Does anyone keep a amazon river aquarium with only fish and plants native to the amazon river?
amazon river aquariums
- Thread starter eon aquatics
- Start date
There are a couple of members I know that has Amazonian Biotope setups.
I’ve done it with fish but not plants. Piranha and leporinus, all plants were fake.
I’d love to do a large Amazon community biotope though.
I’d love to do a large Amazon community biotope though.
Currently have 10 RBP along with 12 tetras in a tank with lots of Amazon Swords and some S. Repens and driftwood. However I did add Anubias and Java Moss which is not native to South America so that kind of ruins the theme.
Sorry for the late post at work. I personally only have 1 small setup with Tannins but wouldn't say it was a Amazon biotope. All the fish in it originally came from the Amazon. I use native wood and oak leaves lol.
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You're options are almost endless, because the Amazon is really thousands of streams, and rivers feeding into one, with as many different habitats. It might be determined by the species to be kept.
White water, black water, clear stream, oxbow, and it goes on and on.
In one for small fish, the entire substrate might be covered in leaf litter, in certain Geophagine biotopes there might be no plants, just large expanses of sandy areas with lots of sunken wood, in the oxbow type, terrestrial and aquatic plants, another a fast flowing stream with gravel for Retroculus and other rheophilic fish, etc etc.
Below a S American moderate flowing river, habitat where you might find Geophagines. I took many photos under water to see what the bottom looked like. Above the waters surface plant life was quite lush, yet almost a desert below.
To mimic it in my tank I did this
Above I added tannins with every water change, but not to the extent of
my current black water river tank below.
In some of the oxbow pools leaf litter on the substrate was 6 " thick, and the only vegetation terrestrial.
In my tanks I like aquatic vegetation, not only for looks, but its ability to eat/use nitrate, so even though in much of the habitat I saw was devoid of plants, I use aquatic and terrestrials anyway.
White water, black water, clear stream, oxbow, and it goes on and on.
In one for small fish, the entire substrate might be covered in leaf litter, in certain Geophagine biotopes there might be no plants, just large expanses of sandy areas with lots of sunken wood, in the oxbow type, terrestrial and aquatic plants, another a fast flowing stream with gravel for Retroculus and other rheophilic fish, etc etc.
Below a S American moderate flowing river, habitat where you might find Geophagines. I took many photos under water to see what the bottom looked like. Above the waters surface plant life was quite lush, yet almost a desert below.
To mimic it in my tank I did this
Above I added tannins with every water change, but not to the extent of
my current black water river tank below.
In some of the oxbow pools leaf litter on the substrate was 6 " thick, and the only vegetation terrestrial.
In my tanks I like aquatic vegetation, not only for looks, but its ability to eat/use nitrate, so even though in much of the habitat I saw was devoid of plants, I use aquatic and terrestrials anyway.
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Pictures please!! Sounds really cool.
It’s getting there. Diatoms starting to dissipate. Total of 7 swords at the moment but they are shooting out runners with baby plants like crazy. As the repens get to about 3 inches I cut and plant the trimmings. Will try to cover as much of the foreground with repens if they don’t prove too difficult. 
