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Lake Tanganyika Riparium

I wanted to post this picture quick to show how I pruned the Asclepias. These stems were more than 24" tall and I really chopped them off on top. So long as the stem is left with a few leaf nodes it will resprout and grow again. I like to prune Ruellia and emersed Hygrophila in the same manner.

17-II-13-Asclepias-curassavica-I-m.jpg
 
That Asclepias grew an impressive root system. Here is a look at the back of the planter. The roots have formed this spongy white mat. This is a magnetic planter and that black dot is the inside magnet.

17-II-13-Asclepias-curassavica-II-m.jpg
 
Hi, today I noticed Asclepias tuberosa in a 99p store. I only noticed it because the flowers look identical to the ones you posted up in this thread :)
Would it work as well as A. curassavica in a riparium ?
 
Hi, today I noticed Asclepias tuberosa in a 99p store. I only noticed it because the flowers look identical to the ones you posted up in this thread :)
Would it work as well as A. curassavica in a riparium ?

That's funny. That's a native North America plant and it grows wild around here. It used to be common, but all of our habitats are so full of invasive weeds that it's rare now.

I don't think it would grow well in a ripairum. A. tuberosa grows on pretty dry soils and a riparium would be too wet. It also has a strong winter dormancy cycle and I suspect it would be unhappy indoors.

Can I send you guys some A. curassavica seeds? For many countries extra documentation is not required for small (<50) packets of seeds. A. curassavia would be a really good one to have for riparium planting.
 
That's funny. That's a native North America plant and it grows wild around here. It used to be common, but all of our habitats are so full of invasive weeds that it's rare now.

I don't think it would grow well in a ripairum. A. tuberosa grows on pretty dry soils and a riparium would be too wet. It also has a strong winter dormancy cycle and I suspect it would be unhappy indoors.

Can I send you guys some A. curassavica seeds? For many countries extra documentation is not required for small (<50) packets of seeds. A. curassavia would be a really good one to have for riparium planting.
I would love some seeds :) pm me
 
I'm just using this tank for growing out a few different plants for a few weeks. Some of these will go into other setups, while a few will stay in here. I got a quick picture...

6-III-14-tank-I-m.jpg


Here's a list of the plants in the hanging planters, from left to right.

  • Asclepias curassavica "gold"
  • Phalaris arundinacea 'Strawberries & Cream'
  • Pleioblastus fortunei "variegatus"
  • Cyrtosperma johnstonii
  • Asclepias curassavica, red-flowered true species
  • Cyperus alternifolius var. gracilis
  • Ruellia britoniana, tall bluebell true species
  • another Phalaris 'Strawberries & Cream'
  • Laguncularia racemosa
 
Stunning pic!

Thanks Ian! That C. johnstonii is certainly one of my favorite riparium plants.

Here's the plant that I'm going to use as most of the background foliage in here as I start to redo this setup.

'Strawberries & Cream' is a fast grower! It looks real spindly when first planted, then it fills in with lots of new grass blades. It grows real well in the riparium planters.

6-III-13-Phalaris-arundinacea-Strawberries-Cream-I-m.jpg
 
Another quick picture to show the variety of foliage...

10-III-13-tank-I-m4.jpg
 
I was working on this some more the other night. (Still) in anticipation of the new fish I decided that I needed to have a more consistent fine gravel/coarse sand substrate, so I removed all of the old substrate, then screened out the larger gravel and mixed it with some sugar-size aragonite. I like the appearance.

I also tidied up the planting, but it will need some more time to grow in. I settled on the theme of using the Phalaris 'Strawberries & Cream' ribbon grass in several planters as the main background plant in combination with Ruellia, Asclepias and a couple other stem plants. There is also an Acrostichum leather fern in there. I need to add more trellis rafts with aluminum plant to better cover up the planters.

I removed the little group of Limia, so the underwater area looks pretty bare right now. The Cryptoheros and Synodontis are still in there, but hiding in the shadows in this shot.

13-III-13-tank-II-m1.jpg
 
I scored a new plant to try out in this tank! If you click around with a few searches you can find pretty cool plants on ebay. Hibiscus diversifolius is a real swamp plant from East Africa. I like the foliage and it has lemon yellow flowers. This 15" plant was just a few bucks. This riparium planting isn't really intended to be an authentic biotope combination of species, but it would be fun to include this plant as a representation of Lake Tanganyika flora.

21-III-13-Hibiscus-diversifolius-I-m.jpg
 
Here's a quick fish shot. This is one of the J. transcriptus juvies that came with the group. They have such attractive markings. I really like the charcoal black color.

25-III-13-Julidichromis-transcriptus-Pembe-I-m1.jpg
 
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