Fauna for a black water tank

[Bradders]

Yes, morpho tetra.

I did some reading on those fish.

Some suppliers mark them with a banner 'NOT BEGINNER FISH, ' and the reading shows that they can be fussy eaters and very territorial during mating season. Some of the notes also say that they need a line-of-sight divider as the males hold serious grudges!

 

[Conort2]

I did some reading on those fish.

Some suppliers mark them with a banner 'NOT BEGINNER FISH, ' and the reading shows that they can be fussy eaters and very territorial during mating season. Some of the notes also say that they need a line-of-sight divider as the males hold serious grudges!

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Mine have eaten dry food from the beginning. I haven’t noted them to be that territorial either, the males display to each other but that’s it really. I think they’re very delicate on import but once settled they’re quite hardy.

 

[Vardo]

I've always liked how ember tetra look in a blackwater set up, mine have always thrived in blackwater set ups. They have a strong schooling instinct and interact nicely with the hardscape streaming through roots and being active.

 

[JeffK]

Have you considered focussing on black water river systems and check gbif for suitable fish?

Also, Asia and West Africa have some interesting, smaller, blackwater fish.

 

[AlecF]

This is a relatively small tank so if you go for ember tetra then I'd suggest focussing on them, and getting more than 15, in smaller numbers I have found they can be reclusive and rather dull.

 

[LMuhlen]

Have you considered focussing on black water river systems and check gbif for suitable fish?

Also, Asia and West Africa have some interesting, smaller, blackwater fish.

I didn't know this gbif database. I tried searching for black water river fish, but the only ornamental fish result I got was the morpho tetra... But I'm probably not doing it right.

Overall, unless something changes, I'm set on the green neons and the corydora nijseni, since I now have a single one of it in quarantine... Tukanos are very likely to be included. So there could be room for a more reclusive species, such as the morpho tetra, but there isn't room for much more. But who knows, maybe in the future I may decide to change everything.

I started a journal, but things aren't going particularly well, the wood pieces are causing all sorts of damage to the water. Hopefully in a couple of weeks I get it to the point where I can start adding fishes.

 

[JeffK]

I didn't know this gbif database. I tried searching for black water river fish, but the only ornamental fish result I got was the morpho tetra... But I'm probably not doing it right.

Overall, unless something changes, I'm set on the green neons and the corydora nijseni, since I now have a single one of it in quarantine... Tukanos are very likely to be included. So there could be room for a more reclusive species, such as the morpho tetra, but there isn't room for much more. But who knows, maybe in the future I may decide to change everything.

I started a journal, but things aren't going particularly well, the wood pieces are causing all sorts of damage to the water. Hopefully in a couple of weeks I get it to the point where I can start adding fishes.

It's a really handy site once you get the hang of it.

Quick steps: 1) click on occurrences. 2) click on map and select the area you want to highlight. 3) on the left panel (search all fields) search for characiformes. 4) click on table to see which fish occur in the highlighted area.

There's also the other way around and simply fill in the fish name in the search bar as soon as you open gbif.org to check where they occur.

Poecilocharax weitzmani are an option, as long as you can keep to their demands.

Also, Apistogramma iniridae are a fantastic fish to keep, but quite hard to find and perhaps tricky in a smaller tank, especially with Corydoras.

True Copella nattereri are also very neat fish (but certainly need a lid).

This is based off a quick search in the same area as T. tucano. There's many more options, even outside South America. Boraras or Sundadanio species, for example, really stand out in blackwater tanks and can be kept in bigger numbers in smaller tanks.

 

[SamTheMan]

I just set up a 120 x 14T x 30cm rio negro tank, currently it has 7 checkerboards in there. they are very cool fish, like somewhere between a tetra and a personable apisto, I recommend them. Tank is on Instagram---sam_theaquascapecorner

 

[LMuhlen]

I have found a curious bit of information and thought that I'd share. It's a research made to compare the reaction to increased temperature and CO2 levels in cardinals and green neons, and look for the concentration of some protein associated with anaerobic energy generation in muscle tissue in them. It's in Portuguese, though. I can't speak for the scientific relevance of the study, and I certainly don't understand most of what the biology talk was about, but I found it was very interesting to see how the results show that cardinals are not prepared to face the increased CO2 and temperature conditions as well as the green neons.

https://repositorio.inpa.gov.br/bitstream/1/37558/1/tese_inpa.pdf

The idea was to see how these similar species react to the predicted changes for the environment in the Amazonian rain forest in 2100. In the worst case scenario, with water temperature at ~32ºC and CO2 concentration at ~33ppm, there was a mortality rate of 37% for the cardinals, while the control group had 13%. On the other hand, green neon mortality remains between 0 and 1% for all scenarios.