I finally got past my resistance and tore down the “Fallen Tree” aquascape in my 50G. I really wanted an aquascape where I can use some nice stem plants, but the manzanita hardscape seen below really just needs a simple low-to-the-ground type design on the right side. The stem plants I had in there looked okay, but didn’t really work with the hardscape.

So, Wednesday evening I tore out all of the plants and hardscape, and made myself a new rockscape using the new rocks I collected from my friend’s backyard. In his neighborhood, construction of the homes sometimes involves dynamite to dig out for the foundation, which conveniently leaves mounds of quartz-based rocks all over the place. I thought a rock-dominated aquascape would allow me to use the stem plants more effectively because the rocks would hide the bottoms, allowing nicely trimmed tops to pop out from behind them.

Above, you can see what I came up with. The foreground is still all Eleocharis sp. ‘Japan’, with a midground almost 100% comprised of Blyxa japonica. Blyxa aubertii is in the back-left with Limnophila repens var. ‘Mini’, Rotala sp. ‘Araguaia’, Ludwigia senegalensis, Pogostemon erectum, and Rotala mexicana var. ‘Araguaia’ making up the background. Comments welcome!

This weekend, myself and another GWAPA member helped a third GWAPA member, Paul, rescape his 90G aquarium. Paul has been in the club for awhile, but wanted to make an earnest foray into the high-tech world of aquascaping. He has a nice T5 fixture on order, CO2 rigged up, and replaced his old gravel mixture with several bags of Eco-Complete.

It took us longer than you would think to place eight rocks in the aquarium. We added a rock, stood back and looked, gave directions to the person closest to the tank to move a rock a little to the right or left, and ultimately ended up with the rockscape you see above. You can see a little bit of crayon on the front of the glass because we drew a very minor sketch on the tank beforehand. The crayon wipes right off.

After setting our rockscape, we added another two bags of Eco-Complete to mound up on both sides. Then, we added in a few manzanita branches that Paul wanted to use in the scape. After doing this, we were ready to start scaping. We wanted to to keep a relatively simple plant arrangement for the time-being, so we used a number of lower-maintenance plants, with a couple stems thrown in.

We used Sagittaria subulata and a short Lilaeopsis species in the foreground, with Lobelia cardinalis and Crytocoryne wendtii in the midground, and on the right side background. There’s Echinodorus sp. ‘Vesuvius’ and Ludwigia inclinata var. verticillata ‘Cuba’ in the left background. Overall, I think we were all pretty happy with the scape. Obviously, it needs to do a lot of growing in, but it should fill out nicely. It’s definitely a lot of fun to aquascape with other people!

Last weekend, I was in the Connecticut area with a couple of friends, so we took the opportunity to check out a few of the local bodies of water in the area. Our first stop was actually not in Connecticut, but nearby in Rhode Island at Worden Pond. Worden Pond is a large pond with lots of campgrounds and houses surrounding it. There was a lot of marsh and floating debris, creating rather tannin colored water.

In with the rushes were quite a few large Sagittaria plants in flower. The flowers are an attractive white with yellow in the center, resting on a long stalk that protrudes from the water itself. A campground was kind enough to allow us to use their beach to take some pictures while we drove through.

One of our other stops was Roger’s Lake in Old Lyme Connecticut. This is the town from which Lyme’s Disease is named, but fortunately, I didn’t encounter a single tick on this trip. We stopped at one of the public boat ramps to see what types of vegetation were present. It’s a very pretty lake with lilies growing in several places. It looks like the wonderful place to kayak for the day.

One of the interesting plants growing in this lake is an isolated population of Ludwigia x lacustris. This particular Ludwigia is a natural hybrid between Ludwigia palustris and Ludwigia brevipes. Below is a picture of the emersed form growing on the bank.

One of the ways to differentiate it between regular Ludwigia palustris and the hybrid, is that the hybrid’s flower contains petals, while L. palustris‘ flower does not. The flower is very typical looking compared to other Ludwigia species that I’ve seen.

Submersed, Ludwigia x lacustris is a wonderful plant. I’ve kept some in my aquariums for a little while prior to this trip. Below is a picture of the submersed form in the lake. As you can see, the leaves are long and narrow like L. brevipes, but not quite as narrow, and exhibit a nice reddish orange color like L. palustris. It’s not too dissimilar from Ludwigia repens x arcuata, but it’s growing pattern is more upright, whereas, L. repens x arcuata grows more at a 45 degree angle.

Of course, we weren’t there to just look at plants. We enjoyed seeing several species of waterfowl, and of course, several frogs and turtles were present. Looking at the picture below, I imagine that there were quite a few more frogs than we spotted due to their excellent ability to blend with their surroundings.

