After work today, I decided to take the dogs on some trails near my house that follow along the Middle Patuxent River. I like these trails because they’re not paved, and once you get on them, you rarely see anyone else along the way. You can still hear some of the traffic from the major highways surrounding the area, but for the most part, you have the illusion that you’re lost in nature.

Today, I was fortunate to see 6-7 deer out on the trails. They didn’t stick around long enough for me to take their picture, but they are quite magnificent creatures, especially the males with their large antlers. I’m not sure what the true rating of cleanliness for this river is, but I’m often encouraged when I see several frogs, water bugs, and freshwater asiatic clams in the riverbed. Of course, the clams themselves are introduced, but that’s for someone else to worry about.

The aquatic vegetation is not very rich in this waterway. I suspect that is due to a combination of too much shade, and too little still water to allow plants to get rooted. I have spotted what appears to be a species of Polygonum, both in the water and along the banks, but little else of interest. Nevertheless, it really is a beautiful river that I enjoy visiting. I hope you enjoy the pictures as well.

I wanted to post an updated picture of my 54G, anubias, java fern, and crypt tank. I’ve really let this tank go wild, partly because I like that look in some tanks, but largely because I’m gearing up to really downgrade the maintenance requirements for some of my tanks. That means that I’m going to go back to tanks that are largely free of stem plants requiring frequent trimming. So, at the past few GWAPA meetings, I’ve tried to stock up on crypts, and guess where they’ve been going to grow out?

The anubias in this tank may not be pristine, but they’re actually looking pretty good. I have four separate plants flowering right now, so that’s never a bad sign. Just as a reminder, this tank does not use CO2 (infact I run an airstone), and I only occasionally add a few milliliters of my own PMDD mix of trace, K, and P. I figure the fish provide enough N. Finally, it’s a corner, rounded front tank, so the pictures never truly reflect how it looks. The curve in the glass seems to distort the picture, removing a lot of the depth that’s in the tank. Comments are welcome.

On Saturday, GWAPA had its August 2007 meeting out in Braddock Heights, MD at Robert’s house. Robert maintains two circulating ranges in his fish room, which means that he has multiple tanks chained together creating a much larger shared water volume than if each tank were separate. The plumbing involved with this is very impressive, and a little chaotic, if you don’t know what you’re looking at. Robert did an excellent job dispelling some of the mystery during his talk. You can find a summary of his talk on GWAPA’s website.

Part of Robert’s setup is a prominently displayed Crinum veggie-filter. The water is circulated through this tank, where huge Crinum root-balls suck up nitrate from the water. With so many siphons and pumps, it’s impossible to use CO2 injection, but nevertheless, Robert maintains some very nice low-tech tanks with anubias, val, java fern, etc… He also sports one of, if not, the oldest American colonies of Melanotaenia praecox dwarf neon rainbows, being one of the first purchasers of females in the United States from Germany.

And beyond that, our meeting had another great mini-auction, including many rare plants, and even a few aquarium setups this time. I was happy to be able to give away a few copies of The Aquatic Gardener (TAG), featuring my very first published cover image and article about GWAPA’s recent Florida collecting trip.

Along with the Ludwigia that’s flowering, my Limnophila aromatica has been flowering for almost a month now outside in my pond. Each stem sends out a number of flower buds at each node. Then, the buds open to reveal these pretty little purple flowers. The flowers themselves are only about 3/4″ long and about 1/3″ from petal to petal, with the tiny little hairs that you can see in the picture. I often see some of the smaller bees visiting these flowers.

While in Peru, the pond foliage has absolutely exploded in quantity. The frog bite has claimed 100% of the water surface, while what I think is Ludwigia brevipes is creeping along the edge of the pond. Much to my delight, it is also flowering with these pretty little yellow flowers.

The flowers themselves seem quite delicate and don’t last more than a day or two, especially with the rain we’ve been having the past couple of days. To give you an idea, these flowers are probably smaller than a U.S. dime in size. I’ve never had a Ludwigia flower underwater, so I’m quite pleased to be able to see it emersed. I hope you enjoy the photos.