Asian Biotype Idea

[Eläköön]

cassharper its not that book no, i imagine theres many available though,
will be interesting to see which biotype he goes with.
i like the idea of making a thai tank with gourami's barbs and some partial land for red clawed crabs but thats just something i personally think is cool

 

[smithj427]

hey what asian biotope are you going for?

Originally I was going for any type of Thailand tank but I've changed my mind since there's a rather limited seletion of fish in town. I don't have a specific type (pond, stream) chosen but I'm leaning towards stream because of the shark I have already but it's really open.

Another reason I'm not interested in gouramies is the gf doesn't like the "feeler thingys" as she puts it.

Puntius pentazona

Are these as active as the tiger barbs? And since they're more peaceful would they be shy because of the territorial red tailed shark?

Cus these sound like a very intersting alternative.


Thanks for they help so far everyone. When I do finally decide I'll post pics before and after.

 

[Wheat]

They are a bit more shy then tiger barbs but since they don't get as big you can have a larger school of them than the tigers, so that may make up for it.

 

[smithj427]

Ya the more fish there are the better chance of them being seen. Good thinking

 

[andyjs]

I agree about getting either kuhlis or sids. Both are awesome loaches. Some people have said they've had skittish kuhlis, but after a couple weeks mine have always been out and active. Sids on the other hand are ALWAYS active and even like shoaling with upper-level fish.

 

[smithj427]

I know I've seen kuhlis in town but when I make my next trip to the lfs I'm going to ask if they'll make orders for me. Then I'd get the sids. If they don't I'd just have to wait another few months till I move to a bigger city with bigger lfs.

 

[smithj427]

If I were to go with a stream biotype would a sand substrate be out of place?

 

[Noto]

No, not if the flow is reasonable. Slower streams and lowland streams often have sand substrate. You just have to wash the sand really really well to get all the fine particles out.

 

[smithj427]

Good to hear. Faster streams would just have mostly the rounded rocks right.

 

[Noto]

Yeah. As a general rule, fast-moving small upland streams have the biggest rocks; as the stream gets bigger, slower, and/or lower the finer the substrate is.