Natural-style Aquascape

[00:00:00]Heat. Heat.

[00:00:01][music] [music] [music] >> [music] [music] >> Hey guys. So today I wanted to show you my Aquaan Optic [music] Clear tank which is 120 cm by 30 by 30 cm. So, it's long and shallow and not very deep back to front, but [music] I've let it grow quite crazy into this uh slightly wild aquascape. [music] And actually, I really like it. I hope you guys will like it, too.

[00:01:06][music] [music] >> [music] >> So the original concept of this tank was to design it around species [music] that employ batesian mimicry. This is a form of mimicry where one species tries to look very similar to another. In this case, the three fishes I've used here are the sedge tetra hyphosakis, the small tetra sepus notlis, and gastramis formerly corridorus hastatis.

[00:01:50]And they've all got the same black and white pattern on the cordal podunk near the base of the tail. And I've seen certinus kui and calorus in the wild alongside hifasanakis alongside corridorus hystatis. And I thought it'd be really cool to recreate something like that in the aquarium at home. The reason these species do this is so that they can hang out together and it's confusing for a predator to [music] pick out an individual.

[00:02:21]>> [music] >> The little s tetras are one of my favorites hypersproenilis. [music] And you can see they have this beautiful blue around the eye. And the males when they display have really quite stunning finage considering how small they are.

[00:02:35]And they're just one of the loveliest tetras. Really good for nano tanks.

[00:02:38]Really easy to look after. This tank is unheated hard water and they're very happy in here. Also have a pair of a pistogrammer bareelli. This is the female [music] the umbrella cichlids.

[00:02:50]And then the male who's a really stunning specimen actually and quite a character.

[00:02:58][music] When I put food in the tank, he's always sort of forcing his way down through the plants to the bottom to try and pick up any morsels. [music] And it's interesting the foraging behavior that you might see in the wild as well. And in this [music] small tank, although it's very long, has a long frontage, does mean he's off on display quite often, which is really nice. And then the other small tetras go in and try and see if he's rustled anything up as he's digging around, which is this uh nuclear forager behavior, which is always [music] cool to see in the aquarium.

[00:03:34][music] One of the other species that does this too is this uh hatis corusatus.

[00:03:41]So there's a bunch of them in here and they're often following him around the aisto as he's sort of grubbing [music] about. They come in. They're really cute little fish. I've seen them in the Pantanal in Brazil [music] in large shs swimming in midwater. And that's the thing that little black and white pattern on the tail allows them to move up with the shors of tetras that have the same pattern. So they can access food that's drifting in the midwater column. Whereas their cousins, the benthnic cory's other corydors that stay on the substrate don't have access to that. And this gives them an advantage, an extra food source.

[00:04:16]Having the same pattern on the tail means that when they are swimming around with all these tetras, this is confusing mix of black and white spots and it's really difficult for a predator to pick them out. And this is why they've evolved this method of basim mimicry.

[00:04:31]gives them access to [music] food and habitat that otherwise they might be quite vulnerable. If they swam out and they were clearly uh a prey item, they'd be snapped up quite quickly.

[00:04:42][music] They're quite characterful and engaging.

[00:04:49]If you keep them in the aquarium, try and get as many as you can. I think there's about 15 or so in this tank. I would like to add more, but uh the more you have, the more confident they are.

[00:04:58]And you can see them digging around, foraging alongside the aby here, searching for any morsels.

[00:05:07][music] [music] [music] Heat.

[00:05:23][music] [music] [music] Heat.

[00:05:43][music] >> [music] [music] >> So these Venus nutmelis, these are the small tetras are a species I've also seen in Brazil. [music] And I was very lucky um cuz a good friend of mine, Ben from Theford Aquatics, from Theford [music] Garden Center, he called me and said, "Hey, I know you you like these fish and they're on the list. Would you like me to order some?" And I said, "Yes, yes." And so he ordered them in for me and they're great and they should alongside the Elakis tetras [music] really nicely. They've got this beautiful kind of greenish lateral line in the body. And they're [music] species that most people would look at and see, oh, just a silver gray fish. But when you put them in a densely planted tank like this, you put them in good numbers, you give them plenty of hiding [music] spaces, you let them get confident, they really reward you with lots of active behavior and nice colors.

[00:06:45]It also helps to have good lighting above these fish. And I have these uh Life [music] Aqua lights. I'll put a link in the description to what they are. Um they're from Aquarium Gardens.

