SE Asian biotope confusion
 

I currently have a ten gallon aquarium housing a female betta and a
small school of espei rasboras. I was thinking of converting the tank
to a southeast asian swamp biotope (idea from Peter Hiscock
_Aquarium_Designs_).

However, the plants suggested in the book don't necessarily grow in SE
Asia. I am not sure what plants would work, as from my understanding a
biotope is sort of like a snapshot of a specific spot, and SE Asia
covers a rather large area. I'm not even sure the rasboras and betta
would be in the same biotope!

wary chicken wrote:
I currently have a ten gallon aquarium housing a female betta and a
small school of espei rasboras. I was thinking of converting the tank
to a southeast asian swamp biotope (idea from Peter Hiscock
_Aquarium_Designs_).

However, the plants suggested in the book don't necessarily grow in SE
Asia. I am not sure what plants would work, as from my understanding a
biotope is sort of like a snapshot of a specific spot, and SE Asia
covers a rather large area. I'm not even sure the rasboras and betta
would be in the same biotope!

Something here might help.

http://www.mongabay.com/fish/biotope.htm

http://badmanstropicalfish.com/bio-type.html



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Don`t Worry, Be Happy
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"wary chicken" wrote in message
ups.com...
I currently have a ten gallon aquarium housing a female betta and a
small school of espei rasboras. I was thinking of converting the tank
to a southeast asian swamp biotope (idea from Peter Hiscock
_Aquarium_Designs_).


However, the plants suggested in the book don't necessarily grow in SE
Asia. I am not sure what plants would work, as from my understanding a
biotope is sort of like a snapshot of a specific spot, and SE Asia
covers a rather large area. I'm not even sure the rasboras and betta
would be in the same biotope!

They all come from "Asia" so in a wider sense, they are all from the same
biotope.

Gourami are also from that biotope.

Asian Ambula and Hygrophilia poysperma are plants that come from that
"biotope".

;)

Oz

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My Aquatic web Blog is at http://members.optusnet.com.au/ivan.smith

Thanks Sandy for your response.

I've found the following plants so far:

Barclaya longifolia - does this have a dormant period?
Cryptocoryne balansae - background - med-high light
Hygrophila corymbosa v. 'siamensis' (Giant Hygro)
Hygrophila corymbosa v. 'Angustifolia' (Fine Leaf Corymbosa)
Hygrophila corymbosa 'stricta'
Hygrophila difformis (wisteria) - background, med-high light
Limnophila sessiliflora (Asian Ambulia) - background, med-high light
Monosolenium tenerum ("pellia") - foreground, low-high light
Pogostemon helferi (Downoi)
Rotala rotundifolia - background, med-high light

Do these sound feasible? Any other suggestions?

wary chicken wrote:
Thanks Sandy for your response.

I've found the following plants so far:

Barclaya longifolia - does this have a dormant period?
Cryptocoryne balansae - background - med-high light
Hygrophila corymbosa v. 'siamensis' (Giant Hygro)
Hygrophila corymbosa v. 'Angustifolia' (Fine Leaf Corymbosa)
Hygrophila corymbosa 'stricta'
Hygrophila difformis (wisteria) - background, med-high light
Limnophila sessiliflora (Asian Ambulia) - background, med-high light
Monosolenium tenerum ("pellia") - foreground, low-high light
Pogostemon helferi (Downoi)
Rotala rotundifolia - background, med-high light

Do these sound feasible? Any other suggestions?

I don't have a biotope tank. The only plants I have are Cryptocoryne of
various types which grow at an enormous rate. There are some pics of my
tank here, taken with a cheap camera and no flash so they look very dark.

http://www.ftscotland.co.uk/gallery/...humbnails.html

There are some better pics with fish here.

http://www.ftscotland.co.uk/gallery/...fish-tank.html

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Don`t Worry, Be Happy
Sandy
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E-Mail:-
Website:- http://www.ftscotland.co.uk
Looking for a webhost? Try http://www.1and1.co.uk/?k_id=2966019

"wary chicken" wrote in message
oups.com...
Thanks Sandy for your response.

Hi, wary, if you do'nt mind I'll chip in here as well with my 0.02 worth ;)

I've found the following plants so far:

Hygrophila corymbosa v. 'siamensis' (Giant Hygro)

I have these; I'm very impressed with them - they look great - grow well and
propigate easily. They root best if a substrate fertilizer is applied.
Bettas will love resting on this ones leaves. My SAE's do it all the time.

Hygrophila corymbosa 'stricta'

This one's common name is Blue Stricta (I think). I have this too. My
Gourami loves this stuff. Easy to grow and nice looking. When the leaves hit
the water surface they turn darker than the submerged leaves.

Hygrophila difformis (wisteria) - background, med-high light

This is a bit strange in my tank. But, I think it was sensitive to
fertilization more than anything. It's relatively slow growing in my tank,
but to propigate it, you just lie one of the strands down on the substrate
and weight it with rocks and all the nodes will shoot roots. You cut the
node sections and bingo! several new Wisteria. It's leaves submerged are
segmented but above water they look like the leaves of a tea plant. The
Asian fish I have like this one too. So do the lyretailed swords and the
Phantom Black Tetras.

Limnophila sessiliflora (Asian Ambulia) - background, med-high light

This is the plant you can cut back real hard and it will sprout many new
fronds. The acceptable way to multiply this one is to lop the top 1/3 to
2/3rds off and just stick the tops in the gravel. The tops turn into plants
in their own right and the bottoms will divide at the cuts and give you a
divided plant.

In my experience if this doesn't grow fast enough it's prone to algae and
diatom infestation, more so than the leaves of other plants. That said
though, since I posted yesterday about Asian Ambula, mine has grown an inch
(2.5cm) in 24 hours, so now it's breaking the water surface it's time to lop
the tops off and plant them for an increase.