Another notable stop on our trip was Chapman Falls at Devil’s Hopyard State Park in East Haddam, CT. The falls are large series of cascading falls, which are only partially shown below. The full falls are probably 4-5 stories tall, and are quite impressive.

The top of the falls are just as beautiful, being lush with plant life. There was a huge expanse of some Polygonum species growing up out of the water, as well as, some Schoenoplectus subterminalis bulrush flowing in the strong current.

All in all, it was wonderful to be able to experience a few of Connecticut’s wonderful nature areas while traveling through the state. I would really like to get back up there to do some more hiking than I was able to do on this trip. I highly recommend checking out these parks to anyone in the area.

It’s been a few weeks since I replanted the 50G, and as you can see the plants have been growing quite well. The tank is definitely due for a trim right now, especially the Ludwigia brevipes on the left, and the Limnophila repens var. ‘Mini’ in the back left. I do have two notable additions to this aquascape. In the back-left, I added a number of Blyxa aubertii plants which were previously in my 75G aquarium.

Also, I was fortunate to get in on a fantastic group buy that GWAPA conducted to add 15 crystal red shrimp, and 15 crystal black shrimp to this aquarium. Below is a picture of one of the red ones, which I believe is a “tiger-tooth” because the one red band looks like two teeth coming down. I don’t know very much about grading the shrimp, and really don’t care, as I just think they’re quite striking inhabitants in a planted aquarium regardless of the grade.

So, hopefully, these shrimp will start a little breeding population in my 50G! Elsewhere in the aquarium, the hairgrass is starting to spread in the corners where I transplanted a few plants, and I’m generally pleased with the direction that it’s headed. I’m waiting on the stems on the right side to grow out a bit more and multiply, so that I can really focus on trimming them into new compact bushes of plants. Comments/critiques welcome!

Last week, I finally got around to clearing out the jungle that had formed in my 75G, and completely rescaped it. Previously, the aquascape was dominated by a ton of Narrow Leaf Java Fern, but this scape doesn’t contain any fern, except for some Trident Java Fern topping off the two mounds of driftwood.

75G: 2 Days After Setup

I had a couple of goals in mind for this new scape. For one, with my farm tank overflowing with plants, I wanted to use a few more stem plants in this scape than I did in the previous one. Hence, ferns are out, and stems are in. Additionally, since I’ve had some plecos breeding in the hollowed out driftwood, I wanted to continue to use the same African bogwood as I had in here previously, but I also wanted some more open space for a foreground. Those were the goals.

75G: Hardscape Finished

Toying around with a couple of different layouts, I ultimately settled on the two mound approach, with one larger mound on the left, complemented by a smaller mound on the right, with open space in between. Yes, I know it’s been done a million times. So, I stacked up a bunch of pieces of the bogwood, trying to making them look like they fell on top of, or in the nook and crannies between, a base of rock.

75G: Foundation Plants Planted

After finishing the hardscape, I planted what I feel are foundation plants. These are the plants that are actually kind of part of hardscape itself. Plants like Cryptocoryne, Anubias, Java Fern, etc. After getting those in place, you can really start to see what other areas need to be filled in. I added an inch or two of water, and finished planting the foreground and stem plants. The foreground is Glossostigma elatinoides, and in the back I have Hygrophila sp. ‘Guinea,’ Ludwigia repens x arcuata, Ludwigia arcuata, Elatine americana, Clinopodium brownei, Hottonia palustris, Limnophila aromatica, and Limnophila sp. ‘Wavy’. Of course, you can’t see most of them now.

75G: Other Plants Planted, Filling Up Tank

After filling up the tank, this is what I had. I removed a ton of Malaysian Trumpet Snails so they wouldn’t uproot the foreground, and hundreds of cherry shrimp came out of the substrate to begin exploring their new home. It’s very difficult to catch all of the shrimp when doing a rescape, but fortunately, most survived the ordeal.

75G: Right After Scaping

So now, it’s just a matter of letting it grow in a little bit. I already see a few things I’ll probably end up tweaking. I probably ought to pull out some of the background plants between the two mounds to keep them more seperate, and have the Glosso extend all the way to the back. Additionally, the Cryptocoryne pontederiifolia behind the right mound should probably be moved to the right a little bit. I may adjust some of the hardscape on the left side, but at this point, I kind of want to see how it evolves on its’ own, and go from there. Comments and critiques welcome!

After hearing Sherry’s talk about her pond at the last GWAPA meeting, I decided it was time to post an update about how my raised brick pond is progressing this summer. I’m happy to say that things are going pretty well. I had a few plants come back after being frozen solid through the winter, particularly some Potamogeton and Ludwigia palustris. Neither is incredibly unexpected, however, as they’re both native plants.