[00:06:54]Kindly one of them sponsored by Life Aqua for me. And they're really good for growing plants and for bringing out fish color. As [music] you can see, there's plenty of lush growth in here. I'll mention some of the different plant species, but you can see the Sagittarius flower. Uh there's lots [music] of ioaris. There's hagrilas. I haven't done this as a biotope, but I've done it to simulate habitats that I've seen in Brazil, sort of shallow flooded meadows where suddenly there's [music] an explosion of aquatic plants during the wet season. And these are exactly the kind of small fish [music] that you see occupying these habitats and there's lots of sunlight penetration. So, the lighting might seem like overkill here, but this is what these [music] habitats are like. They're shallow. There's loads of light coming in. So, I'm also using CO2 [music] injection quite a lot to try and avoid algae. And there is still some algae. You will see some in this video.

[00:07:44][music] Um, but I've been using Arca Algoay product which is really good product and has vastly reduced the algae I was dealing with [music] initially.

[00:07:57][music] One of the plants I have growing in here is Maka SP. [music] This is from Horizon Aquatics. is the ADA version and it gets really red tips. So here a few weeks ago you could see them really really red and after pruning they've kind of gone back to green but they're starting to get those red tips again. So I'm quite quite pleased [music] and that's that's down to lighting and nutrients really.

[00:08:36]The trick with this tank was to plant densely. I've got loads of area. [music] This is from Maiden Head Aquatics Woodbridge. I've got the Maka in there.

[00:08:44]I've got Elioaris Montividensus ADA from Horizon [music] Aquatics. Hyraphila Rubra. I've got Nya SP [music] Goyis. I've got Salutari from Aquarium Gardens. I've got a poet Mcgenon that I don't know what it is, but I've put it in there. It's t quite well. There's Eliparisicularis.

[00:09:04]And there's lots of Helanthium [music] SP Mandela also from Horizon Aquatics.

[00:09:09]And I've got Helenthium uh Angusolius in there. So, and there's also Rattala Bangladesh also from Horizon [music] Aquatics. So, it's a blend of plants from all around the world, but it does look like these kind of overgrown flooded habitats that you would find uh in the Pantanau wetlands and other areas of Brazil.

[00:09:28]All this [music] vegetation surface cover makes the fish really confident.

[00:09:31]So, as you can see, you know, they'll they'll engage with me [music] when it's feeding time. And as soon as I approach the glass, they come rushing up having that surface cover in the form of the living leaves, particularly from the [music] nymph spu ice. These are from Liquid Nature Vienna originally. Um, [music] the fish come up and hang out near the surface. They feel really comfortable. The Aisto, which is normally a fish that hangs out at lower levels, he feels totally happy going up uh to higher parts of the tank.

[00:09:59]I'm all about [music] texture and form in the aquarium. I like the sort of chaos of the plants. So, I love blending these different species [music] together. I've used ADA uh Malaya soil which Horizon Aquatics used to sell [music] and it's been a really good medium and I used um ADA power sand underneath that which I got from aquarium gardens. So, there's loads of nutrients available for the plants and as you can see [music] this tank has been running for a couple of months and it's really grown in quite well.

[00:10:26]I would have a lot more immersed growth, but I have to use these cover glasses cuz these tetras, this the notelis, they love to jump. So, I use the cover glasses that come with [music] this Aqua One tank. They're really good. But, it does mean that the plants sort of don't grow up and out of the tank in the way I would like. Even so, it's still a really lush display. As you can see, [music] sort of riotous uh mix of form and texture, different plant heights, leaf shape. Um the softness of some, the hardness of others, [music] and the fish are really happy in there.

[00:11:00][music] [music] Heat.

[00:11:19][music] [music] Heat.

[00:11:34][music] >> [music] [music] >> So, I don't actually have a light screen on this tank. It's a foil, a blue to white [music] gradient foil from the light ground. And then I've put cardboard paper on the wall behind it and an LED strip bouncing light onto the paper. And that gives it this effect that's like a light screen. So a sort of cheap DIY [music] light screen. And it works works fairly well. I wanted the tank to have a bright, fresh vibe. And I think it does. It's really lush without being sort of moody and looking uh dark or mysterious. It's [music] just bright and fun.

[00:12:27]Heat.

[00:12:32][music] [music] [music] Heat.

[00:12:49][music] >> [music] >> I feed these bio granule nano [music] granules from Arca to the fish and they really like them. Uh it's great all round food and [snorts] the small [music] granules are perfect for these small tetras and I also like to squeeze them into lumps that sink down and that allows the cory's [music] and the episto go in and forage for them too. And it's a food I was giving to fishes out in Brazil actually on my last trip. So, Fishes in the Wild approved it, and as you can see, these guys seem to like it, too.

