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Thread: A tail of moss, shrimp and a sponge in my planted tank

  1. #1
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    A tail of moss, shrimp and a sponge in my planted tank

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    Hello, I have replaced some of the below pictures with better ones. These can be found in my gallery, kindly supplied by the Admins of this forum.
    Hi all

    Last Saturday I went up Table Mountain (pictures pending) and
    brought back some moss I found in a stream at the foot of
    Platterklip Gorge.

    Here is a picture of the moss in my make shift photo tank:



    We will come back to the shrimp later...

    Here is a close-up of the moss:

    this image is gone, deleted, never to appear again.
    I do not know if the moss will keep this compact form but I hope
    so because it is very pretty. The moss has a nice broad and flat
    leaf that makes it very attractive, and cushiony. Table Mountain
    can get quite hot, so I guess the moss can take tropical tank
    temperatures. I have tied it down to some wood, in the hope that
    it will attach itself. It is very pretty. If it holds up to fish
    tank life, I will try send some out.

    There was several other mosses growing on the mountain (such as
    this spagnum moss pictured below), but I only took of the above
    moss as it was lying loose in the stream. (No need to wreak any
    destruction on the environment.) All the mosses can stand very
    moist conditions. The top of the mountain is always moist, and
    some areas look more like marshes than the top of a mountain.



    So, back to the shrimp, and here is an aerial view of the shrimp
    (a male this time). These guys have been very productive in my
    absence. They are some type of Caradina species, (I think
    africana and have sent a head shot to some people for
    clarification). These are the ones I used to use to clean my
    Aphyosmeion eggs.

    this image is gone, deleted, never to appear again.
    They are good scavengers. They are constantly going back and forth
    over the plants picking at who knows what. Depending on what they
    are fed, their colour changes. Those fed lots of bbs and granulate
    foods such as Tetra Bits are more orange/gold. Which alas, could
    not be captured with the camera (I still haven't quite mastered
    the art of the digital camera's autofocus) are the many
    silver-gold specks over the carapace of the shrimp.

    Below are the left side and right side of my 1.2 m planted tank
    after some heavy remodeling and clean-up. I've come to like the
    Hygrophila polysperma forest look of it. It is a bit
    uniform, but I plan to break it up with some red plants, and other
    Hygrophila cultivars, such as polysperma Starburst
    (or is it Sunrise... I forget). The Vallis does already make for
    some contrast, breaking the monotony. When I got back form Italy
    the tank was over run with Vallis to the point where most of the
    other plants had been killed off. Only the Java fern and Crypts
    hung onto life under the Lemna and Vallis mat. This time I
    have planted the Vallis into the cut off middles of coke bottles
    so they are semi-potted. I'm hoping this will restrain the Vallis
    runners. The plastic coke bottle middles are hard to spot in the
    left side photo but are clearing in the right side photo where the
    Crypt. pontederifolia foreground has not grown dense enough
    to conceal the plastic rings.

    this image is gone, deleted, never to appear again.
    I'm planning to expand the Hygrophila forest this side too,
    and then also phase out the Java Fern with the Hygrophila.
    I have some of the long-leaved cultivar as well, which should look
    nice popping up between the drift wood.

    The [i]E. quadricostatus[i] is growing well on the left between
    the various Crypts I got from Singapore and Thailand some time
    ago. On the right are an ever increasing number of E.
    tenellus
    , competing with the [i]C. pontederifolia[i] and some
    Anubias nana for space.

    Alas, my planted tank stands in the garage where it too is
    competing for space with various items that prevent me from
    getting a whole photo of tank.

    The tank is stocked with one twig catfish (sole survivor of
    three), many long finned white clouds of various ages and
    countless shrimp and snails. Fertilizing is alla Walstad. At the
    time of the photo the tank was filtered with a single Regent 600
    L/h powerhead with course filter cartridge. Currently a slow air
    driven uplift is employed for circulation, but other than that the
    plants do all the filtering. There is no CO2 supplementation as my
    KH is very low as is the GH and pH (don't ask me for values I am
    yet to use a test kit on my tanks, and when I die, I want "never
    once used an aquarium test kit" engraved on my head stone), so
    there is ample CO2 already in solution as long as the water
    surface turbulence is kept to a minimum. All plants but the
    Alternanthera reineckii are doing well (it looks healthy
    but just doesn't grow...too little light?), and I am having to cut
    the Hygrophila to half the size about once every two to
    three weeks (on a 45 cm deep tank). There is NO algae. I suspect
    the limiting nutrient currently is N... I am tempted to obtain
    some KNO3, but would be much happier with NH4NO3 as I have already
    added a lot of K to the tank, and most of the plants prefer NH4 in
    any case. On the other hand, the sword plants would prefer the
    NO3...

