Geophagus Setup

[ari]

Here are some photo of my almost completed geophagus setup....still need to run thru some finishing touches.
this setup is the annual flooding of the amazon basin, where the river overflow its banks into the forest floor.the exposed tree roots offer hiding place for young fishes and plenty of food, ie insects washed up by the floods.

eh, sorry again for the blur photos from my hp camera...

[ari]

i added in 500g worth of dried peat moss in nylon stockings to stain the water


24hours later...the water turns golden tea colour

[Cichlid Connections]

Nice pleasant biotope....... must put one or two RM100 bandaraya..... then look good...

[soyadude]

Looks very very nice. Where you get those wood from? Leaves.. nice touch and fine sand.

[ggMing]

wah... the setup looked really nice wor...
can imagine your fishes must be swimming happily...

by the way, what are the twigs inside???
where u get those?

[ari]

Originally Posted by Cichlid Connections

Nice pleasant biotope....... must put one or two RM100 bandaraya..... then look good...

hai lor..must put some bandaraya. btw why u buy so expensive...u really pay rm100 for bandaraya ah....FS in cheras sell rm1 woh, giant size one onli rm2.50. no need to buy la ...take from FS onli...where they dare to take rm1 from me...hehehe...u kena tipu liao ler buy rm100 bandaraya
better still...the river near masjid jamek...neh the one behind tai chung lau got many la...free one ...pancing onli la.

[ari]

the trick is when ever u go to the forest...just observe the river or stream beds.u will get the general idea on how to plan your next tank setup. the amazon river system is not much different from the one in malaysia.

Fine sand is a must for all geophagus setup, its their eating habbit to shiff the sands for food.if u use larger gravel, theres a danger gravel getting stuck along their gills. beside its delightfull to watch the geophagus shiffing the sands for food...just like a vacum cleaner...sands suck thru the mouth and exit thru the gills.
its rather expensive to buy fine sand in Kl..i use 60kg for my 4ft set up.(rm1 per kg...LFS would sell at rm2.50 per kg..if they stock them at all). try not to get the cheap fine sand from the hardward shop...hehehe the one use for cement mixture..they contain lime and granite...which of course shoots the PH up.

they are not twigs or wood...but roots! freshly dug. they are false tea plant ...the one folks use to plant along their house fence. they have nicely shaped roots and the very few roots that sinks. most aquarist only use bogwood or dried roots to be one the safe side...but believe me fresly dug roots are safe ...and for the amazonain setup its the best since they will lower the PH .
the drawback is ...when fresh roots are soaked in water for a period of time they will start to rot..producing films of white mucus.....the trick is soak the roots in BROMINE(Br) for a day or two. Bromine is a bleaching agent that will stop the roots from rotting.
WARNING:Maximum safety precaution must be taken when handling bromine, they will produce painfull sores on contact with skin.

Since i learn this method i have never purchase bogwood or roots from the FS, imo bogwod looks out of place in our limited sized tanks.
I once did a similar setup in bangkok for a customer of mine ...an 8x3x3 foot tank with roots, fine sand and large java ferns for his collection of pure strain S.A.Axelrodi and Haraldi (not the crappy hybred red brown or metalic blue discus found in FS).
try it guys..the fun about fishkeeping is not what u can buy from the FS but what u can find for free!


here is a photo of our forrest in terengganu....theres a lot for us to learn from nature...not from ah leong or ah meng pusat ikan dan haiwan kesayangan

[winksta]

Originally Posted by Cichlid Connections

Nice pleasant biotope....... must put one or two RM100 bandaraya..... then look good...

he meant not the black ones, the nice nice ones with patern but your setup looks cool

[ari]

Originally Posted by winksta

he meant not the black ones, the nice nice ones with patern but your setup looks cool

hahaha..ya la ..i know ...just joking with joe la...but then i onli see the pokka dot one ...and darn expensive. better just use white paint and paint spots on the rm1 black bandaraya

[winksta]

hehe get a cheaper nicer one la . near my place got gold one to catch wanna come? haha