PlanetCatfish.com

I was wondering if anyone would have any info on creating a trinidad biotype tank or know of suitable species of flora and fauna that could be used. There are several of us searching for info on mainly the slow stream habitats that are favoured by native livebearers. The only catfish we have come up with so far is our old friend H.Pleco and a few suspect commonly available plants. any help or directions to this info would be greatly appreciated.

Fishbase lists 92 species (including misidentifications and other non-native species) from "Trinidad and tobago". How many of those are actually from Trinidad itself, I don't really know. Island of Trinidade doesn't list any freshwater fish - but I'm not sure if that is actually the same thing or a completely different island...

Freshwater-fish of T&T:
http://filaman.ifm-geomar.de/Country/Co ... freshwater

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Mats

Thanks for the information. its interesting how many fairly common fish are on that list, one of the resons we are researching the biotype of that place. The large tank already contains two adult spotted hoplo as they are very eastygoing on planted tanks for their size. Possible plants we have found so far are the 'amazon sword',water hyacinth and not much else.

Hi there,

I just spotted this thread, so sorry for late reply.

I did a lot of zoological work in Trinidad between 1996 and 2002 and still have some fish from those trips in my tanks today... see the Corydoras aeneus profile in the cat-e-log with some pics that Jools took when he came to visit last month.

There really isn't a typical Trinidad biotope as such. Trinidad was once part of S America some 10,000 years ago and as such mimics a lot of the mainland, but even within such a small island it has quite a lot of different habitats from swamp and mangrove to high montane rainforest.

You are right though, a lot of Trini fish are available and and easy to keep and breed. You could set up a tank with wild guppies, silver hatchets, blue acaras, cory bronze or robinii plecs quite easily. Or for a bit more spice... some Erythrinus or Hoplias, although they will eat most other stuff! You could also add Calichthys and 2 species of Hoplo, or Megalechis as they are now called. Knife fish like the carapo are also to be found in some parts. getting true wild caught specimens can be difficult but most of them are captive bred and CB is normally a better option anyway.

A lot of work can be found online by Doug Fraser and Jim Gilliam from New York on guppies and a killi called Rivulus hartii. You might find out specifics from looking at their papers regarding pH etc?

hope this helps a bit?

cheers
Colin

thankyou, the info has helped a great deal.

if anyone else is interested in the topic then there is an article on a 'guppy biotype' that contains a list of possible plant species to be included.

http://naturalaquariums.com/plantedtank/0604.html