The northern tropical areas are not really forested areas Julie, more like semi-desert. We have very few areas of tropical rain forest and losing precious hectares every day.The monsoonal deluges flood wide areas and watersheds tend to merge on the floodp
lains so many animals and plants have adapted to a boom/bust lifestyle. Many of the aquatic plants tend to be annual or at least have a resistant seed case to hang around for the next rains while the fish tend to spread out and then contract into the po
ols as the waters dry.I think the term is savannah for this kind of country.
During the wet season the roads are often impassable and there is a lot of water between the fish. In the areas such as south-eastern Queensland where I live there are a few nuice fish such as Honey Blue-eyes and Rhadinocentrus that live in acid swamps a
nd streams in the Wallum country. The soils are very sandy and of low organic fertility but contain a lot of peaty decomposed vegetation so during the rains these are leached into the surface waters - both of these fish are superb aquarium animals and ar
e easily maintained in water of moderate hardness and acidity e.g. to 150 -200 ppm but they show their best colour with some tannin added.
Bruce Hansen ANGFA