Gaia: High-Tech 20L Journal- Post vacation pics 8/16/09

[Characins]

Wow Marko, you're tank is amazing now!

Great work! Inspiring!

[@marko@]

thanks characins.

here is a small update:
the java fern trident is making spores (i think). brownish dots on the undersides of the leaves. has anyone had then successfully reproduce from spores in a tank? i know it happens all the time in terrariums, but i never heard about it happening in an aquarium.


and here is a FTS (i just re-did the glosso):

[ZooTycoonMaster]

Holy crap I like the riccia "stream" and the Downoi

[chase127]

wow it looks great!!! i cant get my glosso to grow along the substrate :/

[@marko@]

thanks, zoo.
ive always been a fan of riccia. its a very nice plant, easy to work with, easy to shape, grows fast as hell, and pearls like mad.
the downoi is growing steady, but slower then id like. im still in the propogation stage, as opposed to shaping it.

[@marko@]

ok i thought its time for an update:
everything is growing good, and my belem hairgrass has fully grown in (it grows like a total weed!). the only things that im still waiting to fully grow in are downoi, rotala mini, and lileaopsis.
i got 2 german rams a few days ago. one male and one female. the male seems to be chasing the female away though (not too aggressively, im not worried for her), but they are very young, so i think that they probably arent even mature and wont pair up for a few monthes anyway.

pics:

[redfalconf35]

I'm very jealous!

[imeridian]

Wow, I really like how this tank is evolving!

...and it looks like, in the first picture, it has enough light and gravity for a small planet to orbit it.

[@marko@]

Originally Posted by redfalconf35

I'm very jealous!

thanks, lol.

Originally Posted by imeridian

Wow, I really like how this tank is evolving!

...and it looks like, in the first picture, it has enough light and gravity for a small planet to orbit it.

thanks!

lol, yeah the pics werent taken at the same time, some of them were during the noon burst, when the tank has 130 watts over it. the doubling of light isnt that obvious to the eye, but the plants really respond to it (when i increased the length of the noon burst by and hour, the plant growth rate almost doubled).

[@marko@]

after a week, my german rams that were barely getting along, decided it was time for some action. thats right, i have a spawn.
here is the scoop. my dad likes to buy live brine shrimp (its related, just keep reading), which he then feeds to his reef, and to my 20L. the shrimp are fed over a course of several days which they spend in the open bag, held upright inside the 20L (for heat).
today i got an email saying that he had an accident on saturday with the shrimp (im guessing he means the bag didnt stay upright, and a hundred or so brine shrimp were released into the tank for the fish to stuff themselves silly). and that today he saw the male guarding a clutch of 30+ eggs.
i will get some pics up by wednesday.

btw, i have a few questions:
can they eat BBS from hatching?
can they eat hikari first foods from hatching?
will they try and eat any algae they find in the tank?
when do they need to be removed from their parents?

[@marko@]

here are pics of the spawn (sorry for the poor quality, they were taken after lights off with flash).

[@marko@]

and here are freeswimming fry:



anyone have tips for raising them?

[@marko@]

i got some new plants (C. fructa, and a rotala). i put them in a while ago, and then spiffed up the tank. here are pics.
pre-spiff:



post-spiff:

[malaybiswas]

Originally Posted by chris127

wow it looks great!!! i cant get my glosso to grow along the substrate :/

Give them some light. Once they start some runners, clip off the vertical stems and plant the runners in the substrate. If you have good light, they will take off from there. I have so far done glosso FG twice this way and both times it has been successful. Alas, I am yet to get a magic formula for HC yet (other than emersed growth)

Marko - The tank looks great. For the frys java moss can be a good hideout.

Edit: It is normal for java fern leaves to create spores from where daughter plants spawn. Leave them that way till the baby plants are big enough and they will dislodge themselves. Then you can tie them separately.

[@marko@]

ok this tank has started experiencing issues (probably since i have gotten lazy and spent my time on my ADA 30C). the tank is totally overgrown, there is plenty of staghorn algae, and small tufts of BBA.

my java fern tridents started to dissolve into brown patches (happened to me before in a few different tanks, the leaves will all die back, but then the rhizome grows new ones). since it has happened a few times, sometimes to healthy plants, and that it is contagious from fern to fern, i think it is a virus. i think that in most conditions my ferns are capable of fighting it off, but any lapse and they will start to show symptomes.

anyway, this weekend i will be cleaning it up. big time. i will take EVERY plant out and trim it, remove algea infested foilage, and replant it. i may also do some minor rescaping.