After a few seasons, I’ve had to replace the solar pump as the old one just wouldn’t turn anymore. I think detritus got into the motor, but unfortunately, it’s sealed tight, so I can’t get inside to service it. Fortunately, I had a spare, so that’s going right now.

You’ll notice that I have several bricks lined up along the front edge of the pond. This is to keep a certain dog, Bella, from constantly trying to take a drink from the pond water. She’s got a huge bowl of water just up the steps in the house, but she loves the pond water for some reason. I guess it must have a more complex flavor, but nevertheless, I don’t need a sick dog on my hands, so hence, the barrior.

Without the barrier, it looks like this. Notice the large zucchini plant to the left of the pond, which is producing lots of tasty fruit already. I also have a couple cucumber vines growing which I’m trying to train up, over, and along the pond. In back of the pond, you can just start to see the tomato plants, which should eventually form a solid wall of green as a backdrop.

In the pond, this year, I’ve placed every species of plant I have that I don’t know the true scientific name. I have a good friend in GWAPA who does a lot of research into trying to figure out that Limnophila sp. ‘Mini’ is really Limnophila repens, and similar cases, but it’s nearly impossible to do that without seeing the flowers. So, I’m hoping that all of these plants will convert to emersed form and flower, so that I can help him identify these plants.

To accomplish this, I’ve propped up a few pieces of eggcrate on bricks, and set some tubs of substrate just below the water surface. I already have a number of species converting to emersed form, but only my large Crinum americanum has flowered thus far. As for fish, I threw in a few zebra danios to control mosquitos earlier in the season. Big mistake! I’m going to end up pulling out tons of these fish if the number of fry present are any indication. I’ve also put a few Threadfin Rainbowfish out to hopefully breed. Comments welcome!

Last weekend, a friend and I visited the North Tract of the Patuxent Research Refuge, a 12,841 acres area which was formerly a military training ground, and has now been returned to nature. While collecting is not permitted in this park, it was still very interesting to hike around the various bodies of water to see what aquatic plants were present.

The first lake we visited had cattails on one side of it, and lillies on the other. The cattail side also had a number of other aquatic plants present including (but not limited to) Ludwigia palustrus, Hydrilla, Callitriche sp., and some aquatic grass shown below that we’re not entirely sure what it was.

In other areas, spatterdock was present throughout. It was very interesting to see which areas had a variety of plants, and which were pretty much dominated by a single species.

Not being limited to interesting aquatic plants, while walking along one of the roads, we came across a series of stands of Pricklypear (Opuntia humifusa) which were in full bloom, exhibiting beautiful yellow flowers. I believe this is the first time that I’ve seen this plant in Maryland, so I very much enjoyed checking it out. I guess cacti are not limited to southern hot zones!

In addition to the lakes, a series of streams run through the property. Most of them are shaded, and so there’s little chance for aquatic plants to grow, but they’re beautiful nevertheless.

Across the street from that stream happened to be a large boggy area. We pulled over to have a look, and sure enough, we found sphagnum moss, but little else besides the grasses shown below.

There were a few lillies there, but it seemed to mostly be a dead-zone in terms of the aquatic plants we were interested in. Throughout the course of our trip, we noticed a lot of beaver activity, evident from the saw off tree trunks, but we never did see any beavers.

In contrast to some of the lakes, which were dominated by lillies, the marsh areas were covered in Brasenia schreberi. In amongst the Brasenia there were several other plants.

Many Utricularia flowers were present, most likely being U. geminiscapa, but that’s just our best guess. Some of the Brasenia was also flowering, showing smallish red flowers.

At our last stop, we found a field of Proserpinaca palustris, most of which was growing in its emersed form, even though it was submersed. This is likely due to recent rainfall that inundated the plants when the water levels rose. Further down the stems you could clearly see the fine-toothed-pinnate leaves that are so typical of Proserpinaca.

To any other folks exploring nature in this region, please be sure to use proper tick prevention, as they’re out, and Lyme is prevalent throughout the area. So, while not a collecting trip, it was a great day to be out and about exploring our native Maryland habitats.

This past weekend I flew down to Houston to attend Houston Plant Fest, a planted-aquarium weekend put on by the Nature Aquarium Society of Houston (NASH). The event kicked off on Thursday evening at Houston Aquarium Warehouse, a local fish store and importer who caters much of his store to the planted aquarium hobby.

Daniel, the owner of the store, brings in many smaller fish which are perfect for an aquascape where you don’t want the fish to overpower the environment around it. I saw some of these Paraguayensis Tetras (Aphyocharax paraguayensis) and had to buy a small school for my 50G aquarium. It was simple enough to get them back home in my checked luggage without any loses.

