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The Art of Nature Aquarium

Wolf6 said:
I imagine its like any plant in the garden: it grows untill it falls over/breaks/rots and from the root/remaining bits of stem, new tops form. The tops of the rotted stems float away and land somewhere else, forming new plantbeds occasionally.
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I think rotting bottom and floating away is an aquarium thing, not something that occurs naturally or else the stem beds would not have established. Stems are flowering plants that set seeds propagated by air and water and don’t make sense the need to break away to form new plants. This underwater video of a river in Brazil has large beds of Myrio, Bacopa, and Ludwigia that in the aquarium often develop bare rotten bottoms, but apparently not so in their natural habitat. What’s causing bare and rotten bottom in the aquarium is an unnatural thing.

A journey through the Rio Sucuri

Woke up this morning seeing this beautiful vid. Probably most of you know the channel, but I just wanted to share.
www.ukaps.org www.ukaps.org
 
Looking at my pond and streams around here, I would say breaking off is a major source of propagation there at least. Animals and fish break off parts and they settle a bit further. Rotting occurs less, but sometimes plants get so full and bushy they collect sediment and mulm and turn into large dirt and algae balls, and those stems do go bad eventually, leaving the healthy tops to float away. Thats just my observations of local stuff. Algae and decay to me is natural as well. Id prefer to not have it in my tank though 🙂
 
Hi all,
tiger15 said:
Stems are flowering plants that set seeds propagated by air and water and don’t make sense the need to break away to form new plants.
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The same as @Wolf6 really, the majority of aquatic plants in temperate regions are perennial, rather than annual a nd they can spread by vegetative growth, it just makes sense in a permanently wet habitat.

This even extends to trees like Willows (Salix spp.) and <"Poplars (Populus spp.)"> which spread vegetatively, as well as by seed, by shedding branches which are swept downstream and can re-root on new silt banks etc.

Aquatic roots are <"pretty common on a lot of stem plants">, allowing them to fragment and spread vegetatively.

You will get more annual plants in seasonally wet habitats, like tropical countries with a regular pattern of wet and dry seasons. There is some discussion of this with <"Murdannia keisak">, where it looks like once <"flowering is initiated death is inevitable">.

cheers Darrel
 
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True, according to this field guide about an invasive species of Myrio, stems do develop bare bottom in the wild, and spread vegetatively more so than by seeds.

  • Plant: herbaceous aquatic plant; stems grow to the water surface, usually extending 3-10 ft. but as much as 33 ft. in length and frequently forming dense mats; stems are long, slender, branching, hairless and become leafless toward the base; new plants may emerge from each node (joint) on a stem and root upon contact with mud.
  • Spreads: vegetatively by rhizomes, fragmented stems and axillary buds that develop throughout the year. Although seeds are usually viable, they are not an important means of dispersal.
 
dw1305 said:
Hi all,

I guess it is to do with the limited number of "axillary buds", these are the (normally dormant) buds in the leaf axils. They contain the meristematic tissue that can grow a new plant. Plants potentially have <"totipotency">, the ability to regenerate a plant from a single cell, but for most plants they can only regrow <"from meristematic tissue">.

...
Every time you remove the shoot tip ("terminal bud") at least one axillary bud is stimulated to grow due to the removal of "apical dominance".


...
If you keep on cutting the stem at a low level, after a while it won't have any dormant axillary buds left (they all will have grown out and been cut off) and will be unable to produce a new shoot.

cheers Darrel
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@dw1305 Is this true for every stem? I've cut Rotala down to the gravel, and yet it seems to grow? Maybe, I'm incorrect in my cutting.
 
Hi all,
I've cut Rotala down to the gravel, and yet it seems to grow?
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I don't know with Rotala spp., but the <"root itself "> could have buds that can regenerate a leafy shoot, or there might be a modified stem section (<"like a tuber or a corm">), than has many buds on it. Some plants (often from fire prone habitats) have a section of tissue at the base of the stem that has epicormic buds on it, like the <"lignotuber of a Eucalyptus spp.">.

cheers Darrel
 
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Onoma1 said:
Such a shame his books are now put of print and selling for crazy prices.
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Crazy prices you say. I have a box in the loft with every book he ever published. Not only that, but each one is signed and stamped with the original private 'chop' from Takashi Amano himself.

Not only that, but I have got about 75 copies of his monthly magazine from the 1990's each one still wrapped in the original sealed plastic covers.

He sent them to me personally from Japan after I sponsored him to get a puppy for his daughters Birthday from a UK Breeder. The full story is in one of the forums on here.
 
Bringing this thread back alive. ADA added this tank to their YouTube page recently - I love the grassy look:




Also stumbled across this. Not technically a Nature Aquarium per the thread title, but quite an amazing constructional feat. I can't help but wince as they lift the rocks in:


 
Thought I'd share incase some haven't seen it yet...😉

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Wow, I think I’ll give up now😞………Not really, totally awesome and so inspiring. The confidence of the scapes and planting is phenomenal. Thanks for posting, it has me made me think to be bolder on my next scape, which I hope is coming later this summer.
 
Tom72 said:
I gave away all my fish books, including the second print of Dr Axelrods encyclopaedia of fresh water fish. Then when my interest resumed I saw the prices they fetch..,Arrgghhhh! What a complete idiot.
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I done exactly the same sold books when thought was out then interest came back and purchased all back i will keep hold now

Sent from my SM-G970F using Tapatalk
 
Yusuke Homma and Naru Uchida visiting the Shin Egawa River, Niigata, Japan.

 
The Nature Aquarium Exhibition 2021:





W240cm Terrarium walkthrough:






 
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