Friends, this is a praise song and a lament about my efforts at creating a Central American biotope featuring Rainbow Cichlids. I think that's how many biotope-dreams start. "I like X fish. I want to keep them in as close to their natural habitat as possible." So we need to start by understanding rainbow cichlid behaviour - in the wild, when the floods start receding as the dry(er) season approaches, they don't follow the majority of cichlids into the main riverbed. In stead, they deliberately swim out, hoping to find themselves in small (but not too small) pools with a small collection of biologically unrelated rainbows. There they breed, and if the pool doesn't dry out before rains start again, they'll repeat this year after year. The young rainbows school quite strongly for a time, helping them to survive predation during the rainy season, before becoming quite aggressive and chasing each other off as the waters begin receding. They are truly tough little fish, able to survive pretty awful water conditions in the stagnant pools where they breed. It is astonishing that they aren't more popular, they're hardier than convicts (and arguably, more beautiful), small - so easy to keep, and because they are naturally cooped up in small quarters with both conspecifics and others, really quite mild for a cichlid. On a more academic note, they are one of very few cichlid species outside of the African rift lakes that rasp algae off of surfaces, primarily subsisting off of filamentous algae and the various crunchy things that live in algae like that (not shrimp safe, in case you were wondering). Of course, "central America"isn't a place, so to speak, so for our purposes here, we're talking about the lower floodplain sections of the Rio Patuca, in Honduras - specifically that very wibbly-wobbly stretch of river that Ahuas is in the middle of. The water is mostly hard (7.5 pH with quite a high alkalinity and general dissolved stuff level). It is here that we find rainbows. And so, we set about hunting some insta-inspo for aquarium ideas. Here we go, the fairest Patuca: etc... mmm... brown. And beautifully murky. Ok, so there won't be gorgeous underwater shots of natural scenes, because you can't see much in the turbid waters. Luckily, rainbows won't actually care if the water is clear, so that's ok... and no one will yell too much if my biotope is something you can see into, either. ...strike one for biotope, I guess? Milky tea aside, what does it look like under there? Lots of roots and other wood from the surrounding forest, of a HUGE variety of species, and some plants in the shallower bits - which is also the rainbow infested bits, so score! Which plants specifically? Well, cabomba - that's easy enough. Valisneria, including americanus, spiralis and gigantea - another familiar plant. So far so good. And a few select species of sword plant, specifically: Echinodorus parviflorus (buce!) Echinodorus bleheri (stemmy smaller than buce? Still, something I can find! - foreground shrubbery yeah baby) Echinodorus bolivianus (gorgeous, never seen it anywhere myself. Grassy) Echinodorus cordifolius (spade leaf sword, another I already had in the house at the time) and then Limnobium - frogbit, which is on the blacklist, so no. and Myriophyllum - water milfoil, also a naughty species. These all grow variously semi-emersed, which would suggest a lidless aquarium with some space for stuff to sprawl out of, maybe even a mangrove growing up and out ... sounds nice! ... let's put a pin in this for a moment. Tankmates! Rainbows do not live all alone in their muddy wonderland - swordtails and some select species of ancistrus also make their home here. A few species of tetra as well, of the genus Hyphessobrycon have occasionally been reported, but this is unusual and a bit disputed (and involves species not generally available in SA, so that works out). And hereabouts we return to our pinned scape-thoughts ... swords jump. They love to jump. They leap like nobody's business. And cichlids chasing each other when they feel rowdy also jump... so no. There will be no open-top here. Strike two for biotope - the plants will have to be submerged, since I do not have the sheer depth of glass to safely house swords without a "no! bad fish! Stay in the water that you need to stay alive!". So far, though, this is all astonishingly doable. One of the easier biotopes, for sure! If you're ok with compromising on turbid water. And ok with compromising on semi-emersion. The third compromise is actually keeping leaf-litter covered mud. Not the leaf litter, that's fine, very doable, but the mud. You can have mud, but you safely cap it underneath a layer of sand or gravel, so you can actually see your fish. Only half way there - and not suitable if you have digging fish (these are, generally, not). Luckily, where there is sand, it's a fairly coarse grained pale silica... looks just like pool-filter sand. Hehe. Strike three here was my choice of wood - mopani. Terminally not a rainforest wood. Not even the right continent. Or environment. But it will do? We'll hide it behind the plants Oh no. As many hits as misses, as many wins as failures. I guess I'll stick to "biotope-ish"
Lovely write up, it's great to see someone so invested in their biotopes! They certainly pose an interesting challenge to fishkeepers and honestly seems like one of the most enjoyable tank types to do. It's also great to see CA cichlids be recognised for the more alkaline species they are, there is more to the Americas than blackwater! One day when I am big and have some money I would love to do a local stream biotope with captive bred redfins or other Cape stream fishes, as well as a proper West African tank with my favourite senegal bichirs and some African knives. Even a small marginal bank of a stream with Caridina nilotica would be a start. Do you have any other biotopes in mind?
This is a big sword actually, with broad leaves. I have one in the jungle tank (pic attached) but I’ve given it a big trim so it looks polite at the moment I loved reading through this and learning something about rainbow cichlids! Score that they like your hard water.
uh. Opening Pandora's box here. I'm allowed ONE 3ft aquarium, so for the time being, no. In magical future land where I may set up an aquarium again (I may or may not be grooming my child into the hobby, and the hot minute she wants an aquarium of her own I'll find away to pass on the 3-footer to her and make this happen) I dream of frontosa. A big aquarium, at the 2m mark, nice and deep and nice and tall, 1000 liters or so, and a big-ass sump underneath. A proper sump, one you could keep an arowana in if it wasn't a sump. With a 3d background that looks like ... Well Like this Maybe with one or two species-appropriate anubias. Maybe with some dolphins. And absolutely with some spotty catfish. A school of synodontis multipunctatis. I'll find someone who breeds Burundi frontosa and get an F1 or near-there flock. Grow them up right, slowly, until they are the magnificent beasts that they should be. ... ah, what a sight that will be. Dreamland, that.
oh, that looks great! Mine is to the front left corner and has never grown much beyond a 15cm square - which is just perfect for my setup, though I feel a little guilty about clearly stunting it in some way!
