Japes' 2010 Eartheater Work/Photolog
- Thread starter japes
- Start date
Is that great wood in your tanks found or store bought? Setting up a CA/SA tank and want to do something like that.
Your tanks are simple stunning.
Bear
Your tanks are simple stunning.
Bear
Beautiful coloration on your Satanoperca leucosticta (had to cut and paste that ha ha)
Do all the red heads have that stubby nose? They are both striking but I think I prefer the look of the Satanoperca leucosticta
Do all the red heads have that stubby nose? They are both striking but I think I prefer the look of the Satanoperca leucosticta
Well this thread certainly needs an update. Had some pretty major issues with life lately but thankfully that's all sorted. Aquaria wise, I've changed around my 3x18x18 display and have plans in the works for my 6x2x2.
Sold my D. maculatus and H. heliacus to do another Peruvian setup, very similiar to the original setup I had planned for the tank but wasn't sure if I wanted to bomb the money on it. The 3x18x18 has given me nothing but issues since day 1 - it had killed nearly $300 worth of fish prior to the changes and I just wanted another tanned tank to match my Rio Huallaga-drainage cube beside it. The Apistogramma bug has really bitten me so they were very much on the cards - the initial plan was to introduce a trio of A. agassizii "Flemenco" and do a Rio Tigre setup, but stock for the aggies was limited with no girls available, so I went to my next option in line, a Rio Nanay-drainage biotope. There are some wild A. eremnopyge in the country but the condition had me a little concerned - wasn't sure whether it was aggression or finrot, as the fish were healthy and eating but had almost no caudal fin. Decided to pass on those for the setup and go to one of my first favourite Apistogramma, Black-Chins from the Cacatuoides complex. Rest of the setup was based around them, the rare and expensive Coral Red Pencilfish (N. mortenthaleri), Otocinclus cocama, and Corydoras atropersonatus.
I can thankfully report only the loss of a single Pencilfish over the past 4 weeks.
3x18x18 Rio Nanay, Peru Drainage Biotope
3x Apistogramma sp. "Black-Chin/Shwarzkinn" (Wild)
15x Nannostomus mortenthaleri (Coral Red Pencilfish - Wild)
6x Corydoras atropersonatus (Wild)
3x Otocinclus cocama (Zebra Otocinclus - Wild)
Unfortunately the shots of the Black-Chin male do him no favours. Tank lighting in a heavily tanned tank with a predominantly yellow fish yields unflattering results.
As for my 6x2x2, I've been in turmoil trying to decide what I'm going to do with it. I'm currently unhappy with the setup for 2 reasons, one being the S. leucosticta have no spawned since the move, and my reasoning for this is too many Tetra at low levels (40-45 H. rosaceus around the driftwood). The second reason is the lack of variety in the tank. While primarily single species biotopes are my passion, I'd like to have some Corydoras and Dwarf Cichlids present to spice things up a little bit. Due to the hugely limited allowable import list to Australia, as well as the cost involved in bringing species across from all over South America, I can't get anything that fits.
I have access to some Aripuana/Madeira Geophagus cf. argyrostictus, and was heavily contemplating selling all of my leucosticta to use them in a biotope setup, or possibly Geophagus sp. "Colombia/Venezuela" (an Abalios variant) - but can't bear to sell them. As a result I've been trying to do a lot of indepth research using multiple sources to find the proper distribution of S. leucosticta. Due to misidentification with S. jurupari variants it's difficult, but from what I've looked into, their distribution seems to run across the entire northern area of South America, from Suriname, across Guyana, Venezuela, Colombia, and the northern reaches of Peru. I've decided to do a middle/lower Rio Negro setup with the following stocking, approximately.
11x Satanoperca leucosticta (need to thin this colony down sometime soon)
6x Cichlasoma amazonarum
20x Hyphessobrycon erythrostigma (Bleeding Heart Tetra)
12-15x Corydoras robinae
5x Dekeyseria brachyura (L168, Butterfly Pleco)
This passion for biotopes, even though they're not perfectly accurate, is both a joy and a curse, especially because of what I don't and never will have available to me.
Anyway, some more photos of the S. leucosticta.
Female flaring.
