window tank plants

Some belated pictures. Hygro or whatever-it-is looking golden in the sunlight- recently cut and replanted some of those stems.

I'm glad I moved the moss rock back a bit, put the crypt becketti behind it, and planted a row of buce 'green wavy' in front. It's one of the nicer spots in the tank now.

Fissidens on the rock is finally big enough to get a decent photo-

Anubias 'pangolino' on the other rock-

I just cut out all these brown stems of the parrot's feather, leaving a bit trailing in on top from above, and a short piece sticking out of the substrate on a few, that are already growing out ferny wisps.

Still have some stems of mermaid weed and ludwigia arcuata (on left). Wish there was more of those, but it grows rather slowly.

Buces still do pretty well for me in here:

The dwarf echinodorus continues to look better in this tank, it doesn't seem to mind the chill so far.

window tank plant report

Yesterday I changed something in the paradise fish tank so I took a lot of pictures. I had this chunk of mopani wood in a corner that was really too big for the space, and an anubias I'd taken out of the betta tank weeks ago- it was getting too large for the 10g. I sawed the mopani into several smaller pieces- ended up with two medium and a bunch small. Onto one I tied the large anubias- it neatly hides the sponge filter in that corner. I figure anubias will do better here than those crypts which melted few weeks ago. Could be from how the light changes, where it angles to hit this end of the tank during different seasons. I'd rather have to remove some anubias leaves that get algae once in a while, than deal with crypt melt and wait to regrow over and over.

Here's a picture of that anubias from the front- and there's the crypts in foreground still trying to grow back.

This is my younger crypt moehlmanii- wow has it grown.

A row of random buces. I keep sticking buces in here, that come loose from tethers in the angelfish tank. There's a 'green wavy' front left that a snail has been chewing on, a bunch of 'brownie ghost' behind (I think), a few round-leaved 'emerald green'.

In front of the newly-sized driftwood chunk I put that anubias on, a few buce 'selena'. And the crypt willisii of course.

Another buce 'green wavy' on the other side of the tank. I ought to regroup them by type someday.

Anubias congensis on the other short end- this one is really chewed on. Some of my snails are hungry? Maybe I have too many trumpet snails in here, they aren't finding enough leftovers or algae to eat off the glass? could be time to cull snails.

I finally gave in to ferts. Had firm idea early on, I wouldn't dose this tank, just grow what can manage off the fish waste. Not any more- tucked half a root tab under these vals and finally they are showing some progress. (The anubias congensis is next to them, maybe you also noticed in the previous pic it's putting out a new leaf too)

The other medium-sized driftwood piece, I tied some windelov ferns onto it. Kind of rearranged all the windelov.

Here's more- that have their roots clinging to substrate or a rock- off to the side of the mopani piece. They never look too good in this tank, maybe someday I'll decide to move them all out and just have in here the plants that do well . . .

On the even smaller pieces of wood (that broke off while I was working at it with the saw) I tied some bolbitis fern. There were rhizomes growing off the main clump on the driftwood, and some scattered here and there on the tank floor. Here's one of the new bunches on small wood- middle of this photo in the back, between the two ludwigia arcuata stems.

Another piece with bolbitis tied on is behind this crypt moehlmanii.

Surprise- my tiny bit of anubias pangolino appears to be growing. It's on the dragon stone behind this clump of crypt becketti.

Another happy surprise- the fissidens I tied onto another dragon stone behind the other crypt becketti cluster- is also growing out! (couldn't quite get the camera to focus on it)

there's some on each end of the rock- here's the other side:

I've found that the elodea pieces that came loose and float, do so much better here than the ones I had stuck in the substrate. So (like hornwort in the angel tank) I let them all do that:

I'm wondering if I should just give up on the crinum. Mine keeps growing new strappy leaves, and stays green, but the leaves never grow out long, they always break off. So doesn't seem to be doing so well. Maybe the substrate is too shallow for it.

Side view of my ludwigia (or is it hygro?) stems - photo isn't that great, but you can see how they've grown! I cut and replanted tops again.

Side view looking down long through the tank- crypts becketti on left, flanked by the dragon stone, windelov fern in front, stems on the right (which is the rear of the tank), bolbitis fern just visible in background. More upcoming . . .

tanks update

I haven't had time to take and upload photos, but here's a bit of update. My betta still has popeye, on one side only. I gave him several epsom salt baths, no change. I increased water changes on his tank, and was more careful about cleaning out food he didn't eat. His appetite has come back and he is not as lethargic, but still spends lots of time resting in a sheltered spot under edge of windelov driftwood, or hiding behind the anubias. I don't know if he will ever recover from the damage of going through the tank cycle, sigh.

