True SA Biotope

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H

HFRCampbell

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jul 6, 2008
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Dimensions are 2ft tall, 3ft wide, 6ft long. 269 gallons


hey im looking to setup up a 100% true biotope of SA. I want the biotope to be a amozonian setup and was wondering if suams are from there? So are they from the amazone or what? If so i was thinking something of the following.
1 silver arrowana
6 Oscars
6 gold or silver suams
20 silver dollars
2 pike cichlids ( what species im looking for a cheap easy to find one)
2 Choclate Cichlids
1 Uara

what do you think. any compatability problems? should i lower the number of saums to like 1 i dont relaly see anyone keeping more than 2 toghether and if so what fish should i add or take away you know?

Whats good filtration for this i was thinking
1x Fluvel fx5
2x ehiem pro cannister
all three hooked up into a closed systeme w three in ports and 1 out port going into a undergravel jet systeme for water movment on the bottom/

Heating
how could i heat the tank? like is there a alternative to buying alot of heaters/

Plants? i want some hardy plants from the amozon. would amazon swords work? and whats some other species from there.

Lastly feeding. most the fish would be able to survive off of a cichlid pellet right? i have a 10 gallon that has mollies in it so once this is built and setup i could put the mollie fry in here for the arrowana and the other fish to eat right?

K thanks for the helps pics up asap ill keep you guys posted through the building process and the stocking process
 
IIRC gold saums aren't from the amason reigon, and come from northern parts of SA with habitats closer to central american cichlids.

I'd say flag the oscars, go for a couple of uaru (start with a group), some geophagus, severums, parrots, chocolate cichlids etc. Some nice plecs too. No plants, white sand round river rocks and big pieces of tangled driftwood. I've got no idea about the pikes as we don't get them here in NZ.

And go with a black aro if you can. :)
 
You've got way too many fish planned for there, and a biotope is a re-created natural habitat, which in aquaria terms is recreating a river system (such as the Rio Tocantins, Rio Araguaia, Rio Tapajos, etc.) with a selection of fish species, not the whole continent; it's much more narrowed down.

6x3x2 is a beautiful tank size and probably my favourite because of the huge footprint, but it's still not that big. Given your fish choices I think something along these lines would be much more appropriate.

4x Uaru amphiacanthoides "Triangle Cichlid/Waroo"
3x Hoplarchus psittacus "Parrot Cichlid"
2x Hypselecara temporalis "Chocolate Cichlid"
1x Osteoglossum bicirrhosum "Silver Arowana"
1x Crenicichla sp. (Pike)
2x Atronotus ocellatus "Oscar"

Not my personal favourite fish choices, minus the Chocolates/Parrots, but it'll work. If you're looking to keep multiples of each species watch for breeding pairs.
 
oh okay that looks pretty good

Well so they dont really live in that many planted areas? would they be okay if they bread thou, or would that have really bad aggresion problems?

thanks
 
well i was thinking this biotope setup

4x Urua
3x Choclate
2x Parrot Cichlids true parrots not the hybrids
1x silver arrowana
1x oscar
10x silver dollars
1x common pleco
1x Geophagus Brasillis

I think that would look pretty cool and it is pretty close to a good biotope setup.
 
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That looks pretty good, although 10 Silver Dollars might be overkilling it a little. It's a decent sized footprint but if you do get breeding Parrots/Chocolates/Uaru there will be aggression, however all 3 of these species aren't built for killing so I doubt you'll see anything too fierce.
 
Could go for spotted metynnis which will stay smaller than the normal silver dollars. If the tank is set up with decor in the right place the pairs might form their own territories when breeding and there could be enough space to maintain them without too much aggression, as Japes said that tank has great dimensions. I've got a pair of uaru who lay eggs every 2-3 weeks in an 80g with 3 other uaru, a sev and a big group of clown loaches, they get a little pushy but not too bad. The most aggressive uaru is one that isn't in the pair!!
I'd suggest you drop one of the chocs (three is an odd number) and replace it with a redhead severum or similar. Splash out on something nice like a royal or gold nugget plec too, they'll both poo just as much, and the royals look so much nicer than the plain old common ones., you won't regret it. You could also add some raphael cats or pictus to help clean up.

And TBH I'd go for a black aro. A silver will get bigger faster and will be more aggressive. Blacks are just so much nicer!

And lastly, forget about plants and uaru. It won't happen. :D
 
be careful with a pike cuz it will run the tank mercilessly theyre mean bastards haha
 
Might be wise to try and get hold of a black arowana instead...if you can. Not quite as enormous. As big as that tank is a close to 3' silver aro will look really huge in there.
 
okay, one question are green and silver arrowanas the same? from what ive seen they shure do look similar.

Okay, so im ordering the fish off of jeff rapps. Do you guys know his shipping size or is it diffrent for diffrent fish?

Thanks guys this is gonna be sweet
 
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