While out in Vancouver, we were able to take a short trip north to Lynn Canyon, a wonderful municipal park known for their suspension bridge.

Vancouver is blessed with a warm Pacific stream which makes the weather much more mild than other places around the globe at the same latitude. The Northwest has a number of temperate rain-forests, with Lynn Canyon being a second-growth forest, but still very much influenced by the weather.

The first thing you notice is that everything is absolutely covered with several different types of moss. Some trees are 100% covered from the base all the way to the top. It’s pretty incredible!

Besides the moss, ferns are prominent throughout the forest there. We were hiking with a couple of locals from Vancouver, and they said that this was the greenest they’d ever seen the ferns. Of course, it was pouring down rain while we were out walking about. (Our friends told us that if we let the rain stop us from doing things in Vancouver, we’d never see or do anything.)

We followed a trail up above the canyon, about 3-4 stories up from the water, for awhile before heading down toward the river.

As I mentioned, it was raining pretty hard that day, so the water was very high and very rapid. Large rocks lined the sides of the water, leading to some breaks with sandy and peddle bars near the still areas.

Moss even covered the rocks by the river, despite getting more sunlight than under the tree cover. It made for some very pretty scenes, that reminded me of Riccia fluitans stones used in an aquarium.

We spent some time exploring the various nooks and crannies along the river, and at times hit sections that were impassable. In several instances, we had to climb 4 flights of stairs up the side of the canyon in order to continue following the water.

The folks in Vancouver are really lucky to have such a nice public forest so close to them in North Vancouver. If we had more time, I could have spent several days exploring the trails throughout this park.

Of course, that’s just reason to come back another time!

I haven’t posted in almost two weeks, as I was vactioning in Vancouver for the Olympics. The Olympic experience was fantastic, but during my trip I also wanted to follow our tradition of visiting the public aquarium of whatever city we traveled to. The Vancouver Aquarium resides in a beautiful area of Vancouver called Stanley Park, which is full of walkways, huge trees, sea walls, and much more. The area around the aquarium is very nicely landscaped, and easy to navigate.

One of the first areas that we toured inside the aquarium was a series of biotope aquariums from around British Columbia. They really did a fantastic job showcasing the different habitats throughout the province, providing excellent signage and information plates throughout. As someone who really appreciates native North American habitats and fishes, this may have been my favorite section of the aquarium.

One of the natives that I enjoying watching was this sculpin (below). Since sculpin don’t have swim bladders, they lay prone on the ground and dart around. To me, this tends to give them a little bit of personality, and this particular fish seemed to be posing for the camera.

Speaking of swim bladders, we got invited into a classroom area by a couple of interns to watch them dissect a salmon. All the while, they pointed out the various prominent parts of the fish anatomy, including the swim bladder, heart, liver, testes, gills, etc… They also talked about how the aquarium tracks various fishes in the wild using embedded transmitters that they surgically implant into the animal so that they can monitor their life cycles.

Like most aquariums these days, they had a nice jellyfish exhibit, back-lit with the intense blue lighting.

One of the things I was most impressed with throughout the aquarium was the aquascaping ability of the maintainers for these tanks. In some public aquariums, they do a fine job showcasing the inhabitants of the tank, but in Vancouver, it was obvious that they were equally concerned with making the habitat equally as attractive without making it look artificial. A fine example of that is this reef “clownfish” aquarium where they used a combination of macro-algae, rocks, and anemones to really make a nice display tank. Well done!

Like the aquarium in Baltimore, the Vancouver Aquarium also has nice tropical exhibit which includes a rain forest area. The rain forest had a series of parrots, butterflies, and other animals from the Amazon on display.

They had a rather large aquarium showcasing one of my favorite South American beasts, the Arapaima, an air-breathing fish that can survive very low oxygen levels. They can grow to over 400lbs, and are very prehistoric looking creatures. I very much enjoy everytime I’m able to see one.

The Aquarium also has a nice amphibian exhibit, including a whole set of terrariums featuring frogs from around the world. I thought that this particular terrarium was another nice example of putting together an attractive layout, while still showcasing the tiny frogs therein.

