SA Biotope Update

~Tucker&Me~

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I posted a while back about setting up a South American biotope tank and I just thought I would share some updates for anyone who may have been interested. The tank is doing really well and all the inhabitants are displaying lots of interesting behaviour. However, in the next two weeks I will be acquiring a handful of new fish, some of which will be additions to existing populations and some of which will be brand new, which is exciting. The remaining non-SA fish (the tiger barbs) are heading to their new home which is currently mid cycle, so I am expecting them to be gone in the next two weeks. While I am sad to see them go because they have been entertaining and nice to watch school together, in a couple months I will be receiving a new schooling fish that is gorgeous (and way too expensive, ugh my wallet hates me) and more unusual. I will talk more about that when the date gets closer though ;)

Anyway, on the interesting part:

Tiger barbs playing hide and seek in the jungle vals.



Juvenile cupid cichlid sifting through the sand.



Dominant one of the juvenile cupid cichlid showing off.



Otos taking it upon themselves to do some cleaning... What I like to see lol.



The blue rams picking through the gravel for food. The colourful one is the dominant of the group.



*more*
 
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~Tucker&Me~

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#2
Another cupid shot.



Photobombing tiger barb... *sigh*



Cupid being cute.



Again, here you can clearly see the top cupid in the group, the one on the right.



Pretty trio of cupids.



Queen of the tank, the single mature cupid.



Cupid on the left is the dominant one.



Clown pleco.



The red tiger lotus (the plant) is coming in beautifully after initially wasting away and dying when I planted it.



About to argue over a piece of food...



*more*
 

~Tucker&Me~

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Pictus catfish showing off his whiskers...



More whiskers.



Two rams meeting over a piece of food... It's about to go down.



Subordinate ram attempts to grab the food quickly because he knows he will lose.



Didn't work, we are now at a Mexican stand-off.



Butting heads... As expected, right after this shot the dominant ram on the right won.



And a few tank shots:









Sorry to drown you in pictures (hehe, pun intended), hope you enjoy!
 
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#5
OMG! I LOVE it!!!!

I was planning on resetting up my 55 gallon soon but just got a 75 gallon so am doing that one first. Your tank is giving me ideas....

and blue rams, those are one of my favorite fish <3
 

~Tucker&Me~

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I just saw this! OMG sooooo beautiful!
Thank you!

OMG! I LOVE it!!!!

I was planning on resetting up my 55 gallon soon but just got a 75 gallon so am doing that one first. Your tank is giving me ideas....

and blue rams, those are one of my favorite fish <3
Oooh exciting! There are a lot of SA fish widely available in the industry so deciding to do that kind of biotope gave me a lot of options. I have also always been a huge fan of community cichlids and there really are some beautiful dwarf varieties and eartheaters that you can mix with community fish. When it comes to colour and interesting behaviour, I think cichlids must rank right up there with the best of them.

Be sure to post updates!

Beautiful tank...

I love clown plecos...they are adorable :)
If you are a pleco fan I will make sure to post a picture of the new addition I will be acquiring soon. I have been waiting a few months for this guy to become available and his variety are very cute looking :D

God, there's fish people here, too? This forum is a dream come true.

Gorgeous tank.
Haha there is a small group of us, if you like fish and dogs you will fit right in here ;) Do you have any set-ups running?

JEALOUS OF YOUR TANK

What did you use for the back wall?
Sara, I think it's one of these 3D backgrounds:

http://m.instructables.com/id/3D-Aquarium-Background/

correct me if I'm wrong!

I loooove them and have always wanted to make/buy one!
I bought mine second hand but it is not a home-made one, I think it is originally from Pangea or Aqua Terra. I toyed with the idea of making a homemade one but it seemed like a ton of work and I heard of people having issues with chemicals leaking and wreaking havoc on their water params.

While they are expensive to buy, I do think they look so much nicer than a bare background so for any big display tanks I have going at my house I will probably always suck it up and buy one. For the money you are spending to get started anyway and for the work involved, may as well go full out :lol-sign:

That's GORGEOUS. What a really cool idea for a tank.
Thanks so much :)

The plants are much fuller now but I had an outbreak of ich that I am still dealing with so the tank looks like a mess. Hopefully if everything gets sorted out soon I can share some new pictures.
 

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