Substitutional southeast atlantic Costa Rica biotope

[Hybridfish7]

Work in progress, in the process of swapping out the old top fin 60 with two ac70s. Not sure which lights I should use. Leaning more to the purple, but not sure how my algae is going to do with it, since I'm pretty sure I have the same light on my Freddy tank (which has not grown any algae). If I start seeing a loss I'm algae I'll move back to my cheap white LEDs. The purple definitely brings out the color in the myrnae though.

Oh yeah, that reminds me. The stocking currently:
Amatitlania myrnae "rio lari" F2? (pair)
Amatitlania kanna "rio robalo" x 1 (more coming probably)
Poecilia salvatoris x 3 (more coming)

Future inhabitants:
Cribroheros bussingi "rio lari" F1? (female) x 1
Crossocheilus oblongus x 4
Pristella maxillaris x 19

Salvatoris substitutes for native p. gilli or mexicana, crossocheilus substitutes for h. latifascista, pristellas substitute for pseudocheirodon

With the way my other tanks are stocked, the inhabitants of this tank will likely end up moving to a 40 breeder somewhere down the line, unless they work out well enough in here to leave long term.

Some pictures of everything in its current state:
(white)

(purple)

(both for fun)

(old lights)

























My male myrnae came in tiny at first, but I'm happy to say he's starting to look like my dad's trade strain one when he first got here. Hopefully he'll catch up in size with the warm and heavily overfiltered 33.
Mine:

My dad's:

My dad's now:

 

[Alexxxxsv14]

Dang those myrnae look top knotch

 

[Milingu]

The cichlids are looking great.
But I would keep an eye on the light spots and loose scales on the Poecilia's backs. It could be first signs of a bacterial infection.

 

[Hybridfish7]

The cichlids are looking great.
But I would keep an eye on the light spots and loose scales on the Poecilia's backs. It could be first signs of a bacterial infection.

I'll keep an eye on it, I thought it was just nipping from the school of buenos aires they used to be with.

 

[Farhan123]

Beautiful tank. Where do you find wood and rocks like that? Doesn't have so many heavy rocks on the tank put pressure on the glass?

 

[Hybridfish7]

Beautiful tank. Where do you find wood and rocks like that? Doesn't have so many heavy rocks on the tank put pressure on the glass?

Wood is beech wood I get from around my uncle's house, rocks are leftover river rocks from the same uncle's landscaping projects

 

[Hybridfish7]

Some updates:
I filled the tank back up, and then it evaporated back down to that level. Anyway now I have tetras, the cribroheros which I am hoping is a female, an L056 substituting for other parancistrus in the region, and a banjo cat substituting for other banjo cats in the region. Tank is now fully stocked, except for the inevitable myrnae fry, which I will be keeping as many of as I can.

Managed to find an lfs with a spare ac70 motor/impeller (and a lot of other stuff, they had a whole armory for filter parts which was a pretty cool experience) so I got one of the HOBs up and running. Now I just need the other motor. All the fish in here (except the kanna) prefer flow, so in a matter of hours everyone's used to the ac70 flow, and is swimming around like the tank is stagnant.

Female myrnae is growing a bit already and everyone (except the cribroheros, who everyone in the tank seems to hate) is fully colored up. The myrnae have also paired up, as I see my male trying to sneak dances at the female out of the corner of my eye, while he thinks I'm not looking. Based on the similarly sized septemfasciata who keeps randomly laying eggs in her 5 gallon, I'd say the female myrnae is also probably ready to lay eggs. I see her trying to show courting coloration, so that might be a thing soon. She does not have her full adult coloration, so it just shows up as a little thin black and gold triangle under the dot on her body. It does not show up as much on camera however.

 

[Hybridfish7]

Dang those myrnae look top knotch

Couple more recent pics:

 

[aussieman57]

A. myrnae are great little fish. Mine spawn like clockwork. You'll know the female is in the mood when she develops her black "mask".

 

[Hybridfish7]

A. myrnae are great little fish. Mine spawn like clockwork. You'll know the female is in the mood when she develops her black "mask".

This'll be my third pair, my original Rio lari male went through 3 females before I lost him too. I tried my hand at a pair of line bred ones but didn't like their breeding dress as much, thus, I'm back to a new pair of Rio laris, since I'm hoping to see that legitimate stark black and white breeding dress. The cb ones had more of a tan or cream colored breeding dress, but I'm looking for more of the ice white you can see in these:

First male was a disaster. He spawned with his original female about 3 times before stressing her to death, spawned with his second female before throwing her out of the tank, and spawned with his third female once before stressing her to death as well. He himself succumbed to wounds inflicted by a female septemfasciata. The cb pair spawned like clockwork, but couldn't keep their fry safe from the tetras in the tank. I ended up giving them to my dad mid 2022.