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Ok so I have to ask, what is the difference in the different ecosystems. I mean some of my fish come from streams, some from rivers & some from swamps. Now I know a swamp is a very slow moving densely planted area but aren't both streams and rivers faster moving waters with only alittle plant life. I ask because some of my fish don't seem to like the current from my HOB were others do seem to like it. I have the HOB as low as it will go and it doesn't seem to be enough for some of them. Can anyone explain the differences in the different ecosystems found in the fish profiles, like the water flows, plants, rock/gravel types ect. Thanks

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Well a River and a Stream are very alike but a river is just faster moving with minimum plant life ( plants will tend to grow near the banks where the water is slower ) and there is mainly large to medium rocks that have been rounded do you errosion. A stream has more plant life streching into the middle of the water to the banks. It has small to medium pebbles and areas of sand where the water flow slows up a bit. What type of fish do you have?

Ah, the vexed question of biotope simulation.

'Stream' and 'river' are overlapping in some respects - a large stream and a small river can, in some circumstances, look alike. I suspect that the term 'river' has more to do with navigability by commercial shipping than ecology!

Plus, streams can have a tremendous variation in flow rate. A stream that is located deep in a rainforest may be slow flowing, but a stream that is cascading down a mountainside has a MUCH faster flow rate - this is the kind of habitat in which Hillstream Loaches of the Family Balitoridae are found, and keeping these fishes in a suitable aquarium involves keeping them cool and maintaining a fast flow rat in the aquarium. Labyrinth fishes that are listed as being found in streams, on the other hand, hail from much more slowly flowing waters, and require warmer, calmer water with a good furnishing of higher aquatic plant life of the kind found in such places (so Cryptocoryne species and the like are de rigeur for a Labyrinth Fish aquarium).

Of course, at the extremes, one finds some interesting features. The Amazon is a rich seam of gold for people hunting for superlatives, but the thing to remember about the Amazon is that it is in fact a river system, the main river itself being fed by something like 16 tributaries that are themselves enormous rivers exceeding 1,000 miles in length, draining an area of something like 40 million square miles! What you have in this case is a truly colossal network of watercourses through which a vast quantity of water flows - no less than twenty per cent of the entire world's fresh water flows through the Amazon! The Amazon proper (as marked on maps) is so huge that ocean-going steamships can sail up it right the way to Manaus in Brazil, 2,000 miles inland, and at least 500 miles of the Amazon is wide enough and deep enough to be navigable by Nimitz-class nuclear supercarriers! I don't think anyone would have trouble describing that as a 'river', but toward the delta of the Amazon, which pours fresh water into the Atlantic Ocean, it's so wide that on one shore, you can't see the other, and the shorelines start to resemble sea coasts visually simply because the river is so wide. Another amazing fact, incidentally, is that the Amazon pushes so much fresh water into the Atlantic, and at such a rate, that the salinity of the ocean is vastly reduced until you get at least 100 miles offshore ... Wikipedia has some facts and figures on this.


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Thanks for the info. My main reason for asking is I want to try and keep my fish happy.

The different types of fish I have are listed below. They are not all in 1 tank.

Male Guppy -1
Cherry Barbs - 4
Gold Barbs - 4
Pepper Cories - 6
Pristella Tetras - 4
Painted Glassfish - 1
Bleeding Hearts - 2
Harlequin Rasbora - 6

I have a 10g and a 20g tank but am thinking about getting a 20g L to replace the 10g. I will most likely be moving some fish around if I get the 20L so if you wanted you could give your input as to how you would move them around. Thanks

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Well if you get the 20L haha, i would do this:
20g: Male guppy, cherry barbs, glassfish, in there
20g L: rasboras, either beef up your school of bleeding hearts, or get rid of them and get more pristellas, and get your gold barbs and the corys... if you kind of get the jist of where i am going

72 gallon bowfront:Tanganyikan Lake set up
75 gallon: A. Baenschi trio,Cyanotilapia Afra Cobwe(4), copadichromis trewavase, protomelas sp. tangerine tiger(breeding pair)

I was thinking about the same for the setup of the tanks. I was thinking about getting 2 more Gold Barbs though.

I was talking to you tonight at the Pet shop, so I may stop down and get a few more Bleeding hearts from there if or when I get the new tank setup. Do you think a 20g L or a 35g would be better? I can get either with a hood for about the same price. I was just looking at what would give more swimming room for the fish.

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More the merrier, go for the 35. A larger volume of water will be a more stable, less e to environmental changes, and, of course, bigger!!

funny as it may be....Bigger is better in the world of owning aquariums! If you can do it, I would go with a larger tank

72 gallon bowfront:Tanganyikan Lake set up
75 gallon: A. Baenschi trio,Cyanotilapia Afra Cobwe(4), copadichromis trewavase, protomelas sp. tangerine tiger(breeding pair)

Well I ended up going with the 20L. I was wrong about the price and the 35g was about $30 more and I just didn't have it. I also was worried as to how much my stand would hold as it is not made for fish tanks. I went ahead and set it up and put 2 HOB filters on for the time being. It does look alittle bare at the moment though as I only have 7 small fish in it now. I will move some over from my other 20 in the next few day to even them out. I think I will move my Gold Barbs and my Raboras to the 20L and then put the Bleeding hearts in the 20H. I will then go get a few more bleeding hearts to add also. This will put about 15 in each tank. After all is said below is what the tanks will look like...

20H
6 Pepper Cories
4 Pristella Tetras
4 Bleeding Heart Tetras
1 Painted Glassfish

20L
1 Fancy Male Guppy
4 Gold Barbs
4 Cherry Barbs
6 Harlequin Rasbora

I may add 2 more Gold Barbs to the 20L. So do you think this will be a good mix. The 20L will have some current from the HOB filters and the 20H has only alittle as I am using the RUGF with 2 Penguin 660R units.

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Live life to it's fullest
Who knows what tomorrow holds

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