It wasn’t just the small colorful frogs that were on display, however. They also included a few others, such as bullfrogs, which are an invasive species in this part of the country, which were originally introduced as a food source. (frog legs)

Outside, there were several much larger pools containing dolphins, whales, turtles, and other large sea creatures. While you could view all of the pools from above, each pool was also available to be viewed underground via a series of rooms that included more information and more views into the tanks. One area that was particularly interesting was an arctic fishes exhibit, showing fish and other animals that thrive in sub-zero waters.

Having been to several public aquariums throughout the U.S., I always hope that each new one will offer something different from the rest. The Vancouver Aquarium did that with theor B.C. set of exhibits, and their superior attention to presenting nicely aquascaped aquariums throughout. They also had an equally as impressive 4D theater which featured a short Planet Earth “Shallow Seas” film in 3D with water sprays, seat rumbles, and bubbles in the air during the show. It was a nice value-add to an otherwise exceptional experience. I highly recommend visiting the Vancouver Aquarium.

During our trip in California we spent a day in Joshua Tree National Park. This wonderful desert park is named after the tree below, which got its named from 19th century Mormon settlers who thought the tree looked like the Biblical character, Joshua, who raised his ends up to the sky in prayer.

In addition to the very interesting trees, which are actually in the lily family, the park is home to some absolutely incredible rock formations. As such, we saw quite a few rock climbers trying to conquer the rocks.

Inside of the park there is no water or gas stations, so you need to fill up before entering, and carry in anything you would need. Remember that this really is a desert, and the sun was definitely out, even though we were there during some of the cooler months.

Just because it’s a desert doesn’t mean that there wasn’t plenty of life. The park is home to several different varieties of wildflowers, and of course, cacti and also succulents were present throughout.

In addition, little squirrels and chipmunks were all over the place. You could see some of their holes dug out in the hard sun beaten earth.

It’s really amazing that some of the rock formations were naturally formed. Take the one below (which would make a fantastic aquascape btw). How in the world did some of those gigantic boulders just happen to rest atop of the mass of other humongous boulders?

Then of course, there were the larger “rock piles” that were just as striking. Again, if we could find an aquatic plant that looks like a Joshua Tree, this would be a great scene to try to replicate in an aquascape.

The rock formations weren’t all boulder piles, however, as deeper into the park we came across these more water-shaped formations. We hiked a short distance to see a naturally formed arch, but I thought the rounded rocks were more impressive than the arch.

During our hike, we would hear rustling in bushes as we walked by, and every time it was one of these lizards scurrying through. I was perfectly okay with this, however, as I wasn’t necessarily hoping to come across a rattlesnake.

Proof that this desert has been traveled for centuries past is visible on several rocks in the form of Petroglyphs, inscribed by prehistoric Native Americans.

Once we crossed out of the Mojave Desert, and into the Colorado Desert, the Joshua Tree ceased to grow, and were replaced by acres of these very spiny cacti. The Mojave Desert is slightly wetter than the Colorado Desert, which is why the Joshua Tree is able to survive in that area.

Nevertheless, these cacti are still interesting to look at, exhibiting nice yellow flowers, which were also covered in spines.

As we were driving the last 10-20 miles out of the park to the south, the sun was setting on our right, and on our left the moon was rising. We stopped the car, and enjoyed this beautiful scene below. All the while, bats starting flying overhead, and we eventually headed out of the park and to our hotel.

We have lot of other pictures on Flickr here, if you’re interested…

On Saturday, me and my friend, Cavan, took a trip up above Baltimore to Maryland Aquatic Nurseries, a wholesaler of aquatic and wetland plants, who also has retail hours on Saturdays. I had been there before, but recently I have become more interested in native plants that may be suitable in the aquarium. After looking through their stocklist online, Cavan and I decided it was worth the drive up their for a local “collecting” trip.

We were lucky to go before the true start of the pond season, as one of their staff members was gracious enough to spend a good 45 minutes helping us find the plants we were after. Sometimes, this even included “weeds” that were growing in the same pots as something else they were selling. Normally, they would just discard these contaminants, so we were happy to take them off their hands.

