On Saturday, GWAPA had another packed meeting at Kevin’s house in Silver Spring, MD. This month, over thirty folks showed up to hear about soil substrates in the planted aquarium. One of our members, Sean, is the originator of the soil substrate recipe that so many people are starting to use in the hobby. It was popularized by AaronT and others on Aquatic Plant Central, and we got to hear the soil method straight from the source.

In addition, we had another large auction — just look at all the bags of plants! I came away with a few things, such as Polygonum sp. ‘Porto Vehlo’ and Rotala verticillaris, and sold off a few things myself. We also debuted GWAPA’s new logo design, which you can see above.

All-in-all, it was another great meeting!

Hygrophila difformis var. ‘variegated’ is a new variety of Water Wisteria that grows similarly, but has white veins, giving it a nice variegated look. Just like regular Wisteria, this plant can easily outgrow the space that you allot for it, but if you’re looking for a plant to fill out the corner of your aquascape it might be just what you’re looking for.

One thing to notice is that not all of the leaves exhibit equal variegation. Some contrast quite significantly, while others are hard to differentiate from a regular wisteria leaf. This can occur on leaves along the same stem, even.

Overall, Hygrophila difformis var. ‘variegated’, it’s a fast grower, a nitrate suck, but most importantly, a pretty plant.

Update: I learned today that this variegation is caused by a virus affecting the chlorophyll in the veins, and can be exemplified by low nitrates. Don’t worry, the virus is self-contained, and causes no danger to this or other plants.

I wanted to share a picture of one of the new plants my wife brought back for me from AquaForest in San Francisco, CA. Sold as Limnophila sp. ‘Needle Leaf’, I would not be at all surprised to find out that this is a variant of Limnophila aquatica, as it grows equally as fast. The main difference is that while L. aquatica stays green, this particular species is a brownish/red color.

As noted, the growth is extremely fast, and I suspect it’s forming strong root systems and runners in my rich earthworm castings based substrate. The plant readily branches by itself, but I’m not sure how good of an aquascaping plant this could be, as it’s just not that compact and shoots to the surface. Perhaps it could be used effectively as an accent plant, but frequent trimming will be required.

This weekend, I spent some time over at another GWAPA member’s house, Dave (ingg), and I wanted to share a couple pictures of his Dwarf Crayfish. I have kept this kind of crayfish before, and even had them breed for me, but I don’t have them any longer. They’re really neat invertebrates, and since they don’t get as large as normal crayfish, they can’t eat your fish.

Dave’s got a fair number of crays in a 37G aquarium. I think they’ve started to breed for him, but I’m unsure as to whether or not any of the babies have survived to adulthood. As you can see below, they’re pretty much just smaller replicas of larger crayfish.

I wonder if these guys would survive in my sunfish tank? They’ve all but annihilated any of the shrimp that I’ve put in that tank, but since the crayfish are generally a little bit more feisty, maybe they could defend themselves? If anyone has any experience keeping dwarf crays with shrimp-eating-fish, I’d love to hear your advice.

I got Limnophila sp. ‘Mini’ a couple months ago from another hobbyist. This is another plant that’s pretty new to the hobby. I’ve been a long time fan of Limnophila aromatica, and the ‘Mini’ variety shares some resemblances to that plant. They both have serrated edges on their leaves, and both turn a beautiful bronze to purple color, depending on the nitrates in the tank.

I’ve kept Limnophila sp. ‘Mini’ in my 40G tank with the earthworm castings substrate. The growth has been slow, but steady, and the plant is absolutely gorgeous. It’s in the back of the tank, surrounded by other plants, so it was hard to get a good picture. I suspect that if I put it in a tank with daily fertilization, that it would grow much faster. There aren’t as many leaves per node as L. aromatica, and the leaves themselves are slightly smaller. I am really looking forward to having a sizable quantity of this plant, so that it can be a big part of a future aquascape. I think Limnophila sp. ‘Mini’ has quite a bit of aquascaping potential! Definitely try it, if you find it available.