Lochlan

02Lochlan.mp4

Rio Orinoco Biotope Aquarium: Replicating an ecosystem in a fish tank.

For my Personal Project I replicated an Amazonian river in an aquarium, by having the same water conditions, species of fish, and appearance of the natural ecosystem. My eventual goal was to have an aquarium that is as chemically and physically accurate as possible, whilst still being able to be maintained in an aquarium.

This shows the first time I added tannins to the water in order to try to replicate the blackwater. I scheduled adding new water slowly so that I could systematically obtain more acidic water without causing the fish any stress.

After just a few weeks the water of the aquarium was much darker, I added many leaves as shown in this image in order to darken it more effectively.

The aquarium after I added a large amount of leaves and seed pods to provide shelter for the fish.

The male shown in this image is investigating the new leaves added.

The male has his fins raised as he is displaying to the female, fish in these environments are usually quite drab to blend in with the leaves, that's why he shows this colouration.

momwithfry#6.MOV

This video shows all the newborn fry swimming around the mother; this was their first spawn.

The female with a lot of newborn fry surrounding her.

The aquarium is finally very dark as I added a large amount of leaves and pods to complete the aquarium.

Here is a photo of the male hiding behind some sticks with algae on them. This algae makes the aquarium a suitable home for fry to grow, which is something I hoped to achieve.

I added some floating plants to the aquarium which absorbed a lot of the nitrates in the aquarium. They grow extremely fast, so I remove large amounts weekly.

Here I am removing leaves which release toxic ammonia. I have to remove these leaves early so that they do not kill my fish.

The aquarium is finally complete, this photo shows the aquarium as exactly what I was hoping to accomplish. The water is so dark in colouration that I can't see past 15 centimetres!

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