the thirty-eight

This one does not have much different in it. Except that I felt like having a different look, so thinned out how many hornwort stems are pegged to float at the surface, and anchored some down with stones again. Also I have been wondering for a while if small anubias would grow ok in the shade of the big crypt wendtii. So when I saw some in a gel packet at the store last week, I got them.

Anubias nana petite.

I keep feeling iffy about the crypt wendtii cluster. I love how big it is getting, and and the faint stripes- but I don't notice the 'hammered' effect anymore.

And overall I keep thinking they look too dark, they look rather brown, how can I keep them green? Especially how bright green the rotalas are coming up behind and through the crypt wendtii leaves, the contrast is too much.

I rather like how the narrow-leaved hygro looks in front of the aponogetons. Maybe I will eventually shift the rotalas to a different location, and have hygro flanking the crypt instead...

Speaking of hygros, they really are starting to look graceful. They grow kind of slowly, but that's okay.

Not as slow as the ludwigias- here kind of behind everything else.

The other, still unidentified crypts are getting taller.

The thicket of elodea and bacopa in the corner is so dense now, I can feed the kuhlis in there away from the other fishes (mostly). The barbs weave their way through those stems when they are spawning.

Still there are no results from that- not that I really expect any. But I did notice the other day they were spawning over a clump of subwassertang, and it looked like it was harder for the male to turn and eat the eggs immediately as they fell. Overall I'm pleased how nice and full these subwasesser 'bushes' on the baskets have gotten. I just wish the white netting didn't show.

Here's the other short end of my tank. It's getting nice and dense, but still the crypt wendti stands out so dark. Maybe I could add another medium-dark plant to soften the contrast, but I don't know what.

Some of the plants aren't doing so great- watersprite (behind the hornwort stems) for some reason isn't looking so good these past few weeks. Buces have a sudden outbreak of algae again. And even though some of my vallisneria are finally getting taller-

a lot of them are rotting away. The bases of them are turning brown. I thought they were planted too deeply and tugged them up higher out of the substrate, like I periodically do with my crypts, but now others aren't holding down at all. I'm starting to think maybe I will phase out my vals and find some tall, narrow-leaved crypts to take their place. That won't spread as rapidly, either...

Last of all I'm showing my windelov ferns in this tank. I'm glad I put them in the front, they're starting to look pretty.

It's hard to remember they used to be just a few tiny sprigs tied onto each stone.

Low-angled shot of them.