Help setting up a perfect Zebra pleco home (L46)

I went into my LFS yesterday to get fishfood...... lol how many stories on the forum start like that .

I have been wanting a group of L46 for about 14 years and finally in a position to do something about it . My LFS has added 5 to his import order , I have booked 2 but may take all 5 depending on finances . They will only be here in about a month so I got a bit of time to prepare for there arrival .
I want to try recreate an ideal habitat for them . I was wanting to go pure biotype of the xingu river but honestly its just to plain for my liking . Due to there high temps and high flow requirements it also limits my livestock to a degree so i have decided to just do a tank of L46 and maybe shrimp if I can find some that will co exist .

I have a 4ft tank already that will be used and I have a cycled fluval FX6 already that will be used .
What I am thinking is paludarium...a fast flow river biotope with a riverbank jungle above the water .
I will use the ADA xingu river sand as I want to match the river portion of the paludarium as closely to the xingu river as possible . I need a lot of oxygen in the water so was thinking of creating some sort of "rapids" and waterfall to help with the oxygen levels in the high temps and some sort of natural plant filter portion to help with keeping the water crystal clean

What i need help with is some inspiration and help with plant selection . I have been wanting this tank for years... it must be done right

 

The following research paper should shed some light on the various fish fauna that is found in the Xingu river.

https://www.soctropecol.eu/publications/pdf/10-2/Camargo,Giarizzo,Isaac 2004.pdf

Don't forget to add a few Xingu corydoras, they should compliment the colours of the L46 with their pinkish body with black spots all over.

 

Setting up a biotope aquarium is very challanging, to put it simply it sucks.

Most aquarium fish comes from very bland areas in regards to plants. We are adding plants to the aquarium, mostly, for our viewing pleasure. You can always try to add plants from the same region they come from, which is not easy at all.

If you have the space you can try something like this:



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Found a nice post which could help? http://www.tfhdigital.com/tfh/may_jun_2018/MobilePagedArticle.action?articleId=1375426

 

@Reafer as far as possible try to use tissue cultured plants. Why, to reduce the risk of introducing nasties.

 

@Toy thanks for the link . I have seen the xingu cories but not sure if I want the food competition for the L46.with a high flow setup i would have to add a lot of food to make sure the L46 get.

@pierreschoonraad yea after a lot of research I have given up on the biotope idea as it would be really boring and I want it to be pleasing for me as well. I will keep the river part as close as I can to the natural river structure they would like

@louwla83 thanks for the link

@A new day thanks for the links @f-fish that tank is amazing

@Dolphin yea I have decided to use all tissue culter plants


I have decided to keep it a L46 tank as far as fish go. What do people think of using shrimp as a cleanup crew as L46 is not an algea eater . Would the water be to hot and flow to strong?

As for hard scaping goes I am needing a very oxygen rich water so on the one side of the tank I am going to put a waterfall falling over rocks to help with oxygen levels . Across the back of the tank I am going to do an undercut emmersed riverbank , I want the riverbank to be undercut to not loose any bottom space for the L46 . Still brainstorming so nothing is set in stone

 

Apparently they do best at 28-29

 

Yea the temps and high flow make this tank really a tough build. I even gave discus a thought for a minute but the flow would kill them . No idea what i can do for the cleanup crew .

 

You can always look at gobies, Sewellia lineolata and then I realized that your working with high temps where all the fast flowing river species prefer colder water. You have me stumped on this one but then again shrimp might be an option. They should be fine in the dead spots, where most of the uneaten food will end up.

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If I designed the tank flow properly I may be able to get away with cherry shrimp if I keep my temp at 28. Anyone have any experience at keeping cherries at that temp?

 

Cherries are very forgiving, in general all neo's. I have neo's in my gourami aquarium, at 27/28 and they breed like rabbits in there.

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I have been lurking on the zebrapleco forums and cherry shrimp seem to be ok with l46. I think I am going to keep it at that , 5 x L46 and a pack of cherry shrimp for cleanup

 

Not sure what equipment you may be using but I use a Maxspect gyre for unbelievable variations of current. Also near the surface it pushes a lot of bubbles into the stream for oxygenation which may help with your flow. Great for my Tanganyikan gobbies etc.

Cheers
Adam

 

@Adam K why did you show me that now I have to have one....

@A new day shot for the link , lots of food for thought and thanks for the tip on nerite snails

To throw another spanner in the works apparently L46 is more active under low light lol. So now its low light , high flow and high temps

I am still stuck on the waterfall idea ... but I was thinking making 3 floating islands.... for plants and my viewing pleasure . I will get this tank to look good lol got the brain working overtime