Borneo Biotope / Tiger Barb species tank

[aquaforester]

Hello all! I am kind of new to the whole aquarium thing. I have worked in a pet shop, and one of my duties was to clean and maintain all of the fish tanks. I did quite a bit of research while working there, and now I am looking to start my own aquarium. I think I will be doing a Tiger Barb species tank, but it might become a Borneo Biotope. In any case, I am having some trouble finding the right kind of plant to put into this aquarium. I have thought about Borneo Sword, but I have read a lot of articles stating that it is really more of a semi-aquatic plant and will not do well when totally submerged. I also thought of java fern, but I don't really want to deal with a plant that I will pretty much have to prune every other day. Does anyone have any suggestions on good plants from Borneo that I could use in this aquarium? Thanks for the help. And if anyone has any cheep aquarium equipment for a newbie, let me know

[reflexhunter]

Hi, and welcome to the forum!

Some one will chime in here and let you know what plants to look for, there are a lot of very helpful folks here as you will find out, just starting my first planted tank so I'm really not a lot of help there lol.

As far as equipment, you might want to give a list of things you need, might help out a bit. gl

[Dean Hougen]

Welcome! Glad to have you here.

A Borneo biotope is a really cool idea. Regarding plants, in my experience, java fern doesn't grow particularly quickly. It doesn't grow particularly slowly, either, but I've never known anyone who needed to trim it all that often. However, as you get excess java fern plants, you can sell them at our club auctions. They generally go for pretty good money.


Dean

[herpchat]

Various Crypts come from Borneo but if doing a Borneo Biotype there are so many more fish more interesting then tiger barbs, which brings up what part of Borneo, its habitat has a good variety of organisms.

[snakeskinner]

welcome.. I wish there was a place on the web that had things setup in bio-topes. I've tried many times to attempt and put some sort of bio-tope like tank, at least with the fish, but there's just not much info out there without doing a ton of research.

I am with Dean about the java ferns, they don't really grow real fast, they do multiply over a moderate time and you can easily snip the excess off and sell them without a problem. I've never seen a java fern go without a bid at an auction. Kyle

[aquaforester]

Dean and Kyle - Thanks for the java fern idea. It sounds like it will work pretty well for me. I have been looking into it a little more this week and I like the way it looks in the tank. Where can I get a good supply of this? I live in Stillwater, and the only store that I know of here is Petco, which in my opinion has some pretty poor quality plants.

Herpchat - I was going to go with Tiger Barbs because I am, like I said, fairly new to this and looking for something to help me get started. Tiger Barbs are, in my opinion, quite interesting for a beginner fish. If you don't think that they are a great pick, then feel free to help me find one that you feel is more suitable for me.

Mike

[misplacedsooner]

there may be some at the spring fling in tulsa next weekend. im in stillwater too so if you ever want to go to an okc or tulsa meeting holler at me and you can ride with us. we have stillwater meetings also but usually not alot of plants at ours.

[reflexhunter]

try this site, I believe I saw some for sale here.

http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/sale-trade/

[snakeskinner]

not sure if I have any extra at the moment but I would say come to the spring fling like Mike said and if there aren't any there, you can surely hit up one of our supporting stores and pick some up there in Tulsa before you go home. Java Fern is fairly common so anyone keeping plants will likely have some.

Tiger barbs are a great choice so long as the setup is adequate. Tiger barbs have a reputation for being nippy. The way to curtail this is in numbers which requires some space. how big of a tank are you talking? anything 29 and over would be good for a school of about 6-8 tiger barbs longterm. You can also mix and match any of the tiger barb varieties from the standards, green's, albino's and there's been some new powder blue's I've seen. They also mix well with Odessa and Rosey Barbs (including their varieties). Black Ruby barbs will usually go good too as long as the space and numbers are good because tigers will push them around if they are cramped. These types of barbs like "volume of space" versus deep or length. I have a 36 bowfront corner tank that is deep and wide so there is a lot of open space. they loved to swirl around in a group chasing eachother. I've also mixed in giant danio's and other larger danio species that do well. Kyle

[aquaforester]

Unfortunately I am going to be out of town this weekend so I won't be able to make it to the spring fling, although I wish I could. Mike, when you get a meeting set for Stillwater, I will plan to come to that.

I am looking for this tank to be somewhere between 30 and 55 gallons, depending on what I can afford. As far as supplies go, I am literally starting from scratch. This will be the first tank I have ever had (other than I think a 10 gallon when I was about 8). I will need anything and everything people can give me for a good price. I am a poor college student (GO POKES!, sorry Mike) so if you could keep your eyes peeled for some good deals, I would really appreciate it.

Thanks for the help everyone!
Mike