i should add the tanks on a drip system and it also has a garden of spider plants and pothos attached to it.
Bottom dweller suggestions
- Thread starter LukeOscar
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i should take some pictures. once you can bond acrylic things get out of hand fast with the DIY stuff LOL. i made 3 planters out of clear acrylic that sit on top of the back of the tank by the window. one of the pumps is manifolded off to the planters sending like 100 gallons or so an hour to the planters. filled with pothos spider plants and habanero pepper plants LOL. then i have a 1sqft basket that sits 2" into the sump water also filled with pothos.
I used to live in Phoenix and that city has notoriously hard water and me as well as lots of people there kept PBass and Sevs ( not together though). I would just avoid wild caught. A LFS had a 1000g with a few Pbass and they looked healthy and I know they had them for atleast 7 years
Cichla have also adapted to living in the hard waters of lake Gatun here in Panama.
But lets consider how, and how long that adaptation took place.
6 were accidentally released in the early 1960s . (about 60 years ago) a similar time line to Fl.
To reach the sustainable population that there is today, any....that could not adapt to the water parameters were culled by the "Survival of the Fittest" gauntlet.
How many died? perhaps thousands (maybe millions), before those few hardy enough to have established a sustainable population.
This is not as simple dropping one in a tank, drip acclimatizing, and a little while later it is golden, the timeline here is over 50 years, where only the hardiest and water parameter tolerant survive.
And what may be interesting about the Panamanian population, is that with that adaptation, their size has been obviously altered.
Normal Gatun max size, is about 1/3rd less than their soft water Amazonian counterparts.
One does not need to look past nature, or all the posts in the disease sections, concerning severums, and oscars (and often P-bass), the plethora of individuals turned in to LFSs with massive scarring from HITH, to see the damage from being kept in abhorrent water parameters.
And one other, it is not just usually just one simple parameter, it is often a combination, and here, I also factor in nitrate.
All the areas I collect (including Lake Gatun) have also have tested undetectable for "any" nitrate.
So put together the "accepted" nitrate levels of 10ppm and above, with the mineral rich, high pH water, coming from many aquarist taps, and you get the perfect conditions for chronic diseases like HITH.
But lets consider how, and how long that adaptation took place.
6 were accidentally released in the early 1960s . (about 60 years ago) a similar time line to Fl.
To reach the sustainable population that there is today, any....that could not adapt to the water parameters were culled by the "Survival of the Fittest" gauntlet.
How many died? perhaps thousands (maybe millions), before those few hardy enough to have established a sustainable population.
This is not as simple dropping one in a tank, drip acclimatizing, and a little while later it is golden, the timeline here is over 50 years, where only the hardiest and water parameter tolerant survive.
And what may be interesting about the Panamanian population, is that with that adaptation, their size has been obviously altered.
Normal Gatun max size, is about 1/3rd less than their soft water Amazonian counterparts.
One does not need to look past nature, or all the posts in the disease sections, concerning severums, and oscars (and often P-bass), the plethora of individuals turned in to LFSs with massive scarring from HITH, to see the damage from being kept in abhorrent water parameters.
And one other, it is not just usually just one simple parameter, it is often a combination, and here, I also factor in nitrate.
All the areas I collect (including Lake Gatun) have also have tested undetectable for "any" nitrate.
So put together the "accepted" nitrate levels of 10ppm and above, with the mineral rich, high pH water, coming from many aquarist taps, and you get the perfect conditions for chronic diseases like HITH.
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I saw a listing for Awaous
I always figure if interest is shown, well.......
Mine were caught here in Panama in the Rio San Martin .
Their range is vast, from Florida south to Brazil on the Atlantic side.
California south thru Peru on the Pacific side.
I saw Awaous flavus (very similar to banana) on the Wet Spot web site, as a "will call when available".
I always figure if interest is shown, well.......
Mine were caught here in Panama in the Rio San Martin .
Their range is vast, from Florida south to Brazil on the Atlantic side.
California south thru Peru on the Pacific side.
