Other plants and aquarium
 

This year, I backed off on buying orchids, and decided to purchase a few other plants that I have been interestd in. I got several "Russian" African Violets-- some outrageously weird. I also bought more aquarium plants. Before it gets too cold I am getting some tissue cultures for aquarium plants-- can't wait. Well, I guess I have to wait because, like orchids, aquatic plants are notoriously slow. I did buy a few orchids: Cattleya lueddemanniana, Cattleya trianae, and Paph. Shireen (glaucophyllum x philippinense).

I am buying the aquatic plants because I have a 2nd planted tank in the works--a used 60-gallon hexagonal tank (huge) that I bought for 45 dollars which was quite a steal. I plan on thickly planting, but not overstocking with fish. I have a population with 2 angelfish, and several tetras, which will go into the hex, and the 75 (15 gallons more) will have the 2 blood parrots, pleco and another group of tetras.

Right now the blood parrots and angelfish are roomies.

I'm a big fan of the Russian hybrid violets. Do you ever shop at The Violet Barn?

Gosh! I forgot I made this post! I hope you return!

I have not shopped at Violet Barn, but I have looked at the website and see some I would really love.
The ones I am dreaming of now are heavily variegated. Like Rose Bouquet, Happy Harold, Fisherman's Paradise, Lillian Jarret, or Tiger.

I have a few with Tommy Lou variegation, but none where the whole leaf has little white specks, and I would love a few.

I have a few interesting leaf types. I have Senk’s Snowy Egret, which is both variegated and has longifolia leaves, and Ma’s Melody girl, which has "girl" foliage with a lot of pink in it.

My list:

RS. Driada
Silverglade Apples
Water Sprite Vodonia
Senk’s Snowy Egret
Wrangler’s Boot Stomping
Wrangler's snow bride
Vat Light in the Night
LE Mojito
Live Wire
Picasso
Optomera Rhapsodie Michelle
RS Gertsoginia "DUCHESS”
Ma’s Melody girl

Russians: RS Driada, Water Sprite (Vodonia), Vat Light in the Night, LE Mojito, RS Gertsoginia "DUCHESS”


So far, I have gotten most at a nursery about 1.5 hours drive from my house. They are mostly from the vendor "Harmony." I have only passed on one that now I am angry at myself for not getting. I like looking at plants before buying. (Even with Orchids, I would like to actually see the plant in person before buying it). I have one (Silverglade Apples) that I got as a leaf plug on eBay. It is finally getting big (I got it last summer). I also had a bad experience with leaf cuttings and I decided not to risk it again. I bought about 12 from 2 sellers and I lost all but one. I did not even choose the one that grew (RS Driada), it was a "bonus" plant. So, I will not try leaves again. That was an expensive mistake.

Well howdy. I'm unfortunately not big on keeping the names of violets. And have lost a fair share of tags on orchids, I will also confess. One of the worst about remembering names and keeping tagged. But I can sure still talk violets and aquariums. :D

I have several Episcia (flaming violet, chocolate soldier) that I've had for over fifty years. Well, you know what I mean. The original starts were from my maternal grandma, who got me hooked on planting any and everything when I was a very young child. They're my favorites of course.

You have any mosaic leaf violets? I had some of the old style ones, but gave away when my orchid frenzy awoke about twenty years back. One of them appeared like the Lilian Jarrett seen on VBarn. I really want a BloodShot (standard) but have been trying to control the impulse. Did you see the newer Russian LE Mont St Michael? What an interesting bloom. Must have. Or PT Beautiful Signorina?

I know what you mean about wanting to see any plant up close and personal before purchasing. Violet Barn has done an excellent job though, or I wouldn't recommend. At a fair price, I think. Yes, leaf cutting purchases are highly overrated. Think how hard it is to start them from one's own plant, let alone have them shipped.

And Oh, aquariums. LOL... so many hobbies, so little time. I have a 150, a 75, a 55, and two 20 longs. All in storage in my garage. I'll start hauling them back out one by one someday. When I retired (water garden owner) I was super tired of all the water changes, etc, etc. Do you use C02 in your aquariums?

Okay, I have to stop before I go buy a new violet or dust off an aquarium. :rofl:

I've got a handful of 10 gallon planted tanks sitting around. I keep things simple these days, though. No particularly fancy/rare plants anymore, simple LED and fluorescent lighting, minimal additives, etc.

In years past, I used to breed killifish. That was a second job (along with the orchids and other pets) and it got to be too much to handle to my standards. Over the past 4 or 5 years I kept the sexes separate, and with time, the population died back and sold off. I'm now down to a clown pleco, the last male Fundulopanchax gardneri, and multiple cherry shrimp colonies. That's much easier to manage than a dozen plus 10 gallon tanks and dozens of tiny fry tanks. It may be awhile before I'm completely fishless, since clown plecos can live a long time (I had one that lived for 13+ years) and these non-annual killifish can have surprisingly long lives as well.

