Starting a Natural Community Tank

Idea: I really want to start a natural tank only with fish from the Amazon/ Amazon Basin area. Natural planting for the most part.

Tank: Fully cycled, it cycled with a community tank and then got more amped up with 5 goldfish. 29 gal with a Tetra 30-60 Whisper Filter/ Heater (duh) that can get it pretty warm if need be.

Fish:
-Main star will be an angelfish
-Fill it with some hatchet fish (6 or 7)
-At least 1 bottom feeder depending on size. I want to stay as close to the Amazon theme as I can.
-Any other nice background fish ideas please??

Substrate: I plan on 1-2 inches of sandy top soil (cleaned for debris like roots and sticks) and topped with 1/2 inch or so of small, pea sized gravel. (Could I do just the gravel or would it be better topped with the gravel or sand?)

Plants: Mostly java fern and duckweed but some other random plants tossed in as well, I don't know the names of plants really.

Decoration: I'm going to stay natural with some driftwood and sticks that look like roots and some fake plants (silk and plastic) but not too many and mostly along the back of the tank. Also some fake rocks or maybe some real ones.

Food: I might grab some frozen blood worms or some canned fly larvae. I will get some flakes or pellets, either NLS, Omega One or HikarI probably. Supplemented with an algae wafer for the bottom feeder every now and then.

Any other tips or ideas would be great! What do you all think?

Also what bottom feeder would be best for a tank like this?

 

That sounds nice.

I would go for a Dwarf Pleco like a Clown or Bristlenose.

That would make a fully stocked tank.

Since the angel will be the main star I recommend a long finned Koi Angels they are very pretty looking.

 

That sounds like a good set-up. I guess for the bottom, I would do a school of six or so small cories, like the dwarf cory, or the panda cory, or maybe the hasbrous cory. They are fun to watch! I would also advise you to add your angelfish last, since they really do not like newcomers, so once s/he's established you will find it hard to add more fish.

Emily

 

Idea: I really want to start a natural tank only with fish from the Amazon/ Amazon Basin area. Natural planting for the most part.

Tank: Fully cycled, it cycled with a community tank and then got more amped up with 5 goldfish. 29 gal with a Tetra 30-60 Whisper Filter/ Heater (duh) that can get it pretty warm if need be.

Fish:
-Main star will be an angelfish
-Fill it with some hatchet fish (6 or 7)
-At least 1 bottom feeder depending on size. I want to stay as close to the Amazon theme as I can.
-Any other nice background fish ideas please??

Substrate: I plan on 1-2 inches of sandy top soil (cleaned for debris like roots and sticks) and topped with 1/2 inch or so of small, pea sized gravel. (Could I do just the gravel or would it be better topped with the gravel or sand?)

Plants: Mostly java fern and duckweed but some other random plants tossed in as well, I don't know the names of plants really.

Decoration: I'm going to stay natural with some driftwood and sticks that look like roots and some fake plants (silk and plastic) but not too many and mostly along the back of the tank. Also some fake rocks or maybe some real ones.

Food: I might grab some frozen blood worms or some canned fly larvae. I will get some flakes or pellets, either NLS, Omega One or HikarI probably. Supplemented with an algae wafer for the bottom feeder every now and then.

Any other tips or ideas would be great! What do you all think?

Also what bottom feeder would be best for a tank like this?

Are you going for a more specific biotope? A certain river of the Amazon? A specific Area? The Amazon is massive with thousands of species that will never see each other. I love biotope tanks and I'm glad to see you going natural

 

I reference this website fairly often.... this particular link gives ideas for biotopes

 

If your going for an altum angel setup. They are from the rio negro and tributaries of the rio orinoco. The rio Negro means " black river" and it is stained with tannins from leaves and wood.

 

I think a school of panda or juliI cories would be good for the clean up crew.

 

Here's a list of fish from the rio negro that would be seen in your angels environment in nature. There are about 6 species of corydora if you scroll down. Of course you can do any fish from anywhere, but this will help if you want to do a "true" biotope.

 

Hello and
to Fish Lore!

I hope you enjoy the site.

Ken

 

So I'm going to go with a banjo cat for bottom feeder (I love them they are so cool even though they hide most of the time...) and then add in about 5 golden or least pencilfish depending on what type my LFS sells as pencil fish.

 

How big do these pencil fish get? I would worry a little that they would be small enough for the angelfish to eat. But, maybe not?

Emily

 

Yea... its up to you how you do it but be sure your biotope is compatabile... unless your prepaired for the possibilty of fish eat fish....

 

So back to corys for catfish. The pencil fish get around 1 1/2 inches.

 

There are several types of pencils, most get about 1.5" as mentioned above. There are dwarf pencils under an inch and my biggest coral red pencils are pushing 2".

Pencils should be ok with the angel and will actually school more because of the angel. My apistos can't even come close to harassing the pencils, at first sign of bad intentions they dart away lighting quick.