At a small waterhole, somewhere in the virgin forests of Sierra Leone, a lot of small insects are bustling about on the water surface. It’s a perfect place for small predators, lurking under water for their prey. The sunken leaves have made the water slightly coloured but it is still clear. Tree stumps rise above the water.
Nowadays it’s no longer a problem to reproduce this picture inside an aquarium. Using a standard complete kit with a mere 70 cm edge length Benjamin Hamann set up this biotope for the Hannover Scape Contest 2016.
This is what the artist Benjamin Hamann The Biotope says about his work:
“This aquarium represents a part of a biotope of a small jungle stream in Sierra Leone. Typical for this habitat is the diversified underwater flora which provides shelter, a hunting ground and a breeding place for the indigenous fish species. Thus, for example, the six-barred panchax and the freshwater butterflyfish have specialised in flying food and water insects and they prey on these above the water surface between the aquatic plants.”
Plant list (Tropica Aquarium Plants)
- Bolbitis heudelotii
- Cyperus helferi
- Eleocharis parvula
- Nesaea crassicaulis
- Nymphea lotus
- Salvinia natans
Recommendation for fish stock
- Anomalochromis thomasi
- Pantodon buchholzi
- Epiplatys dageti
Bottom/decoration material
cork branches, beech leaves, small stones
CO2 supply
20 bubbles per minute (24 hours per day) with JBL PROFLORA u401
Abonado
2ml every 2 days JBL PROSCAPE Fe +MICROELEMENTS
2ml every 3 days JBL PROSCAPE NPK MACROELEMENTS
Time needed
per day: 10 minutes (feeding and checking)
per week: 1.5 hours (weekly water change 50 percent, plant care)
Parámetros del agua
water temperature: 24 to 28 °C
pH value: 6 to 6.5
general hardness: 5 °dGH
carbonate hardness: 2 °dKH
