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The Nymph's Spring (EA900)

very nice plant list : ) nice unusual plants but nothing too difficult to grow that causes headaches, I could learn a thing or two from your plant choices:lol:
 
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..the precious..
Will you let me know how it grows? Where did you find it? Also where is it located in the tank so I can look for it in pictures :lol:
I got it quite early on in the hobby from buce2love before brexit and my dad wanted a clump of buce, I didn't really realise that that was potential dodgy then tbh whoops! That was the plant that intrigued me on there.

It went in my first lowtech tank and it gave my whole tank Spirogyra immediately lol. It didn't grow that much, and I realised it needed to go in a tank with wood hardscape and I didn't have that, do a few months later I set up my 30cm cube and it went in that. It grew a tiny bit but didn't do amazing.

Then last March when I got the tank of this journal, I set it up for my baby apistos and put the wood from the 30cm into this one with the ferns. I was lazy and kept the Twinstar light at 100% and the crepidomanes, as well as the moss, have fern and algae all free fabulously lol, the crepidomanes grew lots of plantlets.

Then I set my tank up as it is now and I had many issues (almost all documented here I think lol) and I almost killed it. But the tank is much more balanced for the past 2 months and I noticed a few days ago that the crepidomanes had regrown some nice healthy new leaves, still small but promising. Will update you on it when it hopefully grows even more and starts to really thrive, I think it will eventually!

Also will try to take a picture of it, it's on the wood below the hole.

Less a work of conceptual art, more a miracle...
Oh no, now I'm tempted to start wandering down a tangent of creating surrealist paintings of fish made of plants and plants made of fish! 😂

Already starting to practice painting again recently... Eventually got to print the cabinet nicely but have stupidly high standards so need to practice a lot, the list of things to do for this tank before it's right never ends...

very nice plant list : ) nice unusual plants but nothing too difficult to grow that causes headaches, I could learn a thing or two from your plant choices:lol:
A very astute observation!!

It's got to look nice, and it can't just survive, it has to thrive, if they don't they're out. I'm very good at making mistakes and killing plants, so they're often out 😂

I had big problems with this tank when it started and killed all types of stem and carpeting plants and almost killed all sorts of nice plant with a dodgy regulator, flow is very off because the piece of wood hardscape is so big, too high lighting in some places and low in others also due to massive wood hardscape, second hand cheap nutrient-free substrate, not enough of the right kind of iron because of pH 😂. Many problems slowly worked out one my one. At first the stem plants dying really annoyed me as they were in my ~vision~ but I'm embracing these easier plants which are often forgotten in other high tech tanks but do great for me, and they grow very nicely. Luckily am a big fan of a large leaf.

Oh, you've reminded me I already have a 50th plant! Also got a little bit of rotala macramnda mini something recently from @Courtneybst to see if the balance in my tank is good enough to grow something fancy as an experiment.

The plant list is great, I think it is a good length. If one can remember all the plants in their tank off the top of their head, id say they don't have enough yet 😁
😂 I keep having to edit the list as I remember or two more, when I first posted it I thought the number was 44! The biggest trick is actually remembering all the Latin names immediately when pointed to, can't do that yet 😱
 
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The biggest trick is actually remembering all the Latin names immediately when pointed to, can't do that yet 😱

I can’t even pronounce the Latin names! It was embarrassing enough phoning World of Water and asking for Aeschynomene fluitans without sounding like I was calling from the pub after 6 pints! 🍻 😂
 
I can’t even pronounce the Latin names! It was embarrassing enough phoning World of Water and asking for Aeschynomene fluitans without sounding like I was calling from the pub after 6 pints! 🍻 😂
I would enjoy listening to that phone call 😂😂 So many ways to pronounce it! Dan mentioned that he sent you some when we went to WoW last week you made a good impression upon him. I think he lurks and just doesn't post here in case it looks like shop promo.

I'm not entirely sure there is a 100% "correct" way of pronouncing them all tho, you can always have a stab at it 😂 Some are easier than others.

I'm not too bad at it once again due to my dad the trained & obsessive horticulturalist with an encyclopedic knowledge of plants (he seems to know the Latin name of every plant it's mad) ... and he's ancient enough to have been taught Latin at school, plus knows all sorts of Greek mythology which really helps with the names. I think a lot of people don't realise there is a lot of Greek in the Latin names of plants which is pronounced differently from the more straight forward Latin. For example some people pronounce hydrocotyle as hydro-cot-isle when it "should" be hydro-cot-ily, but also idk how much it actually matters 😂 I've noticed aquascaping experts pronouncing the names in all sorts of different ways so I don't think you should feel bad about it!
 