    I am adding about 1 ml of a 4 teaspoon per 100 mL sugar solution
    for extra CO2 every day (when I remember). Lighting is 1 30 W
    Osrum Cool White, and 1 30 W Osrum Daylight (which should of been
    replaced long ago but gives such nice colour).

    Below are two photos of a freshwater sponge that just appeared in
    my tank two years ago. When I got back from Italy, my big planted
    tank was in a horrible state and I thought I had lost it, but
    after a massive clean up and replanting, it has sprung up again
    all over the place. In this case it is on a young Java fern plant.
    Notice in the first picture how the sponge has over grown the new
    fern shoot! This stuff grows fast! I see some is groin at the base
    of one of my pygmy chain swords and fear for its life... I will
    not be sending any of this out to anyone. I do not know where it
    comes from, but it seems able to survive in the most deplorable
    conditions and reproduces freely. Sounds like an ecological hazard
    should it escape into the wilds of say, Singapore. I think the
    sponge comes from Kwa-Zulu Natal, as I got some wild plants from
    there a while back. Alas the Potomogeton schweinfurthi did
    not survive till my return. That is a great shame as it is a
    stunning plant, and was hoping to smuggle some back to Italy, and
    from there into the general fishkeeping world.



    The second picture is of the sponge out of the water. The spongy
    pores are more obvious. One sponge individual, currently growing
    on an Anubias, has a nice big siphon.



    Sorry for my bad photography...

    tt4n

  2. #2
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    Re: A tail of moss, shrimp and a sponge in my planted tank

    Quote Originally Posted by TyroneGenade
    Here is a picture of the moss in my make shift photo tank:

    Tyrone, I'm not sure which photo you're trying to show but if it's the shrimp on a turf of moss, you need to edit the link as follows;

    When you're in the album, right click on the image and copy the Address (URL), which should be...
    http://www.killies.com/forum/albums/...rimp.thumb.jpg

    Highlight the entire address and click the [Img] tags...
    Code:
    ... and you will see this;

    Notice the 'thumb.jpg' in the link? In a posting with multiple images, it helps to show thumbnails instead of the actual pictures to minimize download time for dialup users.

    To make it clickable, highlight the link from "[img]...[/img]" and click the [URL] tag, meaning...
    Add the = after the 1st URL tag, followed by the image link (this time, without the 'thumb' text), meaning...
    Code:
    Click the thumbnail for larger image.


    Have fun editing the remaining links!

    Read "Linking pictures in our Gallery to your post/messages" in FAQ too.
    I'm back & keeping 'em fingers wet,
    Ronnie Lee

  3. #3
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    Thanks for the info Ron. It took me quite a bit of fiddling to get the pics to display as is. With the info from you, it should be a lot easier now. We've had this info posted several times now, but it seems I'm just too thick to take notes (and find it in the FAQ...). Silly me.

    Thanks

    From where I am, the pictures now do display. Is that so on your side as well?

    tt

  4. #4
    The shrimp look quite a lot like I remember Palaemon shrimp (which you commonly find in estuaries all along our coast) looking like?

    J.

  5. #5
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    So many spotted Freddy's mistake when he misspell Ram as Rum so I wonder how many caught Tyrone's tail (tale)

    Tyrone, the moss in your picture (the one with broad, flat leaves) looks more like a liverwort. Don't ask me how I know but I can tell. I've been wrong before though. Many times

    Loh K L

  6. #6
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    Hi KL,

    Yes, it does look like a liverwort, but on closer examination it has a moss growth pattern etc... I'm pretty sure it is a moss and now a liverwort.

    I will keep your posted... I've tied some down to a log, and am now waiting to see how it will respond.

    The shrimp are still very fond of it. (Must be something nice to eat among the moss fronds.)

    I've redone the tank as well and removed much of the mess that was preventing a wide angle shot so brace for an update to me "tail".

    tt

  7. #7
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    Tyrone,
    Got some updated pics? How's the sugar solution doing for your plants?
    Curious as to what type of sugar you used, or does it matter? Also,
    what size, gallon, is the tank you are dosing with this?

    Bill

  8. #8
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    Hello,

    I am using ordinary sugar and it works well... I think my plants are currently N starved, and maybe lacking some Ca and Mg... Bubbles were forming under the Hygro leaves for a while, but that has stopped so something is missing... I have to go bug a pharmacist for some KNO3...

    There are some new pics up in my gallery area... some have also been removed. I am having trouble linking to the gallery, I get a nasty error message saying I can't link to it, so readers will have to find their own way...

    The piece of moss in my planted tank is not looking too good, but the other chunk (in the photo) looks much better... So something isn't right.

    tt

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