it. This dark colored and rich textured background really helps give the impression of an eroded stream bank, just the look I wanted. While the silicone
was drying I spent an hour or so rinsing the substrate free of any and all
particulate debris. I had chosen to
use Seachem’s Fluorite product as it has all the properties I was looking for.
However, this particular substrate is usually shipped full of dust and
three bags worth take quite a bit of cleaning.
Once that was done I went to work assembling my lighting fixture and
making a diagram of the aquascape. Having given the silicone a chance to dry I placed enough substrate in the aquarium to cover up the space between the corkboard and tank bottom. I then placed the rocks in the places I wanted them to be and put the remaining substrate in the tank and let everything sit for a week to give the silicone time to cure. At this point in the game I decided to plant heavily from the start, as I wanted this to be a very densely packed setup when fully mature. In order to accomplish this I ordered four plugs of walkeri and twenty individual parva plants. Each of the walkeri plugs contained many individual plants providing me with enough material to completely cover the substrate if I so chose. Rather than do that I chose to keep the largest plug intact and plant that in one of the corners. The second largest I broke up into three parts and filled in another corner. The other two I separated into groups of one to three individuals and planted them throughout the back, corners, and sides of the aquarium. Since I had spent a decent amount of money on the cork background it was important that I not completely obscure it. To this end I kept the sides and rear corners well planted with bunches and stocked the middle more sparsely with single plants. I planted the parva mainly in the front-middle of the aquarium, most densely in the front and thinning out until there were just a few plants mingled in with the walkeri surrounding it. This arrangement provides a darker background for the fish to escape to if they need it while also giving plenty of room to swim and room for the plants to expand into. While this system was supposed to be in a forest stream it was intended to more closely simulate a shallow pool or marginal flat where plenty of plants grow. The photos I’ve seen of this type of environment usually lack a great deal of wood and root systems therefore I decided to leave them out of my aquascape. Instead, I used rock to hold up any slopes while the root systems of the plants develop. Fluorite was chosen for the substrate due to it’s rich reddish colors and the benefits provided for the plants. A more biotopically accurate substrate would be small rocks and gravel with sand allowed to fill in the spaces. I felt this was unwise in such a small and well-planted aquarium, especially with plants that feed more strongly through their roots. Eventually the parva will grow dense enough to obscure the majority of the substrate. There are also nice patches of algae coating the upper layers which I’m debating keeping. After letting the water settle for a few days and a few water changes to remove any initial impurities I was able to finish the whole process. The final fish count is eight Cherry Barbs, 2 males and six females; four Paradise Fish, three males and one female, and eight Ottocinclus. When I’m able to acquire some Black Ruby Barbs these fish will be moved into another aquarium and my Mahaweli Tributary biotope will be complete.
MORE Biotope articles wanted! If you have set up a biotope and would like to share it with the world, please contact me. robert@aquabotanic.com
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The
fish species I had been looking at were Puntius titteya, Puntius nicrofaciatus,
and Pseudosphromenus dayi.
