"Algae and sickly plants" - a Hufsa (TM) evening special
Ugly staghorn/BBA on my lovely little umbrellas
🙁 I think the main cause is just that my tank has gotten too dirty, it really needs a good cleaning but I didnt have time today.
I thought this was a neat process to show in picture. For just being otos, neocaridina and tiny snails I think they do a pretty good job.
A lil while back I saw that I was about to kill off yet another batch of Ludwigia Super Red, so I increased my lights by 5% on each bar and placed the immensely stunted stems front and center in the flow from the spraybar. Two stems have slowly unstunted, nice. I think this plant needs a certain amount of light, an amount which I am usually hovering right around the lower limit of. This is the main backside to using low light to limit algae, some plants will not do so great and some will straight up refuse to grow, like really light loving plants. All plants have individual requirements, and some will have narrower ranges than others. I got Christel Kasselman's wonderful book on plants for christmas, and a few pieces of the big puzzle have clicked into place in my brain because of it
My Blyxa is continuing to increase in size, which is good but not so good for the Cryptocoryne striolata 'Tiger'. Next water change I will relocate the Blyxa to prevent them overcrowding it. The Tiger has wonderfully patterned leaves, but grows so slowly.
sigh This leaves it very susceptible to algae. I pinched off two of the worst BBA infested leaves after taking this photo. I think im going to have to really avoid creeping amounts of algae and any outbreaks if I want to get any decent mass on this plant. Im holding out a bit of hope that it will grow faster with better CO2 supply.
Similar but not exactly the same, the new Cryptocoryne striolata 'mini'. My phone decided that some of my pictures were gonna be yellow tinted today, and I could not persuade it otherwise, sorry about that. Will be interesting to see if the differences in leaf pattern even out significantly once I get leaves that are all grown in my tank. This one has a surprising amount of leaves actually, despite the pretty dismal conditions it was living in. Maybe its slightly easier to grow? Heh, one can hope. If Santa is listening I would also like a unicorn while hes up.
Ive done some reading on Cryptocoryne striolata, and they all say it is a slow and difficult grower, that prefers slighly acidic water. Plus, striolata does not seem to produce runners. Such a shame really. In order for a plant to be sustainable in the hobby it really needs to be able to be propagated.
From another angle. The Buce Dark Achilles in the background will be an interesting one, since so many report that it does not like to grow underwater. I took a closer look at the leaves and they all* appear to be emersed grown leaves, on Buce you can sometimes tell because the undersides will be beige/brown looking and sometimes a bit dirty. *The only leaf that looked to be submersed is the greener slightly curly one left of center. The plant also had like 4-5 leaf shoots it had started on but abandoned, peculiar and interesting
I wonder what caused it to abandon those. I pinched off all but one of the abandoned projects to make the plant a bit easier to monitor.
Cryptocoryne 'Silver Queen' is so pale, I really feel bad for this poor plant. All of these rare crypts and buces are from an import from Borneo one of my LFS did over a year ago. Usually we only have the Tropica selection of plants available locally, and whatever plants the odd enthusiast keeps. Back then I was not so confident in my plant growing skills, so I didnt pull the trigger on any crypts or bucephalandra. I think I have mentioned it before but I really admire the tenacity of these plants. The Dark Achilles for example, those emersed leaves were probably grown on Borneo somewhere.. and its just been sitting underwater for months and months, in really suboptimal conditions for plants, just waiting.. waiting for the time to start growing again. Im really looking forward to seeing the first leaf on the Silver Queen, if that is what it is. The tanks were labeled, so theres only so many candidates it could be. When I hold this plant up under the light it has a silvery pink sheen almost like a buce. I will try to capture it on camera some other time if the effect persists. I see it listed some places online as Cryptocoryne regina 'Silver Queen', but I cant find much info on C. regina.
Cryptocoryne sp. 'Queen Vandom', one picture in yellow tint and one in slightly washed out normal light. This truly is the height of documentation.
This variety is, from the few pictures I have found online, supposed to have light green leaves, with green stripes and a pattern of pink glitter-looking dusting. A bit like Silver Queen but also not, hm. Also very excited for new leaves on this. (Edit: Almost forgot, this one was one of several runners in the LFS tank, so I think I will be able to propagate it!
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I tried to capture the muted grayish green tones of the Buce Pearl Gray, but I only got gray. Better luck next time I guess 😅
I have figured out why I like this little mystery moss so much, the fronds grow out curly like the young shoot of a fern.
Motherskrip
Queen Moss is slowly sprouting new tips. I put waayy too much moss under this net, I should have done half the amount but I did done ran out of coconut shell that day. Denser is not always better, because the moss will choke itself under there if it is moss on moss. I should replant it soonventually now that I have bought more coconut, unless laziness takes me.
Its difficult to tell in the picture but the large masses of Fissidens rhizome is sprouting new fronds.
Lastly, crowded C. 'Tiger' 😅 I will help it no later than this weekend. Promise!