illumnae's poor attempt at a Rio Orinocco biotope

[illumnae]

Hi everyone! After almost half a year of slowly collecting inhabitants, changing plans halfway and just generally getting the tank in order, my attempt at a Rio Orinocco biotope setup is finally taking shape!

There's still a lot of work to be done to reach the final product, but a huge milestone for me was last week when I transferred my quarantined altums into the tank. So far so good (fingers crossed!) and the altums are actually looking even happier to be in this tank than they were in quarantine!

All the fish in this tank are wildcaught

Current inhabitants:

Pterophyllum altum - ~20 (didn't count exactly after quarantine losses)
Uaru fernandezyepezi - 7
Satanoperca mapiritensis - 6
Satanoperca daemon - 7
Geophagus winemilleri - 5
Mesonauta insignis - 5
Corydoras metae - 25
Dekeyseria sp. (L52) - 3


Future inhabitants:

Hyphessobrycon sweglesi - 50 (wild caught Red Phantom Tetras, currently in quarantine)

Sorry in advance for the dirty water and dirty glass!

FTS:

Some group shots:

Check out the hero Corydoras metae in the focus!



Tank inhabitants:

Uaru fernandezyepezi -

[/QUOTE]

 

[illumnae]

Satanoperca mapiritensis (looks a lot like S. leucosticta, but it's not) -

Corydoras metae -

Dekeysera sp. L52 -

 

[illumnae]

Geophagus winemilleri -

Mesonauta insignis (I waited SO LONG to finally find some wild caught ones!!) -

Last but not least....Pterophyllum altum -

Didn't manage to get a focus shot on the Satanoperca daemon this time as they're still small. Maybe next time!

 

[JK47]

That is quite the stock list you have. Nice collection.

 

[probassfisher010]

I doubt a part of the actual river the size of your tank has this many fish, and this many species in it =p. I do however respect that all the fish are wild caught from the same river, nice looking tank!

 

[dxdx]

very nice tank!!

 

[mudjimba]

G'day,

Nice collection of fish. Very jealous of your selection.

The tetras will be an interesting addition, a school that size must look great.

All the best with them all.

cheers

 

[illumnae]

Thanks everyone I'm very fortunate to be able to get the stocklist I have - it's all thanks to 2 specialized importers here in Singapore that were kind enough to take note of my various requests and notify me every time they got in interesting/rare species from Columbia/Venezuela. In particular, wildcaught Mesonauta was a species that's almost impossible to get here in Singapore. I'm so glad after 2 years of searching I finally managed to get my hands on some.

I do appreciate that this does not exactly emulate nature as a slice of the river may not have such diversity in species. This is just my humble attempt at creating an environment that looks natural enough for the fish to feel "at home" at, and to include fish only from a certain locality (the Rio Orinocco basin in this case). Some of the fish, though from the same river basin, are not even found in the same part of the river, or even in the same river at all (e.g. G. winemilleri is found at the Casiquaire region where the P. altums don't venture). I understand that it isn't, and will never, exactly replicate nature. I'm just trying to get as close to it as I can with my limitations (one such limitation includes the human failing of "gotta get em all!").

I will, over time, be reducing the bioload. In particular, the P. altum, S. daemon and S. mapiritensis will be reduced to more manageable numbers. One practice I have with rare wildcaught fish is to buy more than I plan to keep, to take into account random deaths. As these fish are rare and seasonal, I won't be able to replace any on the fly in the event of unexpected deaths. Thankfully, the death rate in this take has been low - the only downside to this is the huge crowd in there. As I finish the scape and ensure the stability of the fish, I will be reducing their numbers.

 

[Lab_Rat]

Great looking stock! Love the panda uaru and the altums.

 

[probassfisher010]

Yeah, getting a "slice" of an actuall river is very, very hard to do, (I tried it with a West African River system biotope) And when you try this, it just looks under stocked, and probably inaccurate. Probably the best way to do it is to visit the river, find a spot, take a picture, and replicate that in a home aquarium, taking note of how dense a species is in the river. Oh well, anyways love the tank!