Even though the tank itself has been in pretty poor shape lately, my male apistogramma borellii have been showing really great coloration lately. Perhaps it’s because I have two want-to-be-dominant males in the same tank, with enough females for them to show off to.

It’s been a pleasure to watch them. I have no doubt that with their colors, there are probably some babies somewhere. I haven’t seen any little swarms, but that doesn’t mean they’re not there.

The National Zoo in Washington D.C. was kind enough to give GWAPA behind-the-scene tours of two of their exhibits – Invertebrates and Amazonia. Both tours were fantastic, so I wanted to share a few pictures from our tours.

The coral on the right is believed to be the largest captive-kept coral of it’s type.

GWAPA members looking at the salt-mixing station for all of the Invertebrate tanks.

Checking out a big tank.

Watching as they try to feed a large starfish on the glass.

Hermit crab.

Spiny lobster. They later fed this lobster while we were there.

Baby Cuttlefish being reared behind the scenes prior displaying to the public.

Fairly young arowana cruising around the service of the pool-style tank in Amazonia.

Java moss carpet, with lots of LARGE fish!

Emergent growth from the pool.

Two very large Arapaima. Amazingly, they showed us two young Arapaima behind-the-scenes that would easily fit in our conventional aquariums, albeit, not for long.

Those are big filters!

View of one of the pools, looking down on it from the rain-forest style display above.

And what would a trip to the zoo be without seeing the seals?

Since I’ve been dosing regularly, keeping the CO2 levels fairly high, and finally have the lighting period set nicely, the plants in this tank have been doing really well. So, as usual, the blyxa japonica (pictured left) really overgrew itself, throwing the whole aquascape out of balance. I was debating whether to simply flip the anubias and blyxa, putting the anubias in front and blyxa in back, but ultimately, I decided to just yank out the blyxa altogether and go with all anubias. (I’m a maintenance kind of guy, and if one plant is less maintenance than another, chances are, I’m going to go with the lesser maintenance plant.)

75G – 09-28-2006 (Angled view)

Anyways, as you can see, I’ve replaced the blyxa with anubias barterii var. nana. I like how more of the hardscape is revealed by doing so. I’m pretty happy with it thus far, but I might yank the anubias afzelli, which is the long slender leafed anubias in the center-left part of the tank. Additionally, I’m anxiously awaiting the utricularia graminifolia (pictured right) to grow in on the bottom left side. I’m currently blaming my whiptail catfish for hanging out over there, and uprooting the plant. As always, I welcome everyone’s comments on this scape.

75G – 09-28-2006 (Front view)

Well, I couldn’t manage to pull out a win for 1st place in the advanced category. GWAPA members awarded first place to Sean’s tank pictured below. Congrats Sean!

 

Well, it’s Friday night before the Saturday GWAPA meeting. Tomorrow’s meeting will conclude what has been a 5-month effort in preparation for GWAPA’s first annual aquascaping contest. I tidied up the tank, cleaned the glass, removed 2 dozen Endlers, and snapped some photos.

(Front View – Straight on)

Tomorrow afternoon, I will drain all but an inch of water from this take, pack it up at securing it as best as I can, and take it to the meeting, where GWAPA members, beginner and advanced, will rank my tank aside everyone elses. I’m not sure how mine will rank, but I’ve it’s been a great challenge getting this tank to where it is today. Comments welcome!

(Front view – Looking down at an angle.)