[00:13:31]I put in some small [music] catfish pellets, too. And, uh, the fish really like them. Sometimes get stuck on the vegetation and then they they grab them.

[00:13:38]I love to see the tetras sort of fighting and wrestling over these little tablets. As I [music] said, the arco bio granules, you can push them into these little balls if they're slightly damp and then let them sink down. The fish can pick at them at [music] their own leisure. It's another good way of feeding them and encourages natural foraging behavior. And uh it means that everyone gets a chance to eat something even though, as you can see, they're quite frenetic. [music] [music] So filtration on this tank is actually two things at the moment. I've got an Aquael 2000 L power pump with a sponge filter [music] fitted to it, sort of power head, and then I've got an old E-heim Pro 3 external [music] canister.

[00:14:22]But the idea is to eventually remove the canister and see if I can get away with just uh running the the sponge filter cuz it's pretty [music] big and um there's lots of plant life in there. So might be okay. I just have to maintain uh careful water quality and measure the parameters which I'm not always very good at doing but [music] if I remove the external canister then we'll definitely have to do that keep an eye on things but the pout head gives the flow that you can [music] see which is really nice too. I've also got some persicaria pacchong. There's some other persis [music] in here. The Rotala Bangladesh, which is a really great plant, grows so quickly.

[00:14:59]These lovely green leaves, slightly more bold than the maka. And uh sort of bends over and snakes around. And I [music] just love watching them grow uh day by day. The area is doing pretty well. Uh it's [music] gone a bit yellow, so I might need to look at nutrients. I'm using various Arca fertilizers at the moment and it has supported the growth really really well but um I don't know the area doesn't like being moved around and I was uh moving [music] a few bits here and there and some of the stems didn't like it very much. The main fertilizer I'm using is the Arca Plants green uh all round fertilizer [music] and as you can see everything is pretty green. Uh everything is really lush growing [music] really well. So I can't I can't fault it. I might have to add some extra iron in for some of the parts to get the reds [music] out of them.

[00:15:55][music] [music] I'm using CO2 injection. I've got a Arca diffuser, metal arc diffuser in here, which works really well. As you can see, the plants [music] by the afternoon, they're already pearing really nicely.

[00:16:14]And my akas especially look fantastic covered in bubbles and [music] uh it's a joy to see the tank thriving in this way. And you're literally seeing the plants respiring and growing and [music] everything developing. It's fantastic.

[00:16:26]And this is this tank is in my bedroom, so I get to look at it uh all the time.

[00:16:31][music] My friend Alex Bell has also become enamored of the Alakis tetras with those blue rings [music] around the eye and they're such sweet fish. I think he's keeping some as well and they become more and more popular. They really appeared in the hobby [music] in 2008.

[00:16:47]Um the seapinus notlis uh Ammano had some [music] seapiness in some of his displays. You sometimes see them in ADA tanks. I'm not sure if they're notis or calurus or kiji.

[00:16:58]They're not a very common [music] tetra.

[00:17:00]Uh they did cost about5 each for a small silver fish, but they're characterful.

[00:17:05]They're feisty, and they always make me think of being back in Brazil in those habitats where I've seen them swimming around.

[00:17:15][music] I've also got a potent gay eye in here, which has a nice [music] sort of brownish yellowish tint to it. I like the red stems of the Rotala Bangladesh and [music] bit more color too with the nymph macranthther which is an African species originally got from Wildwood's World of Water in Enfield [music] which is sadly closed now but this is a lovely plant and it has that sort of dinosaur skin effect on the leaves which I really really like and I again it's combination of texture and form the way the plants move in the current I think it's really relaxing just to sit and watch this tank and it's uh brings me a lot of peace actually, especially when I come home from work and I can just sit in front of it for a while and just calm down and and feel more myself.

[00:18:09]I don't know what this photogenon is, but I love the leaf texture, the shapes, the way you can clearly [music] see how the leaf is built. You can see some algae on it, too. I'm not going to shy away from that. There's plenty of algae in here, but it has been massively reduced since I was using the Arca Algo way cuz when I first set the tank up, it went into algae overdrive. So, you're seeing it after a couple of months of running and having that applied to it.

[00:18:34]Well, I hope you like the tank and I hope you've enjoyed this video and uh maybe it inspires you to have a go at setting up your own slightly chaotic natural style aquarium.

[00:18:47]>> [music] [music] >> Hey, [music] [music] heat. Hey.