75 Gal A. eunotus "orangeschwanz" Setup

[slimbolen99]

So, I got tired of staring at empty fry raising tanks in the new fishroom, so I decided I would do a little experimenting for the winter.

Basically, my plan is to get my apisto breeding groups built up and grown up by setting up eight 75 gallon "biotope" tanks. This is the first of the eight.

Consists of 1m/3f of Apistogramma eunotus "orangeschwanz". The substrate is tan pool filter sand. There are about 6 pieces of 2-3 foot long driftwood, a 5 gallon bucket full of boiled oak leaves, and under the leaves, 6 clay pot halves on their side. There also is a fair amount of java moss. Filtration is two hydro V sponges. Lighting is two 19 watt (75w equiv.) cfl spiral type bulbs suspended above the tank.

 

[Mike Wise]

Very nice - and if they are the same Orangeschwanz that I saw in your room, the offspring should be spectacular!

 

[henkh]

Nice indeed and i wish you luck. But why boiled oak leaves? my experience is that boiled leaves last less time. I use leaves that are just rinsed and they last much longer and i never got parasites or something like that..

 

[slimbolen99]

Mike, they are the same Orangeschwanz from the tank you saw. This male is hot stuff for sure...hopefully they can start dancing soon.

Henkh, I boil my leaves mostly to kill any bugs or other "icky" things on the leaves, just in case. I used to bake them in the oven, but found they became more brittle and broke up faster. Plus, the water I boil them in becomes nice and dark tea colored, which I use in the tanks as well.

 

[ApistoNerd23]

Tank looks great! You've inspired me to dump the rest of my bag of Indian Almond leaves in my tank. I love that leaf pile look you've got going.

 

[slimbolen99]

Thought I'd upload a few more pictures. Hopefully someone can find it inspiring enough to try. You would think that in this type setup you'd never see your fish, but, in my limited experience, I'm seeing these guys more than ever before. The dim lighting helps; I'm not trying to grow any plants, and the leaf litter provides literally 100's of hiding places. Looks like the females have taken up territories; the poor male is stuck somewhere in the middle. May end up removing a female just to give the male a little more wiggle room.

Full tank view; it's not quite this red, mostly the lighting reflecting off of the leaves.

Look at all these hiding places!

Java moss will hopefully take off and fill up some of this vertical space.

Female guarding territory

Interesting view down the side of the tank, looking down all 4 feet of length.

 

[tompoz]

Judging by the comments so far I may be going upstream but to me top of the tank looks too empty. I would add taller and heavier looking roots, some pistia to float on the surface and probably some dither fish such as Carnegiella.
But that would be me.

Anyway, the bottom looks great and made me decide to put more leaves in my tanks.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

Judging by the comments so far I may be going upstream but to me top of the tank looks too empty. I would add taller and heavier looking roots, some pistia to float on the surface.....

I like the tank, but I'd agree with that, I use Pistia/Limnobium/Salvinia on all my tanks, you can thin/remove them without disturbing the fish, they help with water quality and they diffuse the light.

cheers Darrel

 

[slimbolen99]

I agree, they need something up top. Here's what I'm working on...

I decided to incorporate some "floating" philodendrons using pieces of Styrofoam with holes in them. Basically a 3"x6" piece of 1"thick styrofoam, with a couple of holes in it to push the plants through. My neighbor actually grew these in a bowl in their basement, by a tiny tiny window...so I'm hopeful they will take off. I plan on training the regular philodendron around the stands, and the heart shaped ones should grow up to fill the void between the top of the tank and the ceiling.

This is a different tank, but similar setup.

 

[slimbolen99]

I'm also looking at collecting some "twigs" off of some tree branches I cut down earlier this summer. One species of tree is a crab apple, the other one is an oak. The character of the crab apple branches is ideal in that they branch off there at the ends. The oak is mostly just straight twigs. What I am thinking I need to do is bake the branches in the oven for an hour or so, maybe at 250*F to dry them up a bit more and kill any nasty hitchhikers. Any ideas on that? Pros? Cons? Things to look out for?

 

[Mike Wise]

If you dry the twigs, it won't remove any rotten parts and they will take longer to sink. I doubt that they have anything nasty to aquatic life on them. I usually just rinse/soak in tap water (chlorination will kill most external bacteria) and then put them in the tank.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
Apple and Oak twigs are fine, and I like the floating Philodendron, I used to have a Ficus benjamina in the glasshouse which produced aerial roots and these found their way into a large open tank, with a beneficial effect on both the fig and water quality. I've also had a Monstera, where its roots have found their way into a tank.

I'd still put in some floaters, Limnobium, Pistia or Salvinia , certainly until you have some idea of how quickly the leaves will degrade. It will just give you a bit if additional back up for water quality.

cheers Darrel