I'm not entirely sure there is a 100% "correct" way of pronouncing them all tho, you can always have a stab at it 😂 Some are easier than others.
Can’t not come windmilling in on this as a Latin and Greek teacher / linguistics bod 😜 Pretty much no one now pronounces Latin or Classical Greek words as they were originally spoken anyway, so it REALLY doesn’t matter so long as we all know what plant we are taking about. (If in doubt, pronounce all vowels.)

And for a lot of terrestrial plants Linnaeus just kind of made the Latin up anyway...
 
Lol must be a northern thing I've been showing off to the Mrs and daughter pronouncing it as hydro-co-light 🤣

Firmly in the same camp as me then John - I’ve always pronounced it in my head (because I’ve never had to say it out loud) as Hydro-coy-tial - again, also nothing like how it’s spelt lol
 
Can’t not come windmilling in on this as a Latin and Greek teacher / linguistics bod 😜 Pretty much no one now pronounces Latin or Classical Greek words as they were originally spoken anyway, so it REALLY doesn’t matter so long as we all know what plant we are taking about. (If in doubt, pronounce all vowels.)

And for a lot of terrestrial plants Linnaeus just kind of made the Latin up anyway...
Totally this, I think what I consider the "right" way is just cos my dad has hammered it home every time I "mispronunce" a latin name my whole life lol, and I am dyslexic so it was a lot.

The latin names are usually just basic descriptions when translated right? I guess if you've decided to give everything a name you can't be making it too complicated for yourself 😂 Reminds me I really need to read that book "There's No Such Thing As Fish" about how the family of fish is made up and that the taxonomy is extremely dodgy!
 
Another random question...

I've noticed there's quite a lot of small different algaes on my bolbitis in the middle of the tank, none on any of the others around the tank. Can I squirt some liquid carbon around it, will that harm the bolbitis?
When I've used it previously that method killed some mosses but left the buces sparkling clean, not sure what it would do to bolbitis so just wanted to check first.
 
I've started organising and writing my botanicals article/thread. I'm hoping to post it during the holidays. At the moment it includes this:
  • An introduction post on why botanicals are great/what the thread is about
  • A post on What makes a "good" botanical for collecting, how/where to collect & prepare. Kinda an FAQ sort of bit. Also lots of links to further reading (have saved all the links you guys have sent me).
  • A post with a massive table (not completely sure how I'm gonna do this but have asked @LondonDragon for advice) which lists all the botanicals we know work well, plus botanicals we think probably will, plus botanicals that shouldn't be used (ideally with some sort of green/yellow/red colours somewhere so it's clear). I've been collating from around UKAPS and the internet which plants people are using successfully to make the table, and will be including my own experiences & my dad's guesses lol.
  • A post with a table on some specific plants good for food like dried green walnut leaves, nettles, etc. Since botanicals feed a lot of my fish (my otos don't eat any algae wafers or courgette now I have lots of botanicals), I thought this might be a nice little thing to go with everything else. TBH my tank looks better for not have courgette on sticks any more, and my otos are still fat!
  • A post featuring users lovely aquariums full of interesting botanicals they've collected to inspire people 🙂
  • ???? Any other ideas?

I want the thread to be collaborative, the table won't be complete and I am hoping it will inspire people to contribute so we can grow it. So hoping it can just be a big long great discussion for years, and I'm hpoing it will help prepare us for next Autumn so we can all go out and gather all sorts of good stuff!

How’s this coming along Rosie? I’m keen to get some recommendations of good ferns I can buy and grow out to farm some dried leaves 😉
 
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How’s this coming along Rosie? I’m keen to get some recommendations of good ferns I can buy and grow out to farm some dried leaves 😉
Slowly tbh, I've been hitting roadblocks in how to present everything in a comprehensive way when it's such a big topic. And like, it would be the biggest table ever, so just a lot of organising. A bit overwhelming! Will get there eventually though, just trying to chip away slowly. I will ask my dad for some fern recommendations, did you see that post I made a while ago about bracken? Apparently that works great, if you boil it first to denature the toxin! But will still ask, this year the fern I liked is stubbornly refusing to dry out to be useable! Very annoying! And annoyingly most of our ferns disintegrated into small bits as they dried so not useful at all as botanicals.

Hi all,

Go for it, <"cladistics is the way forward">.

Actually surprisingly good and, with and few exceptions, morphological and <"DNA based classification"> tend to <"line up pretty well">.

cheers Darrel
Omg I need to keep my mouth shut today I'm saying all sorts of random rubbish when my brain paraphrases!! Total dyslexic/praxic moment I got the name wrong too lmao, it's "Why Fish Don't Exist" by Lulu Miller. I listened to a podcast about it that talks about how is about taxonomy and some things being sung but I guess that was more in depth cos all the descriptions of the book are that it's about a prominent historical fish taxonomist and the writers connection with him. Lulu does great podcast so probs v good
 
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Went off to Wholesale Tropicals on Sunday... just to have a look, definitely not buy any fish. Certainly not...



