# My First Attempt at an Amazon River Basin Biotope



## fddlss (Apr 7, 2011)

Hi guys, as I posted a few weeks ago I had my tank for sale and then I decided to give it a try and go from African Cichlids to an Amazion Basin biotope, since I've always liked oddballs and monster fish. I know my 120 (60x18x26 with 30 gallon wet/dry sump and corner overflows) will need to be upgraded soon, and I'm thinking on getting a 300 gallon tank (or bigger, maybe even 450) when I move.

I wanted to have some live plants so I decided to go with mineralized topsoil with a thick layer of pool filter sand on top. The plants I have so far are a few Amazon Swords and some Amazon Frogbits, It's been about 2 weeks and I have not seen a real difference in the plants, except that some leaves have died, and one of the plants might be growing, but I'm not sure.

I'm also looking for a nice, big piece of wood for the tank, something as similar to what would be found on the Amazon basin as possible, within reason, of course, so if you guys know where to buy online or where to get it in South Florida I would appreciate your help.

With that said, on Saturday 16th I got my first two fish, a 5.5" Silver Arowana and a 5" Black Ghost Knife Fish. I'm feeding them Hikari Jumbo Carnisticks (broken into pieces) and Hikari Frozen Bloodworms. The arowana now tends to like more the Carnisticks than the bloodworms and the BGK scans the tank for left overs when the lights go out, which most of the time happen to be bloodworms. I also have some Hikari Cichlid Excel sinking pellets from my Africans but I don't like feeding it to the Aro because I want to get her use to feeding off the top, to at least try to prevent dropeye, which I know it might not work. Please feel free to make any suggestions as far as how/what to feed them. I'm feeding them twice a day, but the BGK only eats when he goes out at night, so if there are no leftovers he won't find anything to eat, I'm trying to resolve this by turning off the lights earlier than the time I go to bed and feed them then.

Lastly, last night I got a very nice 9" L330 Pleco (Spotted Royal Pleco/Watermelon Pleco) and I got him a few pieces of driftwood so he can chew on as well as a cave form him to hide, which I think needs to be bigger. I also bought Algae Wafers to feed him, but he seemed to ignore it when fed. The only problem I'm having right now is that when I woke up this morning the water was super cloudy, and it is from the Pleco who has move the sand and uprooted the plants and who know if he got the topsoil on top of the sand, I don't know because the water was so cloudy that I couldn't see much inside the tank. This is not an ammonia spike, it's just the pleco playing with the sand. Is there anything I can do to prevent or reduce this? He was super hyper last night, even when the lights were on. Maybe more hiding spots? Maybe he was hungry? I'm not sure. Suggestions welcomed, as always.

Please see the pictures below with the progress, and I will keep adding pics as I continue with the project.

My possible future stock list: Red or Orange Pike Cichlid (Xingu I or Atabapo I), 3 or 4 Amazon Puffers, Amazon Leaf Fish, Silver Dollars, Red Hooks, Tigrinus Catfish, ??? Please note that I'm NOT saying that I will add ALL of these fish, these are just some of the fish I have in mind and I will have to do further research and see which ones and how many are compatible, etc., etc.


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## CjCichlid (Sep 14, 2005)

Good start! Now get some driftwood in there!

Here's some inspiration: http://showcase.aquatic-gardeners.org/2013/index1.html


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## fddlss (Apr 7, 2011)

Wow! Great link. Thank you. I just find it almost impossible to find those big pieces of roots, branches,trunks, nobody sells them and I don't know where to find them myself. If anyone ones please let me know. I live in South Florida (Hollywood).


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## Narwhal72 (Sep 26, 2006)

Yes you will definitely want some real wood for that Panaque. They are wood eaters and will slowly starve if not fed plenty of wood.

All you really need to do is go out into some local woods and find some dead hardwood (which actually may be more of a problem in Florida due to the predominance of softwoods (pine) and palms). But once you find a nice piece you can use a saw to trim one edge to a flat side, use clippers to trim off extra brances that you don't want. At any Home Depot you can find slate floor tile. Use a masonry drill bit to bore two holes through the slate tile and then use stainless steel screws to secure it to the flattened edge of the wood. Now you can sink it in the aquarium.

I also keep a couple of royals (among many others) and I used a number of vertically placed 4" diameter branches that go from bottom to top of the tank for the submerged forest look. The Royals love to hang out on them and chew the bark off.

Andy


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## CjCichlid (Sep 14, 2005)

+1 on collecting your own driftwood.

I collect all of mine and it's really not as difficult as many claim. Some will suggest soaking, scrubbing, bleaching and baking it before using it in their aquarium. From my experience, all that is completely unnecessary. When I find a piece that I want to use (usually washed up on shore near a lake or river) all I do is power wash it to get any loose debris off, then let it dry out completely in the sun for a few days. After that, it goes in. I usually don't anchor mine down with slate although that method does work well. I like pieces floating at the surface with the branches reading down into the water -- makes for a very dramatic look.

As Narwhal mentioned, you want to use a hardwood -- oak and beech work very well. Avoid pine and cedar.


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## fddlss (Apr 7, 2011)

What about the wood pictured below? It is along the Overseas Highway when going to the Florida Keys. Sorry for the picture, I know it sucks! Seems like bogwood, but I'm not really sure. In my area (Hollywood/Ft. Lauderdale) seems I only come across Mangroves. Are Mangroves okay for aquarium use?

I probably have to carry a saw in my car all the time, just in case.

In the keys:


By the way, I do have some small pieces of driftwood for the pleco, but not for decoration, just for him to chew.


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## Narwhal72 (Sep 26, 2006)

Mangroves are ok for aquarium use (in fact wood sold as Malaysian bogwood or Malaysian driftwood is mangrove). However it is probably not legal to take them from coastal areas in florida.


