Yesterday, GWAPA held their February meeting down in Vienna, VA at Rick & Mary’s home. I had been preparing for this meeting for the last couple weeks because I gave the meeting’s presentation on Algae in the Planted Aquarium. I thought the presentation was pretty well received, and I hope the members in attendance felt the same way.

Rick and Mary had two tanks on display, a 75G and an ADA cube, both which were planted very nicely. In my haste, I forgot to get pictures of their tanks, but the 75G is a nice jungle-style, open-top tank with Bacopa monnieri and Ludwigia repens growing emersed out of the top of the tank. This tank was also outfitted with a neat pH/temperature monitor, and automatic water changing system. Mary’s ADA tank was recently planted in the Amano style, with white sand creating a path from front to back, and was well on its way to becoming a fantastic scape.

The meeting set a GWAPA record for attendance with 39 people showing up. With many of them bringing items for auction, the auction was huge with over 130 items for sale, including many plants that are very rare in the hobby. I managed to come away with Ludwigia arculata, Goo obo gudgeons, Lagenandra thwaitsii, Eleocharis parvula, and Limnophila aquatica. The gudgeons are F1’s, bred by a club member, and will go in my 54G with my other rainbowfish. I’m still figuring out where all the plants should go.

More pictures/info about the meeting available on GWAPA’s website.

When I got back from Florida last year, I started a small emersed setup in my office to keep some of the cryptocorynes we bought there. First, an emersed setup is one that allows you to grow your plants terrestrially, or out of the water. Really, all that is required is a light, a closed container to maintain proper humidity, and some sort of fertilization plan. It’s not much different from starting seeds or a lite version of hydroponics.

Why would any planted aquarium keeper want an emersed setup? There are many reasons, but one good reason is to more quickly grow out enough plants to start a new aquascape. It’s also a good place to store plants that you want to keep, but don’t want in your current aquascape. Or, you can use one to flower your plants for get seeds, or just simply to see what the terrestrial version of a plant/flower looks like.

I started with a simple seed-starting tray and dome (above) from the hydroponics store. Make sure to get a high dome so that there’s room for your plants to grow vertically. Just recently, I transferred all of my plants from that dome/tray setup into a 10G aquarium in order to gain even more height.

I use mostly coconut-fiber pots filled with a mixture of leaf compost and ADA Aquasoil. This is especially good for most cryptocorynes, but works for other plants as well. Then, after planting each plant, I lightly cover the surface of the soil mixture with moss. Mosses have a natural anti-fungal agent that helps to prevent your plants from being overwhelmed with white-fuzzy-fungus that can easily ruin the whole setup. After that, I fill the container to a water level of about an inch below the rim of the pots. This supplies the pots with a constant water source. Finally, I’m using plain fluorescent strip lights over top, and a small powerhead to circulate water around the tank.

CO2 is not a concern because it is abundant in the atmosphere. Algae doesn’t grow out of the water, so all of your leaves will be algae free. These two things are the largest reasons many of the large aquatic plant nurseries grow their plants emersed before they arrive at your local fish store. For fertilizers, you can use hydroponics solutions, dry ferts, or even aquarium liquid ferts.

Currently, I’m growing Cryptocoryne moehlmannii, Utricularia graminfolia, and several Anubias barteri nana ‘petite’. I want to build up a nice supply of A. ‘petite’ for some upcoming aquascapes. I’m curious to try and flower the Utricularia, and I just haven’t managed to move the crypt to a tank. I hope to expand the number of plants grown this way now that I have more space in my 10G aquarium.

For many catfish, specifically “suckerfish” like plecos, it’s often stated that you want to keep wood in your aquarium as it’s an integral part of their diet. It’s also true that they ought to be fed other vegetable matter, such as algae wafers, veggie-based pellets, and so on. Well, fresh, clean vegetables are also a cheap and much appreciated treat for these fish.