This is a really good plant for egg layers and any fish which needs a bit of
cover. Some of my fish seem to enjoy stroking their backs with the leaves
too ;)

As far as light goes with this one; it will grow it's nodes close together
and become bushy in low light and will have dark green leaves. In higher
light it grows more upright, a lighter green with about 2cm between the
nodes. The top leaves will gain a reddish tinge to them as they get nearer
to the light.

It's a beautiful plant that's fairly easy to grow and reminds me of a
lighter version of some of the hornworts or foxtails.

Do these sound feasible? Any other suggestions?

I recommend them ;) I haven't any experience of the other plants I've
deleted because they don't seem to be readily available in this country. Or,
in my case they are too pricey for budget minded me ;)

Have you seen Hygrophilia polysperma? It hails from the Asian biotope (India
to Thailand) and goes off. Nice looking too and very easy to grow. I just
got some of this and I've been warned that it will grow out of control if I
don't prune it ;)

Oz

In article ,
Sandy Birrell wrote:
I don't have a biotope tank. The only plants I have are Cryptocoryne of
various types which grow at an enormous rate. There are some pics of my
tank here, taken with a cheap camera and no flash so they look very dark.

http://www.ftscotland.co.uk/gallery/...humbnails.html

There are some better pics with fish here.

http://www.ftscotland.co.uk/gallery/...fish-tank.html

Crypts are a diverse Genus and are spread all over Asia (and
only Asia, modulo the volunteers in Jamaica, Florida, Texas,
California and elsewhere), so,if you're trying to do,
say, a Malaysianbiotome tanks you probably don't want plants
from India or Borneo in there.

Jan's "Crypt Pages" give maps of where each plant is from; the
site is hosted on an IP address so I provide a domain name
pointer to it: http://crypts.aquaria.net

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Richard Sexton wrote:
Crypts are a diverse Genus and are spread all over Asia (and
only Asia, modulo the volunteers in Jamaica, Florida, Texas,
California and elsewhere), so,if you're trying to do,
say, a Malaysianbiotome tanks you probably don't want plants
from India or Borneo in there.

Jan's "Crypt Pages" give maps of where each plant is from; the
site is hosted on an IP address so I provide a domain name
pointer to it: http://crypts.aquaria.net

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http://www.mbz.org | Mercedes Mailing lists: http://lists.mbz.org
633CSi 250SE/C 300SD | Killies, killi.net, Crypts, aquaria.net
1970 280SE, 72 280SE | Old wris****ches http://watches.list.mbz.org

Hmm. That's a good point. I checked Mongabay again, as the crypt pages
looks like a good resource, and found info that Betta Splendens and
Rasbora espei are native to Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam.
Betta splendens were introduced to malaysia, and I see no mention of
espei Rasboras in malaysia.

Interestingly enough according to this site
http://www.masterliness.com/a/Mekong.River.htm, the Mekong river
travels through Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam

I guess I need to find more info on biotopes in the above areas.

Some info from the "Crypts pages" (Mainland Asia section):

C. Albida - this was collected near streams in Ban Wagyon, Thailand. I
guess this plant grows emersed, or perhaps seasonally emersed?

C. annamica, C. vietnamensis near "Da Nong", Vietnam (though perhaps
not in the same biotope?)

Cryptocoryne crispatula var. balansae - found near Mueak Lek in
Thailand, it sounds like this is a river and has hard water. The site
mentions that crypts from the "crispatula group" prefer hard water (I
guess from calcium leaching out from limestone?).

C. ciliata - tidal areas from India to New Guinea (I guess this means
it's a brackish plant??)

Thank you for your response Ozdude! Your information will come in very
handy!

Some info from the "Crypts pages" (Mainland Asia section):

C. Albida - this was collected near streams in Ban Wagyon, Thailand. I
guess this plant grows emersed, or perhaps seasonally emersed?

C. annamica, C. vietnamensis near "Da Nong", Vietnam (though perhaps
not in the same biotope?)

Cryptocoryne crispatula var. balansae - found near Mueak Lek in
Thailand, it sounds like this is a river and has hard water. The site
mentions that crypts from the "crispatula group" prefer hard water (I
guess from calcium leaching out from limestone?).

C. ciliata - tidal areas from India to New Guinea (I guess this means
it's a brackish plant??)

I have great difficulty with albida submersed although it grows
superbly emersed for me.

I've never seen annamica or vietnamensis except in photos.

I've got ciliata, it's of medium rarity, attractive plant,
tolerates bracksh water (!) but is the slowest growing
crypt on the planet.

balansae is a real winner for me. Unkillable, grows like
gangbusters, commonly available and cheap.

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1970 280SE, 72 280SE | Old wris****ches http://watches.list.mbz.org

"wary chicken" wrote in message
oups.com...
Thank you for your response Ozdude! Your information will come in very
handy!

Glad to relate my experiences to you.

I have a funny 1/2 and 1/2 biotpe situation in my tank.

The flora is Asian continental, with the exception of one plant, and the
fauna are Sth. American with the exception of one species.

It works and the reason the plants are mainly Asian is Australia's physical
proximity to Asia - they are cheaper to transport here if they are imported
due the proximity of Indonesia, New Zealand, Singapore and Malaysia to here.

That's not to say there aren't fabulous aquatic plant growing firms here -
there are many in NSW and Queensland, and a couple of them even specialise
in Australian Natives, which are very interesting to me indeed.

When I get my Pacific Blue Eyes and Crimson Spotted Rainbow Fish (Australian
natives) I'll get some Rainbow Nardoo (floating), Eel Grass (submerged) and
Foxtail, which are all from the Australian biotope (Kakadu - Northern
Territory) ;)

Oz