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## fddlss (Apr 7, 2011)

Narwhal72 said:


> Mangroves are ok for aquarium use (in fact wood sold as Malaysian bogwood or Malaysian driftwood is mangrove). However it is probably not legal to take them from coastal areas in florida.


That was going to be my next question. If it was legal to do that. Most state parks in South Florida are composed of fresh or brackish water canals with Mangroves and it is hard to find an area with Mangroves or other type of trees where to gt wood from that's not a State Park. Now that I researched it, I think Mangroves would be great, since I think that some kind of Red Mangrove or similar tree grows in the Amazon, too, so it would help me in creating the biotope. I've also read about people growing their own Mangrove in their tanks...


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## CjCichlid (Sep 14, 2005)

For some reason, the picture isn't loading completely for me. Either way, I do believe it is illegal to remove anything from a state park. Now.. with that said, I MAY be guilty of collecting driftwood from local parks. As long as your not ripping and sawing things off trees or collecting mass amounts, I don't see it as too much of a crime.. I've certainly done worse when it comes to the law. :roll:


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## fddlss (Apr 7, 2011)

CjCichlid said:


> For some reason, the picture isn't loading completely for me. Either way, I do believe it is illegal to remove anything from a state park. Now.. with that said, I MAY be guilty of collecting driftwood from local parks. As long as your not ripping and sawing things off trees or collecting mass amounts, I don't see it as too much of a crime.. I've certainly done worse when it comes to the law. :roll:


Lol! I know I've seen mangrove pods washing up on the beach before, and I know that it's fine to collect those, the only problem is that you have to wait for it to grow... I also think that it wouldn't be a big deal if I find a loose piece of Mangrove at a local park, but I don't know...


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## fddlss (Apr 7, 2011)

Update on my Amazon Biotope. New inhabitants are: Gold Severum Cichlid, School of 6 Silver Dollars, look like 2 out of the siz are spotted silver dollars and it seems like there's 3 males and 3 females. If you compare the pictures from Jan. 16 and Dec. 22 you can see some growth on the Arowana and the Silver Dollars, as well as better coloration across all fish, specially the Gold Severum and Silver Dollars, the Arowana is also looking very, very silvery now, with beautiful pink fins and greenish/pinkish tones in the scales. I know I'm still missing a big piece of driftwood and more plants, specially since the silvers have eaten the leaves of my Amazon Sword.

January 16th:



























Older Pics from Dec. 22nd:


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## Narwhal72 (Sep 26, 2006)

If you were striving for accuracy for your biotope the gold severum just killed it. That is a manmade color variety. Also the silver dollars will eventually devour your plants.


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## notho2000 (Dec 8, 2012)

The single most important feature that characterizes the Amazon River Basin Biotope is driftwood (deadfall). I read your previous account about the mangrove wood. Guess it didn't work out. It is the most prevalent water feature in SA biotopes. Also, there is almost a complete lack of plants in most SA biotopes. I would use plastic plants to add interest and esthetics but that's your choice. Also rocks are not at all common there but if there are any they would be smooth and rounded, embedded here and there in a random placement. No real need for rock caves once the driftwood is in. It's also important to get some structure higher up in the tank, too, whether it be driftwood coming in from the top, or sweeping from the bottom up towards the surface. It isn't the ultimate by any means but here's a few pics of my attempt at it. Good luck with your project.


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## fddlss (Apr 7, 2011)

Narwhal72 said:


> If you were striving for accuracy for your biotope the gold severum just killed it. That is a manmade color variety. Also the silver dollars will eventually devour your plants.


I know there's a few color varieties for false severums (Heros efasciatus), if I would of seen a wild-type green severum or even a true severum (Heros severus) I would have purchased it instead of the gold one, but I really liked this gold severum and I wouldn't buy a fish that's a man made hybrid mutant, such as a Blood parrot, for example, but I think that a Gold severum is not a hybrid fish, but a man-made color morph.


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## fddlss (Apr 7, 2011)

notho2000 said:


> The single most important feature that characterizes the Amazon River Basin Biotope is driftwood (deadfall). I read your previous account about the mangrove wood. Guess it didn't work out. It is the most prevalent water feature in SA biotopes. Also, there is almost a complete lack of plants in most SA biotopes. I would use plastic plants to add interest and esthetics but that's your choice. Also rocks are not at all common there but if there are any they would be smooth and rounded, embedded here and there in a random placement. No real need for rock caves once the driftwood is in. It's also important to get some structure higher up in the tank, too, whether it be driftwood coming in from the top, or sweeping from the bottom up towards the surface. It isn't the ultimate by any means but here's a few pics of my attempt at it. Good luck with your project.


Thanks a lot for your constructive criticism and the time to write your post and show me the pics. Your setup looks really nice, by the way.

I have not had a chance to go get some mangroves, but I will as soon as I can. I will also like to try to grow mangrove pods found on the beach shore sometimes, but that' s a total different story. I would like to create a flooded forest look with the mangroves (if I find any) or another type of wood.

My idea for the plants is to add a few more Amazonian plants, such as more Amazon Swords and some Brazilian watergrass and elodeas to see if the plants can outgrow the silver dollars' nipping.

The rocks I currently have are temporary until I get some wood in there, my black ghost likes to hide there. Those are the only rocks I kept from when I had a Rift Lakes setup. Like you said, if I decide to add any rocks in the future, after getting some wood, they will be the round and smooth type (typical of SA) and no more than 2 or 3 rocks, randomly placed.

Another thing I have in mind is to get a 3D background, but that will be last, since they are expensive.

I'm trying to create the biotope as specific and natural as possible, but without being super strict.


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