Stocking Ideas Please

No worries Sunshine. Are you still considering a biotope? If you are and fancy something a bit differed, check out hatchetfish. My personal favourite is the marbled variety (Carnegiella strigata). These guys stick to the surface of the water like glue and are perfect tank mates for tetra and corydoras.

If your checking out plants, the Tropica http://tropica.com/en website is really good and lets you search by difficulty, position and of course origin!

Hope it's not for anything too serious. There's been lots of research to show the benefits of fish to health, so hopefully the new tank will help your recovery!

I made a couple of coconut caves but my x-ray tetra don't go in them. My platies and honey gourami enjoy popping in from time to time though. The x-rays do love my bogwood and wish I'd bought a bigger piece.

Hatchets are supposed to be great jumpers, but a lid should solve that problem! You may have to try another fish store as I've found P@H to have a limited variety of fish. I'm also not blown away by the health of the fish I bought there, but I guess that's dependent on the staff at the store so yours could be fine. My LFS regularly have green neons, but if they don't they are always happy to order any fish (though I've never taken them up on the offer).

I really wish I could convince my wife that a second tank is a good idea but I have no chance... however, I am retraining as a teacher and may be able to set up a biotope tank in my classroom as a science project!

I can vouch for the benefit of having fish while recuperating from lower limb surgery. Great to be able to watch them and get focused in on their little world - as well as the additional company aspect. I'm also scheduled to have more surgery in a few weeks' time, which is why I've got my third and final shoal, in order that the aquatic family is complete in advance  .

Same to you, Sunshine!

Sounds fantastic Cod - sure (most) of the children would be interested ....there's always one or two who would need persuading.  Remind me not to tell you of the frogspawn story.       Just wondering about funding - hopefully you wouldn't have to pay for it all?   

Anyway, set up my new tank today as a S.American biotope.  I didn't choose a specific example e.g. blackwater, etc - it's just general.  I'll start testing the water tomorrow.

Plants:
Myriophyllum mattogrossense, Christmas moss, Staurogyne rubescens, Heteranthera zosterifolia, Echinodorus bleheri and Bacopa australis.  I checked they are all found in S. America. Apparently australis means its from the tropics & not from Australia.     Looking forward to seeing them grow!

I am a bit concerned about those slits in the black corner (top & bottom).  I lost 2 embers in my 23l filter so definitely need to block those slits up - not sure how tho'.  Any suggestions? 

Thanks for all your advice.  Sure I'll have lots more questions as time goes by.   

If you paint the back of the tank a matt black that filter will vanish!

I've just done this on my tank (actually I used foam-backed black card, so I can change it in future if i want - but the effect is the same - a barely visible filter)

Re blocking the slits in the back corner, Sanjo will hopefully be able to advise on that - she seems to be quite creative with that sort of thing.