#617: 35L Biotope Aquascape Malaysian slow stream

Alessandro Camillo Di Stefano Fossacesia, Italy

Awards and Comments

Third Place
Nice biotope for your gouramis! I'm not sure that Microsorum species are found in the blackwater biotopes where Trichopsis pumila is located.
— Bailin Shaw
Density driftwoods and floating aquatic plants of this layout link viewers to underwater life in real floating land by very nature way
— Long Tran Hoang

Aquascape Details

Dimensions 50 × 25 × 30 cm
Title Malaysian slow stream
Volume 35L
Lighting 8 Watt 4000K
Filtration Eden 501 with granu-peat and biological filtration
Plants Microsorum sp.,Salvinia sp.
Animals Trichopsis pumila (J.P.Arnold, 1936)
Materials Leaf litter and peat,sand,driftwood roots and branches.

Additional Information This aquarium has been designed to accommodate a group of Trichopsis pumila in a slow stream with large presence of floating plants that capture the faint light that can pass through the trees and a few ferns that can grow with little lighting.
This species is found in rivers from the slow flow and low light, in marshes and swamps.
Pygmy gourami has a tapered body gray with green reflexes and two broken lines of brown spots. Between the brown spots are many small blue spots. The fins are edged with red and have small brown circular spots.The pelvic fins are transformed into long filaments. Under the right light the eyes take on the typical blue color.
As others Trichopsis the fish has a particular organ of breathing, called the labyrinth, allowing him to breathe moist air above the water surface.The pygmy gourami makes a sound like croaking, especially when in love, audible outside the aquarium.
The filtering is undersized and the water almost stagnant.
In the wild they feed on insects and other small invertebrates. In aquarium they eat chironomus (white, black and red), mosquito larvae that gather in nature, grindal, frozen brine shrimp and nauplii, cyclops and microworms.Water changes at 10% were undertaken weekly with tap water decanted and osmotic water treated with peat and catappa extract.
Spawning takes place with the construction of the bubble nest by the male under a broad leaf, and you usually not tolerate the female in the vicinity until it's complete.
Spawning normally take place under the nest in an 'embrace' typical of osphronemids, with the male wrapping himself around the female. I always left the eggs in the aquarium and the fry remain hanging from the nest 2-3 days until the yolk sac is fully-absorbed, Constantly guarded by the male.
Afterwards I feed them infusoria.
pH 5.50 ,conductivity 86 μS/cm
temperature 21°C-28°C
Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdmEdWmktQg ---
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ce3jQQrkNgA

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