African River Biotope Log

[beau1990]

@Bluesandtwo I have it in with gar and bichirs otos would probably be snacks. I'm thinking about moving it to my 55 to give it a chance to take off

 

[Bluesandtwo]

Another monthly update, everything continues to thrive. The pothos is just amazing stuff, I trimmed back the single vine and its now developed a second vine. The long term aim is to now get the pothos to eventually cover the whole top of the tree strump so that it actually looked like a live tree! Anubias also continues to look healthy (alas very slow growth).

Overall very happy with it still.

 

[Potato Patatto]

This has been very useful for deciding the plants i will use in my African biotope - thank you!

 

[Bluesandtwo]

This has been very useful for deciding the plants i will use in my African biotope - thank you!

That's wicked, thanks for commenting. I'll give the tank a clean tomorrow and post an update for you to see!

 

[Potato Patatto]

That's wicked, thanks for commenting. I'll give the tank a clean tomorrow and post an update for you to see!

Did you look into any top water African plants?

 

[Bluesandtwo]

Did you look into any top water African plants?

I had tried a few. Spider plants (Chlorophytum comosum) is easily come by and true to Africa. Although grown in soil, I had success for many months growing well in aquaponics - however it did eventually rot.

However my greatest success is lucky bamboo (Dracaena sanderiana). Not actually a bamboo but a grass from Africa that is used to flood seasons. This has grown very well rooted into my inert substrate but with the tops and leaves above the water. I will photograph soon and put in my update.

 

[Bluesandtwo]

As promised.. a few more photos.









The tank itself is still true to the theme of the African riverine/flooded bank biotope... and I added african dwarf frogs to compliment. However the tank is also currently temporarily home to 3 dwarf puffers and 13 zebra/leopard danios who have made a trip ftom India to Africa lol

 

[Deadeye]

Love the dwarf frogs! Bamboo looks good too! I was thinking of adding some to my tank.

 

[Bluesandtwo]

So a little update for anyone interested, the anubias and lucky bamboo continue to prosper and keep my water prestine (with help of the oversized cannister filter and skimmer)...

Sadly I lost the previous inhabitants, one by one over the past 5 months. The frogs jumped out and I suspect the guesting puffers and danios just went of old age / end of life, being small fish.

No real plans for the future - just going to let the plants spread and establish more in their own time.

 

[Fishman Dave]

Would be a nice tank for a breeding pair of plecs or maybe even a pair of albino paradise fish.