On Friday morning, two vans arrived near our hotel at 5:00am to take us on a 3 hour trip to the San Macros River. The river runs through the middle of the college town, where huge stands of Hygrophila polysperma, eel grass, Hydrocotyle, Cabomba, Ludwigia repens, and Texas wild rice all live. It was bittersweet to see Texas wild rice in its own remaining habitat, as development along the water has brought it to endangered status. Clearly, we didn’t collect any of this.

In some areas of the river, Cryptocoryne beckettii is purported to grow, but we didn’t see any during our trip. As an introduced exotic, the local government has been very dedicated to trying to eradicate it so it does not further diminish the Texas wild rice population.

That evening, we all returned to Houston to gather at The Fish Gallery in town to eat and appreciate their beautiful gallery of aquariums. They also have a retail store attached to the gallery in which they tailor to the higher-end aquarist.

On Saturday, we all filed into Aquaruim Design Group’s gallery for an aquascaping presentation by Mike Senske. Mike and Jeff Senske are long time hobbyists, and are well known for their beautiful aquascapes in the ADA and AGA aquascaping competitions. ADG is one of the few stores in the U.S. that carries and distributes ADA aquariums and products, so the Houston folks are quite fortunate to have them in their backyard.

Mike aquascaped an ADA 90P aquarium, which will now be displayed in their conference room. The scape was a wood-based scape using two beautiful pieces of driftwood that they found locally. They filled in the rest of the scape with plants easily available in stores. Overall, it was a good presentation.

From there, we went to one of the NASH member’s homes to enjoy some Texas-style BBQ, and just talked plants for the remainder of the evening. Sunday, we all had flights to catch. It was a great weekend spent with fellow hobbyists. These little excursions really help to keep the hobby fresh, and energize me to try different things in my aquariums. Thanks for a great weekend Houston!

My 75G aquascape is now roughly two and a half months old and is doing great! The Glossostigma elatinoides is starting to spread across the foreground, albeit, slower than usual since it’s fairly shaded there. The Staurogyne sp. (Hygrophila sp. ‘Low Grow’) needs a trim in the front left foreground, as does the Ludwigia repens x arculata in the left-middle background, but otherwise, this is quickly becoming one of my favorite tanks to just sit and look at.

I’ve trimmed back the Hygrophila sp. ‘Guinea’ (feathery green on left below), and am hoping that it reacts well to the trimming, as I love this plant. I think the red of the Ludwigia arculata is a great contrast to the H. sp. ‘Guinea’ as well.

I’ve added a few more Ancistrus sp. ‘L279’ to this tank that I previously had in my 54G aquarium before I changed that to a native aquarium. From that same tank, I also added the remaining Goo Obo Gudgeon that I have. I’d love to obtain more of that particular fish so that I could try to breed them.

Overall, I’m really pleased with this aquarium. Once the glosso finishes covering the substrate, and with a few trims, I’m looking forward to trying to get some better photographs of it. Comments/critiques welcome!

This weekend I finally got around to tearing down my old aquascape in the 54G corner aquarium, and setting up the basis for a new one that I’ve been wanting to do for some time. The theme of this aquarium will now be all native plants, rocks, and fish. I do not consider this a biotope tank as it currently stands because I plan on using plants from the Maryland, Virginia, and D.C. area, but not necessarily plants that all reside together in the same waterway in the wild.

The hardscape is made of up slate that a few GWAPA members and I collected several years ago. I would have liked to add more rocks to this aquascape, but many of the rocks in my backyard are frozen in the ground, as I reused a number of them this past summer to fill some groundhog holes. (Not the greatest foresight, admittedly!)

For fish, I will be moving my Blue-spotted Sunfish and Banded Killifish into this tank once it settles in. For plants, I’m hoping to fill in the foreground with a field of Eleocharis parvulus (dwarf hairgrass) once it comes into my local shop. Otherwise, I’m using Ludwigia palustris, Proserpinaca pectinata, Proserpinaca palustris, Lobelia cardinalis, Potamogetonaceae sp. (looks like P. diversifolius or Stuckenia pectinata), and a local Eleocharis species that gets about 1 foot tall. I’ll likely add Rotala ramosior once it grows out for me a little bit in another tank.

One of the things that had been preventing me from doing this tank is the fact that these corner tanks are so difficult to light. Previously, I had a JBJ 2x65W PC fixture on top, which did an okay, but would never grow hairgrass in the foreground. So, I saved up a little bit, and ordered a nice fixture from Catalina Aquarium, which is 4x24W T5, with a 250W metal halide bulb in the center. I made an ADA knock-off stand out of electrical conduit to hang the light from, and now should have more than enough light to deal with. I hooked up the CO2 tank, added some ADA Powersand and Amazonia Aquasoil, and am ready to go. Hopefully these plants will grow quickly into a great centerpiece for my livingroom, where I’ll have collecting stories for many of the things within.