I had two groups of black skirt tetras going through quarantine. It was almost two weeks, then up came a family vacation (bad timing on my part, I shouldn't have got new fish so close to a trip). One group of tetras looked great, I put them in the angelfish tank. Other group had signs of ich and fungus. I returned those to the store. Came home from trip and the tetras in the angel tank look well- good color, alert, super eager to eat. But on closer inspection a few of them had specks of ich on fins. Either they had it and my QT wasn't long enough, or I somehow cross-contaminated even though I use different siphon hose for each tank, and wash hands between. Dang. Angelfish doesn't show spots but yesterday was definitely looking irritated and flashing, scraping on stuff. Looks like it's in her gills. I have to order meds online- the stores don't carry much anymore. Meanwhile am raising the temperature- it's 82° now and so far all the fishes doing fine with that- and doing a 50% water change every other day- glad of the bare bottom, hoping I can physically remove a lot of it.

My shrimp bowl is fine. While I was gone, instead of eating some older anubias leaves mottled with algae I had clipped off and left drifting, the shrimps picked apart the elodea stems. I removed what was left of that. Buces and mermaid weed are doing great in here, the flame moss I tried tying onto a rock all turned yellow and looks dead.

Paradise fish is doing great. Tank is nice and green with summer. I replaced some of the older sweet potato vines on the back with new cuttings. For some reason smaller crypts on the left of the tank are doing poorly- had a lot of leaves turn white and melt. Also the crinum is looking sad (no new growth, tips dying off on older leaves), and salvinia minima floaters have a lot of dieoff. I don't know if all this is from only having one fish in the tank instead of two now- less food input so less plant nutrients? or something else. Flame moss died in here too, but the fissidens remaining on the mesh is looking great. I'm hoping to move some of that onto a rock soon. A lot of the vals have died off too, but the few left are finally growing taller and I hope they send out some runners.

the shrimp bowl plants

The bowl has a different look. I added some buces, 

the mermaid weed is growing new foliage steadily, 

the hornwort melted away and I replaced it with greater duckweed (spirodela polyrhiza). 

I tied some flame moss onto the large pinkish rock in the middle- tightly with many small rubber bands going criss-cross. So far the shrimps- busy picking at it constantly- have not dislodged this like they did the fissidens off the mesh. So I'm eager to see if the flame moss grows out in here okay.

shrimps rearranging

Already my shrimp bowl looks different. They've shuffled through the subwassertang enough times, it's spread across the bottom now instead of tucked into corners. Which I expected would happen.

They swarmed the moss patch. I thought this was amusing at first.

But then I realized they were pulling the moss off the mesh. I took it out and dropped into the window tank to grow out, instead. Now there's bits of fissidens scattered around the shrimp bowl, fallen into gaps between the rocks, mixed into the subwassertang. I'll never get it all out unless I remove everything. Or wait until it grows out enough to be visible, then retie somewhere else if I want.

a few new tank plants

The other day I received plant package in the mail- Hydrocotyle leucocephala aka brazilian pennywort

which I put in my angelfish tank as a floater- right now still a mess-

and Mermaid weed- one I have wanted to try for a very long time- the foliage is pretty- but I'm not sure if it will continue to look so nice when adjusted to my tank, I don't run high lights or C02 like the seller did- species name is Proserpinaca palustris

the stems were a bit bent from the package, but very long so immediately I wanted their height in my angelfish tank. I anchored the longest stem to a small mesh bag of sintered glass media -

and a shorter one to a small piece of driftwood. Already the plant is taller than my tallest elodea- even though the top is still bent over

I really like the fringed, toothy edges of the leaves-

Put a smaller piece in my shrimp bowl too, and one in the window tank.

Also received a mesh square of fissidens moss, which I dropped into the shrimp tank, it needs to grow out some before I can try using any to tie onto rocks (unless I want to undo the ties and take it all apart). The shrimps were immediately all over the mesh, not interested in inspecting the mermaid weed at all!

some small things

moss trim from the window tank

I've already sold this little jarful on the planted tank forum (well, for just the cost of shipping really)

Here's a rough photo I took just before I cut it all down- it was getting long and tangly

Nobody seems to want the riccia, however. It is starting to fill up the other small jar. I find it does better if I keep it out of brighter direct light, although it is nice to see the pearling once in a while. More light and it constantly gets diatoms or some kind of brown algae collecting on the bottom. I rinse it out weekly and replenish with lean tank water (from the window tank)