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This the third tank that I have. My idea is to create a South American Hillstream biotope.
There is fine sand on the bottom and a lot of round stones from my backyard. I put a small piece of wood so that it looks like a root that is half in the water. next to the root I placed a Echinodorus bleheri.
There is a external filter on this tank and also a small flow pump that is aimed straight over the stones.
Next week I will get the light for this tank. Then I have to let a lot of green algae to grow on the stones.

Fish that will come in this tank are:
4 Cheatostoma milesi
6 Characidium fasciatum

Still looking or a few Parotocinclus maculicauda.

Here are pictures:

i like that look a lot. well done cheers jk

Here are some pictures from some of the fish that are in this tank:

8 Characidium fasciatum
1 Chaetostoma milesi

The other Chaetostoma milesi are coming later, because this fellow was the only one of the group in the shop that was good.

Characidium fasciatum






Chaetostoma milesi:

wow very nice fish indeed. good luck with them. cheers jk

Thanks. Next week I'm going to add three more Chaetostoma milesi and four Pareiorhina rudolphi in this tank.

Some new pictures:








Haven't get any change to make a nice photo of my Chaetostoma milesi.

Some pictures of my Chaetostoma milesi, in my Hillstream tank.

Hi all,
Another great looking tank, I love the green algae covered rocks. I don't understand why people try and get rid of all their algae, it is as much a real positive in terms of tank health and stability as moss or higher plants. I'm sure the fish will do well for you in there.

I think we should call it APP "aesthetically pleasing periphyton" <http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ss522>, and promote it in the same way that Marine Aquarists do with "live rock".

cheers Darrel

Hi Gertbl,

Do you actually keep Pareiorhina rudolphi?
Thats great!
From where do you got them?

so long
Norman

@Darrel, Thanks. In this case I like to have some algae for the Chaetostoma in this tank. In one of my first tanks, I had a background that was totally grown with green algae. The Apistogramma borellii that I had then, was really appreciating the algae. The juveniles of the Apistogramma borellii was constantly searching for small creatures in the algae. The have been grown up just by searching and eating small creatures in the algae.

@Norman, I was looking for Pareiorhina rudolphi, and had ordered a few at a specialist shop. The owner of the shop and myself were really happy to see this fish on one of the stock list of his exporters. Sadly the fish that the exporter has been shipping to us as Pareiorhina rudolphi, was not Pareiorhina rudolphi but were L146.

The fish that are swimming in this at this moment are:
4 Chaetostoma milesi
8 Characidium fasciatum

Over a few months, I want to replace this tank for a bigger tank (1,20m+) and then I'm going to add some new fish species to the tank. I'm thinking of a group Parodon affinis and maybe, If I can find them, a group of Pareiorhina rudolphi.

Hi Gert,

Damn, I had the hope of the export of a Neoplecostominae species.
Otherwise I think there is unfortunately no Neoplecostominae species permitted for export in Brazil. Is there any (fish) species with a southern brazilian distribution permitted for export? I don't think so.

so long
Norman

Fine looking setup Gert with good fish. Did you consider camouflaging the equipment in the right corner a bit more?

@Wijnands, That is what I'm going to do in the bigger tank. There I want to camouflage them between rocks, or wood.

Looking forward to seeing that. Even a plant already does a lot.

Today the new bigger tank has arrived. It's a tank with the measurements 120x65x55cm and is 429L.
So the next plan is to think about a nice set-up for this tank. Because of the depth of the tank (65cm). it allows me to put some more stones and some pieces of wood in the tank. In this tank I can enlarge the group of Chaetostoma milesi (L187a).

Here is a picture of the tank:

Some new pictures of the Chaetostoma milesi.

Hi all,
Looking at the Amazon Sword (Echinodorus bleheri) leaves I can see they are definitely eating. Will they eat vegetables as well? Courgette ("Zucchini") skin etc?

cheers Darrel

I'm also curious about that.

Just made some new pictures.

dw1305 wrote:Hi all,
Will they eat vegetables as well? Courgette ("Zucchini") skin etc?

cheers Darrel

I have a single C. milesi and it absolutely loves courgette, but only attacks the flesh and leaves the skin intact.

Okay, nice to know that. I will have it a try soon.

Hi all,
They look to have done a spectacular job on the filamentous green algae on the rocks. It would be really interesting to find out which alga/algae it was (Cladophora, Spirogyra etc), as there is some suggestion that the softer species like Spirogyra are much more palatable to Loricariids than the rougher textured ones like Cladophora.

You could have some idea by touch, Cladophora is gritty, and Spirogyra really slippery, but a view of the arrangement of the filaments (do they branch?) and the chloroplasts (ideally under x400 magnification) is needed for a definitive ID.

cheers Darrel

dw1305 wrote:Hi all,
They look to have done a spectacular job on the filamentous green algae on the rocks. It would be really interesting to find out which alga/algae it was (Cladophora, Spirogyra etc), as there is some suggestion that the softer species like Spirogyra are much more palatable to Loricariids than the rougher textured ones like Cladophora.

You could have some idea by touch, Cladophora is gritty, and Spirogyra really slippery, but a view of the arrangement of the filaments (do they branch?) and the chloroplasts (ideally under x400 magnification) is needed for a definitive ID.

cheers Darrel

Not meaning to hijack this thread but I got this:



And about 10 hours after I stopped feeding hikari tabs my ancistrus really went after this and did some serious lawn mowing on the stuff.

Hi all,
You really need a microscope, but they very branched nature of the fronds means that it maybe a Bulbochaete sp. or possibly Cladophora sp.

cheers Darrel

@Wijanands, no problem.
Nice algae's on your branches. I know that my Hypoptopoma sp, also likes that kind of algaes.
Even my Chaetostoma are eating that kind of algaes.

Yeah, I do like it as well. Just like you I don't mind this kind of algae, looks nice and natural. I think I got it when I soaked the wood in a big bucket outdoors that was also used a lot for pond water.