Mangrove Forest! Brackish Riparium

[hydrophyte]

A plant order arrived yesterday with the Cryptocoryne ciliata.

It will be interesting to try this plant and see if it will really grow in brackish water.

[Hobbes1911]

what about "freshwater" flounder?
Or lima nigrofasciatus?
And depending on the set up im sure you could also try a moray eel.... but I think I agree that a school of fish would look cool. And the eel was only a semi serious suggestion.

[hydrophyte]

That's funny you mention Limia because I was just reading about those. That is an interesting idea for this setup or I might also consider some for my 50 that I am redoing.

[Hobbes1911]

yea they would be rather cool ... and a shoal would definitely work.

[hydrophyte]

Have you ever kept them?

[hydrophyte]

Hey there are some L. vitatta on AquaBid.com right now. I might have to jump...

[hydrophyte]

I sent that AquaBid.com seller a message. I hope that I can get those L. vittata.

[hydrophyte]

I was just reminded about an underwater plant that is a true brackish water denizen. I want to note it here quick before I forget...

• Ruppia maritima, widgeon grass

I have looked around but haven't seen any kind of commercial availability for this plant. It sure would be cool to find it somewhere and try it out.

Here are Google results...

Google: Ruppia maritima

[hydrophyte]

Finally I cleared some space and got the tank set up. This is a 30 breeder.



I have these really great manzanita stumps that I am going to use in here. I have not yet had them in an aquarium and I stuck them in there to start leaching the organics out and get them to sink.

Now I need to go get some aragaonite sand for the bottom of the tank.

This is going to be a simple setup with some nice fish and plants.

[CL]

I've been waiting to see something like this develop for a while. Keep us updated!

[hydrophyte]

Hey Chris I haven't heard from you in forever. Do you have any new aquarium projects in the works?

[CL]

Hey Devin. School has been really busy, finals are coming up in two weeks, and I go to China a week after that. Two days after I get back I start summer class :roll_eyes:, but I'll only be taking one class, so I'll have considerably more time on my hands. Nothing right now though; I'm hoping to clean out this weekend all of the overgrown emersed stauro (which is flowering) from my 3 ft. iwagumi that I never really got running fully. Probably will just have some coffeefolia in there with some fish this go around, same scape.

But yeah, school along with all of the organizations I'm in takes a lot of time, so I haven't been around here much lately. I'm really fascinated that you've gotten you mangroves to grow the pneumatophores. Pretty inspiring to see that in mangroves that are grown indoors.

[hydrophyte]

It sounds like you have plenty on your plate. I am sure you will have more awesome scapes for us when you have the time and space for that again, but that is great to go out and do those other things. You should do as much of that kind of thing while you are young and don't have all kinds of obligations all over the place. What are you doing in China?

Yeah I was surprised to see those pneumatophores developing on the black mangroves too. It took a couple of years for the plants to grow to size and start developing the pneumatophores. I really want to get some red mangrove going as riparium plants and encourage their stilt roots to form. I understand that white mangrove will also develop pneumatophores. I have just one of those that's 18 months or so old and ~14" tall, but I don't see any pneumatophores yet.

[hydrophyte]

...picked up a 40 lb. bag of aragonite sand tonight.

[hydrophyte]

Those manzanita stumps are slowly taking on water, but still floating. The water is pretty well stained with tannins. I think I will switch out the water, add the sand and then shoot some pictures.