Setting up my new 29 gallon Amazon biotope

[andyjs]

Getting my baby South American lungfish gave me an excuse to set up a nice little biotope tank for him to start growing up in. Right now he's in a 20 gallon until the 29 is set up. His current tankmates are 5 glowlight tetras and three panda cories.


I'm setting up the 29 with a cork bark background that I might attach some java moss/ferns to. I didn't quite have enough bark for the whole back, but I'll be picking some up at the reptile show I'm going to Saturday.


I found a nice piece of wood to simulate some roots and provide a nice amount of cover for about half of the tank.
Once the rest of the back is covered with bark and the silicone has cured, I'll be adding pool filter sand, and add the inhabitants with an established filter, so there should be a pretty much instant cycle (but I'll keep an eye on it just in case).

The baby lung is only about 3" right now and will only be in this tank until he starts to outgrow it or starts to show interest in eating tankmates as he grows. He'll have a 75 waiting for him by that point (and a 150 after that if necessary)

 

[b19fish]

great start cant wait to see more pics of the setup

 

[jbradt]

Awesome start... keep the pics coming!

 

[Rbishop]

Nice background.

 

[andyjs]

Well, now it's filled up and the fish are in, but I made a mistake during the move and now I feel like an idiot.

I set the tank up with a Fluval 305 for filtration and with the tank filled, it discharges under the surface so there is little surface agitation (and dead silence which is nice since this will be in my bedroom when I move back to school in the fall). The problem with this is that there is also little gas exchange, so while I was letting the filter and heater run to warm it up while I was at work today, most of the oxygen was outgassing and not being replenished.

I released the first group of fish-2 baby festivums and 5 glowlights-and they all immediately began gasping, so I quickly lowered the water level so the filter would agitate the surface, finished hooking up the sponge filter that I was already moving over with the fish, and ran and grabbed a backup battery operated aerator. I did it in time to save the festivums, but not the tetras. The festivums' reaction to the low oxygen was to gasp at the surface while the tetras' reactions were to swim around the tank as fast as they could and use up what little oxygen they had as fast as possible, which sadly didn't work for them and I lost all 5. The festivums however are just fine. I waited about an hour for the oxygen levels to go back up before moving everyone else over.

So, the current stock is:
the little SAL ~3.5"
2 tiny festivum cichlids ~3/4-1"
1 tiny Uaru ~1"
3 panda cories

At the end of the summer, I'll be moving the Uaru and festivums into a little divided section of my 150 to grow them out more, and that should end up being their permanent home. The lung will eventually be moved into either my 75 or 150 whenever I feel that he has outgrown this tank and/or his tankmates

As far as other stock, I'd like to end up with something like:
7 panda cories
15-18 small tetras
lung-to be replaced with a pair of rams or apistos once he moves out

Will have new pics tomorrow once everyone settles in

 

[jpappy789]

very cool! cant wait for pics

 

[jm1212]

yay! an amazonian biotope!

 

[andyjs]

Ok, finally got the pictures to upload to my computer

The fish are all still doing fine, so the stock is the same as listed above

Plants are:
Narrow-leaf chain sword (more to be added)
Jungle Val (just added today)
a little hornwart
Red-root floater
Duckweed
Giant duckweed
and what I think is called eared watermoss
(so lots of floating plants)

and I'd like to add one nice large sword of some type for the back right corner

The tank

Festivum 1 (a little under an inch)

Festivum 2 (right about an inch)

None of the other fish were being very photogenic when I took the pics
The Festivums' fins are looking a little ragged, but I'm hitting them with Melafix, so they should heal quickly. They are acting just fine.

 

[insectheart]

as a big supporter of amazonian tanks, i have to say it's looking like a great setup so far. i really like the look of that cork bark. where might one find such a thing? i've never seen any sold around here.

 

[andyjs]

as a big supporter of amazonian tanks, i have to say it's looking like a great setup so far. i really like the look of that cork bark. where might one find such a thing? i've never seen any sold around here.

Thanks. I got my cork online. I think it was from this place, but I remember them having a better selection when I got mine (a few years ago): http://www.corkstore.com/compass/servlet/WBServlet?webfunctionid=web.prod.browse&action=select-category&time=18%3A25%3A29&quicksearch=&recid=90512&helpselected=&exitaction=&functionid=x&NumSelected=2

The stuff I used is "virgin cork bark". This means that they got it from cork trees that had never had their bark harvested before, so it is usually thicker and rougher than bark harvested later from the same tree. Some places sell flat sheets cut to fit standard aquarium sizes (primarily for reptile/amphibian terrariums), but the bark is usually much smoother than what I used. You could probably google "Virgin Cork Bark" to come up with other places that sell it. It's really lightweight, so having it shipped to you shouldn't be that expensive