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Very first tank (planted, low tech)
- Thread starter megwattscreative
- Start date
Thoughts for emergent planting:
So far for the mossy tree stump I'm thinking keep the syngonium, add:
What do you think? I want to keep the lush feel but have it be a bit more manageable/ prunable/ slow growing. I think the cryptocoryne could struggle with the high light, unsure what others experience has been. I could add it lower in the waterline at the back for more shade. I really like the leaf shape, so would like to find something similar to this. A while back @hyrdophyte recommended lagendra meeboldii which also looks lush, just seems a bit harder to find from my research.
For the moss/plant wall I'm thinking:
- Tradescantia
- More creeping fig
- Microsorum that I can transfer from the tank (Inspired by hydrophyte and this post from @foxfish)
- Bolbitis (can transfer this from the main tank)
Id LOVE some shingling scindapsus, will see if I can convince mine to cooperate. Any other ideas? Thinking tillandsias, possibly a small orchid - anything with nice textures. The bottom 1/2 is well hydrated but the top half gets quite dry with the lights. Any advice or ideas welcome! Cheers all 🙂
So far for the mossy tree stump I'm thinking keep the syngonium, add:
- cryptocoryne blassii
- pennywort
- eleocharis vivipara
- ficus microcarpa.
What do you think? I want to keep the lush feel but have it be a bit more manageable/ prunable/ slow growing. I think the cryptocoryne could struggle with the high light, unsure what others experience has been. I could add it lower in the waterline at the back for more shade. I really like the leaf shape, so would like to find something similar to this. A while back @hyrdophyte recommended lagendra meeboldii which also looks lush, just seems a bit harder to find from my research.
For the moss/plant wall I'm thinking:
- Tradescantia
- More creeping fig
- Microsorum that I can transfer from the tank (Inspired by hydrophyte and this post from @foxfish)
- Bolbitis (can transfer this from the main tank)
Id LOVE some shingling scindapsus, will see if I can convince mine to cooperate. Any other ideas? Thinking tillandsias, possibly a small orchid - anything with nice textures. The bottom 1/2 is well hydrated but the top half gets quite dry with the lights. Any advice or ideas welcome! Cheers all 🙂
Looks promising! I've had cryptocoryne wendtii do fine I guess in my paludarium (surviving but barely growing), so C. blaassii should be doable. If you can find it, Lagenandra might be the better option though, and it has recently turned up on some suppliers lists here so could be worth another look. The others should all do well as long as you're a bit patient with the ferns.
Other options of the top of my head would be miniature Phalaenopsis (with the rosette mounted well above the water line) and Dendrobium (of nobile type), smaller Nephrolepis cultivars, and Streptocarpella saxorum (if you can keep the leaves dry). Vanilla orchids would love it in there, but probably gets a bit too big.
PeerUnk
Member
Nice project!
I always like having emersed plants in my aquarium hood. Aquarium plants although are indeed hard to grow them with less humid ambient air around RH 50%. And most common house plants don’t water as a all year round medium.
Reading the thread I came across some new species to try out🙏
The ones I had success with are: Callisia repens, Epipremnum (very common), Clusia rosea. And the ones which did okay: Hoya, Philodendron atom, Anthurium. Begonia maculata.
Cheers!
I always like having emersed plants in my aquarium hood. Aquarium plants although are indeed hard to grow them with less humid ambient air around RH 50%. And most common house plants don’t water as a all year round medium.
Reading the thread I came across some new species to try out🙏
The ones I had success with are: Callisia repens, Epipremnum (very common), Clusia rosea. And the ones which did okay: Hoya, Philodendron atom, Anthurium. Begonia maculata.
Cheers!
Thanks @PeerUnk and @hydrophyte! I've found lagenandra meeboldii on some sites I don't usually buy from so will have a look at reviews and see if I can trust em 😉 some great recommendations, I will have a further research and see what I can do 🙂
PeerUnk
Member
found a thread on another forum with some good info and links to other threads as well.
so good, I wanted to report it to you nice people:
Best Plant to Grow Above Tank
so good, I wanted to report it to you nice people:
Best Plant to Grow Above Tank
simon_the_plant_nerd
Member
You don’t have to have the plants with the roots in the water constantly. Use moss or cotton as wicks for plants slightly above the water line and you can use natural epiphytes. I’ve successfully grown orchids this way:
simon_the_plant_nerd
Member
I have some in my tank. If you can wait, next time I do a tidy up I can post you a small plant.
Ratvan
Member
Hope it works out for you.
Great tank I love the peace lilies. I like moss walls too and set up this little tank to experiment. The walls are filter foam. I covered the surface in java moss and tied it on with thread. Water is pumped up from the the bottom and trickles out of the bright orange ring (I ran out of plastic on my printer after making 10 versions of it lol) This is about 2 weeks in and has converted from its aquatic form I think if thats a thing for java moss.
Would be fairy easy to do the same with your set up if you wanted the thick moss wall look. If I did it for a big tank I would grab java, Christmas and what ever other moss to mix. I have seen people blend moss with yogurt and paint it on too not sure if you tried that
Would be fairy easy to do the same with your set up if you wanted the thick moss wall look. If I did it for a big tank I would grab java, Christmas and what ever other moss to mix. I have seen people blend moss with yogurt and paint it on too not sure if you tried that
richardcunliffe
Member
@simon_the_plant_nerd your orchid looks great. Big fan of emersed growth. But also, is that a googly eye I can see? One of my favorite early dates with my wife was Cambridge Botanical Gardens plus a large bag of self adhesive googly eyes. They were probably finding them for months...