... but....



....well.....



...I simply had to buy the marginatus pencils, they were very healthy and fat and stared right back at me, and nobody told me before how irridescent the pale parts of their stripes are! Proper gold/copper/pink/green constantly changing.

Luckily it was an excellent decision 🙂 Thank you all for helping me decide!


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Also luckily my floating plants have been going bananas and are covering the top of the tank rapidly!

The pencils don't school about much at all over than the first day I put them in, but they are extremely charming and fascinating fish. They aren't afraid of me at all, and they have made almost all the fish in the tank less jumpy - I used to have to slowly slowly crawl forward hoping I didn't scare the fish (other than apistos who've never been shy), now I can just walk up to it and sit down without problems. I didn't really expect it but it's great, the cardinals and otos are particularly out in front in a way they never were before, or maybe just for 10 mins at feeding time. I'd describe the pencils as... confident lol

They're like if tetras were smart, which is funny and a bit dangerous. The pencils boldness is great, they are very curious and go about playing all day, having little fights and are already breeding. They seem interested in all the other species of fish which I've never really seen before, usually other fish ignore each other but they are so curious. They love chasing each other around and they are a bit teritorial but not in a vicious way. Their little displays are great, and the red fins on the males are soooo red it's amazing, hopefully I can catch one of their fights on camera soon.

I wouldn't exactly call them a top of the tank kind of fish, they use the whole tank top to bottom (they love sinking food and are often on the bottom looking for it) and I only occasionally see them right at the surface, although they do like the top 10cm where it's really a thicket of growth. I've got the whole tank wrapped in clingfilm for the first few weeks but I'm not too worried about jumping, I haven't seen any particularly jumpy behaviour and they're rarely that close to the surface. They also don't care about the high flow at all, and since they're shaped like torpedos it's not too surprising! Also they have really cute lil faces.

After 4 days I'd say A+ fish, would recommend. Looking forward to seeing what they're like over the next weeks and months!
 
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Went off to Wholesale Tropicals on Sunday... just to have a look, definitely not buy any fish. Certainly not...
Thought they’d have them in stock, they usually do. Must say they look very healthy.

What did you think of the place? I’ve not been a while, are they well stocked up currently? Stocking was quite low during covid which was understandable, however it started to pick up again recently.
 
Went off to Wholesale Tropicals on Sunday... just to have a look, definitely not buy any fish. Certainly not...



... but....



....well.....



...I simply had to buy the marginatus pencils, they were very healthy and fat and stared right back at me, and nobody told me before how irridescent the pale parts of their stripes are! Proper gold/copper/pink/green constantly changing.

Luckily it was an excellent decision 🙂 Thank you all for helping me decide!



Luckily my floating plants have been going bananas and are covering the top of the tank rapidly!

The pencils don't school about much at all over than the first day I put them in, but they are extremely charming and fascinating fish. They aren't afraid of me at all, and they have made almost all the fish in the tank less jumpy - I used to have to slowly slowly crawl forward hoping I didn't scare the fish (other than apistos who've never been shy), now I can just walk up to it and sit down without problems. I didn't really expect it but it's great, the cardinals and otos are particularly out in front in a way they never were before, or maybe just for 10 mins at feeding time. I'd describe them as... bolshy lol

They're like if tetras were smart, which is funny and a bit dangerous. The pencils boldness is great, they are very curious and go about playing all day, having little fights and are already breeding. They seem interested in all the other species of fish which I've never really seen before, usually other fish ignore each other but they are so curious. They love chasing each other around and they are a bit teritorial but not in a vicious way. Their little displays are great, and the red fins on the males are soooo red it's amazing, hopefully I can catch one of their fights on camera soon.

I wouldn't exactly call them a top of the tank kind of fish, they use the whole tank top to bottom (they love sinking food and are often on the bottom looking for it) and I only occasionally see them right at the surface, although they do like the top 10cm where it's really a thicket of growth. I've got the whole tank wrapped in clingfilm for the first few weeks but I'm not too worried about jumping, I haven't seen any particularly jumpy behaviour and they're rarely that close to the surface. They also don't care about the high flow at all, and since they're shaped like torpedos it's not too surprising! Also they have really cute lil faces.

After 4 days I'd say A+ fish, would recommend. Looking forward to seeing what they're like over the next weeks and months!

Very nice, they look in excellent condition - I’m very envious, they’re definitely on my shortlist.
 
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