Mejuda river. Shallow river bank with still water near Gori, Georgia

95th place in Biotope Aquarium Design Contest 2017

Georgia Georgia. Giorgi Khizanishvili

Volume: 100 L
Dimensions: 65x44x35 cm
List of fishes: Alburnoides bipunctatus, Lymnaea peregra
List of plants: N/A
Description of decorations: Salix sp. & Alnus inca branches, fine gravel directly from the Mejuda river covered with Alnus inca leaves.
Description of equipment: Filter RS Electrical RS 702 QMAX 1500L/H 18W, Incandescent lamp 100 Wt.
Water parameters: Water temperature is 24°C, ph is 7.6

Description of the area surrounding the biotope: The Mejuda River originates on the western slope of the Kharuli rigde at an altitude of about 1940 meters and flows into the Liakhvi River near town Gori, flowing along the picturesque mountainous places, mainly named after the river – Mejvriskhevi, Mejudispiri, Little Mejvriskhevi. In total, the length of the river is 46 km, and the area of the basin – 651 km ². Mejuda itself has no tributaries, it is fed by melted mountain water and groundwater.

Description of the underwater landscape of the biotope: Mejuda is a river with slow current. Starting from the mountainous terrain before falling into the Liakhvi river, it passes mainly sandy places. The bottom of the river is mainly covered with gravel of medium and fine granularity, but in some places you may see large stones and rocks up to 18 cm in length covered with algal bloom. In spring, the river becomes full, the current gathers speed and distributes stones and soil along the bottom. In some places the current plays the role of a kind of sieve.

Description of the parameters of the habitat: Most time of the year, the water is Mejuda is  transparent, except spring time, when it becomes swollen because of hard rains and usually floods surrounding areas. The average water temperature during the year is 17 °C, in  winter it doesn’t go below 9 °C, while in summer not higher than 26 °C. pH is constantly 7.6 and doesn’t depend on seasons, because there are no large tributaries feeding the river. Feeding sources are represented by seasonal precipitation and underground streams, constantly feeding the river during whole year.

List of fishes: Alburnoides  bipunctatus,  Cobitis  aurata, Gobio gobio, Barbus mursa, Lymnaea peregra, Ephemeroptera and Plecoptera larvae,  Gammarus sp.

List of plants: N/A.

Sources of information: https://ka.wikipedia.org/wiki/მეჯუდა, I have also received information from personal observation