We had zucchini as part of our dinner last night, so rather than throwing the ends down the disposal, I cut the stalk off, and set aside 4 small circles of the squash for my catfish. Now, these vegetables were certified organic, so I was fairly confident that they would be pesticide free. In the summer we grow our own vegetables, so we know their source as well. If there’s any doubt, at the least do a thorough washing, and at the best, don’t throw them in your tank. Also, if they’ve been contaminated with any oils, butter, or seasonings, don’t put them in the aquarium.

The problem with fresh zucchini is that it floats. Placing the pieces in a small dish with a bit of water, I microwaved them for 4-5 minutes, or until they stopped floating. This boiling process breaks down the cellular walls, allowing them to become water logged. Alternatively, you can tie them down to a heavy object. The last step is to slice a couple notches in the rind of the squash. The reason being that the catfish eat out the soft core, and could potentially get the “ring of rind” caught around their bodies.

At first, when I dropped the cooled zucchini into the aquarium, none of the fish took much notice. I was surprised that the cories didn’t seem to care for it at all. Then, my chinese algae eater (CAE) found one of the pieces, and started going to town. Two other plecos (Ancistrus sp. L279) took notice and latched onto the same piece. A rigmarole of back-and-forth swapping of the vegetable pieces ensued for 20 minutes before I let them continue on for however long.

Even when not scraping the inner core of the zucchini, the CAE sat over top of one of the pieces, claiming it as his own. While this was going on in my 54G, Red Lizard Catfish and some cherry shrimp were devouring two pieces in my 75G tank. Over the next day or two, I’ll pull out the rind once all of the “good stuff” has been eaten.

Bottom line, if you’re chopping squash for dinner, set aside a couple rounds for your catfish — they’ll love you for it!

Today, with the day off work for President’s Day, and the 70 degree weather outside, my wife and I decided to hike back to the falls at Patapsco Valley State Park. You may remember that the last time we visited them in autumn, that the falls were reduced to nothing more than a trickle. Fueled by some recent precipitation, I was very pleased to see that they have been restored.

I was also surprised to see how green many of the ferns and mosses were, despite some really frigid temperatures last week. I guess these particular plants are native, and thus well adapted to the temperature zone. If you happen to be local to the Maryland area, Patapsco Valley State Park is a wonderful way to walk away an afternoon.

With many more miles of trails than you can possibly traverse in a day, it’s a great place to visit over and over again. After viewing the waterfall, we continued our hike, seeing a number of types of mosses, birds, and even a whole flock of 10-15 deer. A couple of them stuck around to let me take their picture. They were not very interested in me moving any closer than this, however.

Last fall, two GWAPA members, Jim and Ghazanfar, traveled to Europe to attend the European Cryptocoryne Society’s (ECS) annual meeting. Armed with all of the proper phytosanitary documents, they were able to bring back a number of species of plants from the meeting. One of these plants is a currently unidentified Microsorum species that is quite different than any of the other Microsorum (Java Fern) species we’re currently keeping in the United States.

This particular specimen has a many more branches than your typical Java Fern. At first, we thought it might be the Tropica cultivar, Microsorum pteropus ‘Tropica’ ,but after comparing multiple pictures, that seems to have a fatter fern with my smaller saw-like edges coming off. The species Ghazanfar & Jim brought back looks much more like a hand with multiple fingers, or a trident’s staff, with narrower leaves.

It grows just as quickly as your regular Java Fern, but unlike the Windelev variety, the irregular leaf shape appears to be present on plantlets forming on the end of leaves, in addition to new leaves from the rhizome. I think it’s a little bit prettier, as the narrower leaves bend down slightly, creating a cascading effect that you don’t usually get from a much more upright Microsorum pteropus.

I’m hoping that eventually the folks in Europe will help us identify exactly what this fern is. But until then, I’m going to enjoy it as a centerpiece in my 75G aquascape. More info/pictures can be found on APC.