Re: Oak leave tank

["Max Gallade" <mgallade@hotmail.com>]

Erik,all,
Thanks for all the nice congrats.I appreciate all your comments.
I'm very happy with 2nd place in this category and thank the AGA for 
selecting my setup.
I asked myself many times how to design this tank.It actually started out as 
a bare tank with just a cover of Oak leaves in it to breed A.borellii.I 
liked the looks of the leaves in the tank and decided to set  the tank up 
with substrate,plants and driftwood to make it a working Apisto breeding 
natural looking tank.Low light/practical plants were chosen for the original 
layout.Java moss to feed fry microorganisms,a Crypt as centerpiece.The 
Anubia had already attached itself on the driftwood and was growing nice 
when added.The roots actually provide extra cover for shy /small fish.The 
Amazon sword was added later and took over the tank.I had to move it into my 
larger Discus tank last weekend.
I knew that the chosen plants weren't from Amazonian origin.I wanted to 
create "that natural look"of a small creek with what I had available to 
me.None of the plants/decorations were bought for this setup.Everything came 
out of my existing tanks.
I thought that plant selection wasn't as crucial after looking at last years 
entries in this category.Last years 2nd and 3rd place winners didn't enter 
truly biotope setups either.
If you look at photos of natural Apistogramma biotopes you hardly ever see 
any plant growth ,just a lot of leave litter and tree roots reaching into 
the water column.
Erik ,
I would be very interested to hear your opinions/suggestions on plant 
selection for such a tank since you and Kathy collected in such biotopes and 
have seen them firsthand.I'm experimenting with different layouts at the 
moment and would like to create a setup that could be called a true biotope.
Thanks again,
I'm looking forward to next years contest.
Max




Visit "The Digital Aquarium" and L&M Tropicals at:
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> From: Erik Olson <erik@thekrib.com>
> Reply-To: apisto@listbox.com
> To: apisto@listbox.com
> Subject: Re: Oak leave tank
> Date: Mon, 12 Nov 2001 13:47:17 -0800 (PST)
>
> On Mon, 12 Nov 2001, David Sanchez wrote:
>
> > Nice tank Max. maybe I'm biased but I thought yours
> > was the true Bitope tank and deserved 1st place. Nice
> > job.
>
> Well, see, everyone4's got different ideas on that... the winner of the
> 1st place actually went and collected all native fish and plants from the
> Houston Texas area.  I;'m not sure that tank necessarily looks the most
> biotopically-correct, but has the right flora and fauna.  Max's tank very
> much looks the part, but none of the flora is really south american.  I
> think this is where the judges tend to ding the points.  Some of the
> people at the convention even thought it should have been disqualified
> because of the Anubias!  Gad Zukes, that's hardcore!  If we did that, only
> one tank would have even been still left standing in the category.
>
>   - Erik
>
> (Apologies for the bad proofing on this post.  Traffic is at a crawl to
> the site because of the contest opening today!)
>
> --
> Erik Olson
> erik at thekrib dot com
>
>
>
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