In the process of selling off the current Tetra in the 6x2x2, but that's about it.
Cheers,
japes
Sold my D. maculatus and H. heliacus to do another Peruvian setup, very similiar to the original setup I had planned for the tank but wasn't sure if I wanted to bomb the money on it. The 3x18x18 has given me nothing but issues since day 1 - it had killed nearly $300 worth of fish prior to the changes and I just wanted another tanned tank to match my Rio Huallaga-drainage cube beside it. The Apistogramma bug has really bitten me so they were very much on the cards - the initial plan was to introduce a trio of A. agassizii "Flemenco" and do a Rio Tigre setup, but stock for the aggies was limited with no girls available, so I went to my next option in line, a Rio Nanay-drainage biotope. There are some wild A. eremnopyge in the country but the condition had me a little concerned - wasn't sure whether it was aggression or finrot, as the fish were healthy and eating but had almost no caudal fin. Decided to pass on those for the setup and go to one of my first favourite Apistogramma, Black-Chins from the Cacatuoides complex. Rest of the setup was based around them, the rare and expensive Coral Red Pencilfish (N. mortenthaleri), Otocinclus cocama, and Corydoras atropersonatus.
I can thankfully report only the loss of a single Pencilfish over the past 4 weeks.
3x18x18 Rio Nanay, Peru Drainage Biotope
3x Apistogramma sp. "Black-Chin/Shwarzkinn" (Wild)
15x Nannostomus mortenthaleri (Coral Red Pencilfish - Wild)
6x Corydoras atropersonatus (Wild)
3x Otocinclus cocama (Zebra Otocinclus - Wild)
Unfortunately the shots of the Black-Chin male do him no favours. Tank lighting in a heavily tanned tank with a predominantly yellow fish yields unflattering results.
As for my 6x2x2, I've been in turmoil trying to decide what I'm going to do with it. I'm currently unhappy with the setup for 2 reasons, one being the S. leucosticta have no spawned since the move, and my reasoning for this is too many Tetra at low levels (40-45 H. rosaceus around the driftwood). The second reason is the lack of variety in the tank. While primarily single species biotopes are my passion, I'd like to have some Corydoras and Dwarf Cichlids present to spice things up a little bit. Due to the hugely limited allowable import list to Australia, as well as the cost involved in bringing species across from all over South America, I can't get anything that fits.
I have access to some Aripuana/Madeira Geophagus cf. argyrostictus, and was heavily contemplating selling all of my leucosticta to use them in a biotope setup, or possibly Geophagus sp. "Colombia/Venezuela" (an Abalios variant) - but can't bear to sell them. As a result I've been trying to do a lot of indepth research using multiple sources to find the proper distribution of S. leucosticta. Due to misidentification with S. jurupari variants it's difficult, but from what I've looked into, their distribution seems to run across the entire northern area of South America, from Suriname, across Guyana, Venezuela, Colombia, and the northern reaches of Peru. I've decided to do a middle/lower Rio Negro setup with the following stocking, approximately.
11x Satanoperca leucosticta (need to thin this colony down sometime soon)
6x Cichlasoma amazonarum
20x Hyphessobrycon erythrostigma (Bleeding Heart Tetra)
12-15x Corydoras robinae
5x Dekeyseria brachyura (L168, Butterfly Pleco)
This passion for biotopes, even though they're not perfectly accurate, is both a joy and a curse, especially because of what I don't and never will have available to me.
Anyway, some more photos of the S. leucosticta.
Female flaring.
In the process of selling off the current Tetra in the 6x2x2, but that's about it.
Cheers,
japes
I am new to MFK but not to the hobby. I spent my Sunday morning to read thru the entire thread. Awesome stuff! I really envy you. I have learnt so much about eartheaters from this thread.
I have a pair of Geophagus iporangensis and Gymno.Balzani. The G.iporangensis are F1's from Jeff Raps. I shall soon post some pictures of my tank and fish.
Looking forward to lot of learning from this lovley forum.
I have a pair of Geophagus iporangensis and Gymno.Balzani. The G.iporangensis are F1's from Jeff Raps. I shall soon post some pictures of my tank and fish.
Looking forward to lot of learning from this lovley forum.