They fit at least a dozen greenhouses, with 4-5 being walkable, and the rest being flooded with water, having pots sitting in them. We started through the walkable greenhouses, searching for plants on their stocklist, as well as, keeping an eye out for a suitable weed. When we ended up in the back flooded greenhouses, Cavan took off his shoes so that he could wade (ankle deep) to see what was growing in there. While the temperature outside was quite comfortable, those flooded greenhouses were like saunas, and were quite uncomfortable to spend too much time in. That didn’t stop gambusia and tadpoles from thriving in them, however (in addition to the plants).

It was quite apparent that lilies and lotuses are such popular pond plants, as they fully occupied several of their greenhouses. In addition to pond plants, the nursery also has a number of bog plants, including several different types of pitcher plants.

We ended up coming away with more plants than we could fit into our tanks. Several of the plants we bought in pots, such as Mentha aquatica and Ranunculus flammula, while others were weeds, including Potamegetons and this Gratiola virginiana.

Now the fun part begins. I’ve planted all of plants we got throughout my aquariums, and will evaluate whether or not they’ll grow submersed for long periods of time at our normal aquarium temperatures. After that, we’ll have to assess whether they are desirable for aquascaping. I’d like to encourage everyone to check out their pond centers to think outside of box about what plants should be grown in your aquarium. Chances are, you’ll find something interesting that you’d never otherwise find in the aquarium hobby.

Last week, my wife and I visited a friend in Seattle, and while I was there, I was able to visit the Seattle Aquarium and the butterfly exhibit at the Pacific Science Center. Upon entering the Seattle Aquarium you come to a huge floor-to-ceiling aquarium with all kinds of fish in it. After spending some time in front of that large tank, and walked around to a number of smaller saltwater aquariums.

Many of the saltwater aquariums there are the type that many hobbyists seem to be able to procure. They have a number of fan favorites including eels, clown fish, tangs, and various other fish you’d see in the movie Nemo.

I was a little bit disappointed at the complete lack of freshwater exhibits at the Seattle aquarium, although they did have a nice focus of fish native to the northwest region. In particular, they had a number of features surrounding salmon, for which the area is well-known for.

They had salmon at various stages of their lives, along with descriptions about what wild salmon would be doing, including whether or not they would be in fresh of salt water at the time. The aquarium also exhibited a large number of salmon ladders, which during the proper time of year would show the fish returning home from the wild to their hatchery. I hope to get back to Seattle sometime in the future during the salmon migration.

And of course, no aquarium would be complete without their water birds and mammals. The otters were particularly active that day, swimming back and forth, chasing each other, and seemingly having a grand old time.

While the aquarium didn’t have a single planted aquarium exhibit, the native habitat exhibits were worth the price of admission. All of the exhibits there were well-done, and the building itself is a modern facility. Overall, I would recommend visiting the Seattle Aquarium. After visiting the aquarium, I decided to walk across town to the Pacific Science Center, where I had previously spotted their beautiful glass-enclosed butterfly exhibit.

The science center features an IMAX theater, and a huge array of science-related exhibits. This facility is no-doubt largely targeted toward kids, but I still had a nice time browsing what they had to offer. Of course, the main thing I came to see was the butterfly exhibit.

To enter the butterfly room, you have to first go into an adjacent room, where the doorways have blowers to prevent the butterflies from escaping. Once inside, you are in a beautiful 2-3 story glass sun room with a number of tropical flowering plants. At first, I didn’t see any butterflies, but then I realized that they were all around.

They had quite a variety of different butterflies, a few that I recognized from when I spent some time down in the Peruvian Amazon. I’m not sure if some of them were actually moths or not, but all were very pretty. Some folks seemed to attract the butterflies to them, so when everyone left the room they were inspected by the staff to ensure that no critters were tagging along.

I really enjoyed my visit to both the aquarium and the science center. I have a few other photos from my trip on Flickr. If anyone else has been to these places, and would like to add anything I missed, feel free to do so in the comments.

On Saturday, GWAPA had its first meeting of the year at Viktor’s house. Viktor keeps a number of tanks, all of which I believe use a soil-based substrate. This was not the topic of the meeting, however, as Viktor also collects and prepares his own driftwood, which he described his process in detail.

