Plants

[Iamtechno13]

So I have a number of plants in every tank I have but I'm sure not all of the plants would be found in a typical apisto habitat. If I wanted to recreate a new tank that might closely resemble a typical apisto habitat, what kinds of plants and such would I want to use? I'm sure that it can vary a bit from different areas and types of apistos so I guess a general description. I've got a new 40B and 55G tank I will be setting up soon and would like to house my Winkelflecks in one of them. I have a natural black sand in all of my tanks some of them mixed with flourite. What substrate would I want to use as well? Any help would be much appreciated.

 

[Iamtechno13]

I forgot to mention. I have a number of different sizes and colors of rocks and multiple different sizes of Malaysian driftwood I use as well. I have a number of types of echinodorus, rotala (walichi being my favorite), anubias', crypts, some hygro, vals, sagittaria, and a few other random plants. Figured I'd list them since i reposted

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
"What substrate would I want to use as well? Any help would be much appreciated" You want sand, Apistogramma are Geophagine cichlids and do quite a lot of sand sifting. A lot of of Apistogramma come from habitats where there are no plants, or just floating plants, but they live among the tangle of dead leaves and branches. This can be replicated by a dense planting of plants which makes tank management less problematic.

Have a look at TomC's habitat pages from his visits to the Peruvian Amazon <http://apisto.sites.no/page.aspx?PageId=52>

Your plant list seems fine, a lot of them are SE Asian, (Rotala, Cryptocoryne, some Hygrophila spp.) and Anubias is an African genus. I've never had much joy with Vallisneria, and it is probably better in harder water. Have a look at Bob Wiltshires's pages on plants and structure, they are very useful <http://www.dwarfcichlid.com/Aquarium_care.php>.

I like a lot of structure, and I have dead leaves and Java moss in all the tanks.

cheers Darrel

 

[Mike Wise]

I doubt you would enjoy the vision of a typical apisto habitat. Such habitats that I have seen in Peru, Ecuador & Colombia are generally the same.
Substrate - very fine, white quartz sand covered by a thick layer of decaying leaves (leaf litter) and submerged wood.
Plants - most locations had no aquatic plants, only rare emergent bog plants or floating plants.
Rocks - I never saw a rock in any location. Being a geologist, I know what a rock looks like.

My suggestion is to go with a planted tank that is pleasing to you. The fish will enjoy it, too.

 

[Iamtechno13]

Yeah I checked ou TomC's habitat pages and they were a great help, exactly what I was looking for. I think I'm just going to get some more driftwood and load my new tanks up with plants. Was looking through some other pictures on here and a few other places to give me a good idea of what general direction I want to take.