Hi all,
Not much to update on other than @dw1305 gave me some corkscrew hazel bits and 2 microworm cultures.
Here is a healthy culture:
And here is a feeding portion🙂
Slightly putting this in for my own reference but also it's helpful to have a visual reference. When I have a bit more cash coming in I will get the plants updated in the emergent section 🙂
Not much to update on other than @dw1305 gave me some corkscrew hazel bits and 2 microworm cultures.
Here is a healthy culture:
And here is a feeding portion🙂
Slightly putting this in for my own reference but also it's helpful to have a visual reference. When I have a bit more cash coming in I will get the plants updated in the emergent section 🙂
Onoma1
Member
On emergent planting, I tend to seek out the sales bench in the indoor plant section of my local garden centre. Plants at under a pound a plant allows a bit of experimentation.
A little update I've put into the heirs and spares thread 🙂 WE HAVE CORY EGGS! ❤️ Hopefully fry soon 🙂 any advice on temperatures etc very welcome. Currently have the spare tank set to 22° like the main tank. Trying not to get too excited but also weeeooo
Hi all, just a little update from me 🙂 if I have Cory fry, I haven't seen them - although it's impossible to tell in the quarantine jungle.
I realised my old secondhand eheim had given up the ghost this week - I gave it a clean a week back when I noticed the flow decreasing, but it finally petered out. It was still making noise, just no flow! Noticed a general decrease in water quality - more algae spots on the glass, deteriorating plant health and a white patina on the Corys' fins. Could be fungal or white spot - honestly difficult to tell. So, I did some big water changes, bought a new airpump (details here) and it's fantastic! The pumps been running 30hrs or so and the corys have almost completely cleared up as far as I can see, aside from one white spot on a male's tail. I'm running it with more surface agitation than I could hope to achieve with the eheim and it's on about 25% of it's full force. I'm not aiming for super high flow long term, as it wouldn't suit the fish, but for right now I think it's a good water quality precaution. Will keep an eye on the Corys' and can dose with Esha as needed. Yesterday they were vaguely fungal, today they're almost completely clear and mating again! Who knows 🤔
Here's a little video of everyone hanging out in the sunny corner. Even finless is trying to breed! I was going to wait for my own fry rather than buying any more corys, but I think it might be worth buying some more to give the poor female a break. She's enjoying the microworm diet and is getting noticeably podgy (unless it's a horrible ailment I'm unaware of?). - she's the top Cory in pic below, but I think it's easier to see in the vid linked above.
Any idea on how to sex pygmy corys in the shop? They're always very small, so difficult to tell. I'm ideally looking for females, although don't know how much luck I will have. Thank you all for all your help and advice so far! I've enjoyed browsing the forum this morning 🙂
I realised my old secondhand eheim had given up the ghost this week - I gave it a clean a week back when I noticed the flow decreasing, but it finally petered out. It was still making noise, just no flow! Noticed a general decrease in water quality - more algae spots on the glass, deteriorating plant health and a white patina on the Corys' fins. Could be fungal or white spot - honestly difficult to tell. So, I did some big water changes, bought a new airpump (details here) and it's fantastic! The pumps been running 30hrs or so and the corys have almost completely cleared up as far as I can see, aside from one white spot on a male's tail. I'm running it with more surface agitation than I could hope to achieve with the eheim and it's on about 25% of it's full force. I'm not aiming for super high flow long term, as it wouldn't suit the fish, but for right now I think it's a good water quality precaution. Will keep an eye on the Corys' and can dose with Esha as needed. Yesterday they were vaguely fungal, today they're almost completely clear and mating again! Who knows 🤔
Here's a little video of everyone hanging out in the sunny corner. Even finless is trying to breed! I was going to wait for my own fry rather than buying any more corys, but I think it might be worth buying some more to give the poor female a break. She's enjoying the microworm diet and is getting noticeably podgy (unless it's a horrible ailment I'm unaware of?). - she's the top Cory in pic below, but I think it's easier to see in the vid linked above.
Any idea on how to sex pygmy corys in the shop? They're always very small, so difficult to tell. I'm ideally looking for females, although don't know how much luck I will have. Thank you all for all your help and advice so far! I've enjoyed browsing the forum this morning 🙂
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Congrats on the maybe-babs, Meg!
ScareCrow
Member
I've not kept pygmy corys for a while so don't have any here to check but looking at some images online, they appear to follow the normal pelvic fins characteristics as other corys.
Females have rounded pelvic fins to form a 'basket'.
Males have longer and more angular pelvic fins.
I can't find any top down images of them but often male corys have longer pectoral fins. I find this only shows when they are adults though. Also I find this method more difficult to apply as males are normally smaller than females. The males pectoral fins may be the same size or marginally longer than the females but it's the difference in proportion to body size.
Thank you @ScareCrow! That's really helpful, I will keep an eye out in my lfs. They're pretty good, so I might be able to request more females, but we'll see. I can also see from this image that my Cory is in fact not distended, just rather plump 😂
And thank you @Courtneybst too!! I honestly have no idea, I know they're breeding and I've tried transferring some eggs to a Qt tank, but whether they hatched/ failed/ grew limbs and walked off is a mystery to me.
And thank you @Courtneybst too!! I honestly have no idea, I know they're breeding and I've tried transferring some eggs to a Qt tank, but whether they hatched/ failed/ grew limbs and walked off is a mystery to me.