In general, Viktor looks for roots of fallen trees because they’re usually more interesting than many of the upper portions of the tree. Then, he soaks the wood outdoors in a friend’s pond for several months to allow it to because waterlogged, and to release some of the tannins. He has used a dishwasher to subsequently sterilize the driftwood, but has more recently shyed away from this practice because he’s wary of the drying chemicals that are often required for newer dishwasher’s drying cycle. So, if it’s a small enough piece, boiling is a good option, and he’s heard that some people even bake their wood. If neither of these is an option, scrubbing it down with hot water is usually the best you can do before putting it in the aquarium. Once in the aquarium, it’s fairly common for a white fungus to appear on the wood. This is nothing to worry about, as it will usually go away on its own, or with the help of a number of algae-eaters, which love the stuff. At this point, the wood should be usuable for years in the aquarium.

After the talk, we continued to mill around, looking at Viktor’s aquariums. He has some gorgeous rainbowfish, including the Melanotaenia boesemani seen above. We conducted our regular monthly auction, which consisted of over a hundred bags of plants and items. I think everyone walked away with something new to try in their tanks. Another great meeting!

Since I maintain a few tanks, it’s fairly common that I end up with more trimmings than I know what to do with. Many of these plants are fairly uncommon in the hobby, and often completely unavailable through regular retail outlets. I sell many of my plants through aquatic plant forums, and to local club members, but I want to make known that many of the plants I talk on this website are available for sale. Since I’m not running a nursery, the availability of any individual plant will vary from time-to-time, so please contact me if you’re looking for something in particular that’s not listed.

More information can be found on my Plants For Sale page in the sidebar, and at the top of this page.

Rotala sp. ‘Araguaia’ is one of the plants that my wife brought back for me from Aqua Forest Aquarium in San Francisco, CA.

It’s one of the nicest new plants I’ve seen enter the hobby in a long time, as it has an oblong leaf shape that turns a pumpkin orange color. In addition, it branches readily, creating a nice bushy effect without too much effort. I haven’t found this plant to be very demanding at all.

It grew in my wormstrate substrate without any additional dosing, besides CO2, but definitely grows faster and a little bit larger in my 50G with high light, CO2, and added fertilizers. I got good coloration in both conditions.

Unlike species like Rotala sp. ‘Green Narrow’, this variety grows vertically, which provides a nice contrast to the aforementioned plant.

Right now, the source of this plant is unknown, despite being named as Araguaia.’We’re in the process of trying to flower and ID it properly, but that can be a long and laborious process.

All in all, I don’t have any complaints about Rotala sp. ‘Araguaia’. Therefore, I can recommend this plant to most people as something different from the more common Rotala rotundifolia. Currently, most stores in the U.S. don’t have it, but it’s available online from hobbyists on sites like aquaticplantcentral.com.

GWAPA closed 2008 with a holiday potluck at a member’s house in Reston, VA. The club combines the November and December meetings since it’s hard for people to make two meetings during the holiday season. While the meeting was mostly a social, we did conduct a little bit of club business, electing the board of directors for 2009. I will continue on as president of GWAPA next year, so I’ll soon have to buckle down and work with the other board members to assemble a great schedule for the upcoming year.

Michael’s house was a great place to hold our final meeting because he was a basement full of tanks, which we eagerly perused. Michael has been to the Peruvian Amazon a couple times with the same company that I traveled with, and he has actually brought back hundreds of fish that he personally collected there.

It was great to look through all of the tanks at the wild South American fish, including piranha, pencilfish, cichlids, characins, catfish, and more. He also had some tanks with other species, such as his rainbowfish aquarium below.

Finally, we had a huge auction, which took us over an hour to complete. There were 144 bags of plants, fish, shrimp, etc. in the auction, with variety that rivaled the auction at the AGA Convention last month. It was a nice close to a great year in the club.

As part of my blogging exchange, I wrote an entry for The Reef Tank, inviting saltwater aquarists to try the freshwater planted side of the hobby. Please take a look over on their blog:

http://www.thereeftank.com/blog.html