Eventually I would like to have a single larger sized tank (maybe a 40 breeder) with a school of a small, colorful Australian rainbow species like Pseudomugil gertrudae. However, I don't foresee that happening any time soon.

I thought I had a mosaic leaf with the Wrangler's snow bride. At first the leaves were kind of spattered with specks of yellow on light green. I now know that something went wrong with the poor thing. As it grows from the center some nice thick white TL varigation is happening.

I don't have CO2 I just have a bunch of amazon swords, in a 75 gallon with blood parrots, tetras and some angelfish.

I have a small 29 with low light plants and kuhli loaches and glass cats, and amano shrimp.

I have a 60 gallon hex in the garage that I would like to put the 2 blood parrots in.

I work from home for the most part so taking care of fish and flowers is not too much of a hassle.

Oh, the plant tags thing: My standard MO is bringing them home, and then going into the computer and writing the name down (in the computer). I can mark the plant up any way I want after then. Tags with coinciding numbers is a good way to go. I just go into the computer when I need to look up the name.

The AVs mostly have tags. I keep them in small self-watering pots that are 2 part, an inner and an outer pot. I put the plant tag inside of the pot in between the inner and outer wall of the pot.

I will take a few pictures of the flowers as they show up.



Oh, I forgot, I really don't know how to distinguish hobby from work. I work as a fine artist (sculptor), and part-time 2 year college teacher (English), and have a variety of hobbies: other arts, (painting etc), Languages, (Russian, Spanish, and learning French, and several more, Italian, Romanian, Dutch), Plants, fish, sewing (now with a serger!), and then I am also passionate about things like cooking (I make bread, wine, pickles, and good old-fashioned "all other than I can." That's about all. I also have to keep up on business stuff like website building, accounting, and meeting with vendors, clients etc. Obviously, I can not do all this every day, all the time. But I mostly keep busy.
I don't understand what "having nothing to do" is all about.

I looove killifish! I was first introduced to them by a shipment of water lilies purchased from a wholesaler in Florida. When we started to repot, all these gorgeous little gems started flopping around on the table. Had to look them up, as I'd never been introduced.

Thus started a few years with a 150 tank full of killifish. You can imagine how that tank glittered. Y'all are gonna get me started with fish again... stop it! :rofl:

I asked about CO2 because Optimist was talking about a planted tank. I've never used it... too much maintenance for me... but some of the aquascaped tanks I've seen, especially the competitions, are beyond gorgeous. Like looking into a whole different world.

On the work vs hobby comment... what's work? If I don't like it, I don't engage. :blushing: I've never been bored for a moment in life thus far. What's bored? I could start a rant about it, but I'll refrain.

Just started a search for making the perfect SanFran sourdough bread. Have a really old starter given as a Christmas gift two years back. Man, is there ever a learning curve to sourdough. I've made bread for years and thought I was pretty good. It's been a humbling experience, and I'm still learning. Plus even the mistakes are pretty tasty.

Sourdough and cycling fish tanks have a lot in common. Newbies to aquariums wonder where the beneficial bacteria (Nitrobacters, Nitrosomonas) come from. It is a real reach for some people to understand that you are trying to get invisible floating microorganisms that are "everywhere" into your aquarium. This is totally the same thing that his happening with sourdough starter. You put some flour and water together in a cup and then the little floating microorganisms float right into it.

It is totally interesting to think that there is an invisible world that we can't see and that we are symbiotic with. Like they say there are millions of foreign "animals" living in each of us. The human body contains trillions of microorganisms — outnumbering human cells by 10 to 1.

And "work" to me, means an occupation (that you would not do otherwise) that monopolizes all of the time that you could be doing work that enriches you, while it also allots to you a fraction of the earnings (on the arbitrary belief that your time is worth X-money) actually made by that occupation, meanwhile making other people rich while you are made a "debt slave."

Kind of breathy definition. I'll work on it.

LOL... That "what is work" question was rhetorical. But I agree with your breathy definition. :biggrin:

I cannot believe all of you are tantalizing us so, and not posting ANY PHOTOS.

I know, that's just mean..........where are the pics?

My AV's are in a kind of rest period right now. I have a few developing, but not many. My fish tank (The amazon swords) were all pruned back because I have been fighting an issue with diatoms (aka "brown" algae). I also have no sourdough bread starter so I can't show you that. I would like to see a picture of the killifish.

I used to have a killifish. It was a hungry SOB and ate a lot of my endlers guppies (small wild guppies). I re-homed it. I have not trusted killifish since.

We'll try to do better in the future! :rofl:

You have algae? Here's a couple of pics of the worst tank black algae I ever had in my life. Came outta nowhere. And yes, I still used this tank for a long time.
http://www.orchidboard.com/community...cture12847.jpg
http://www.orchidboard.com/community...cture12846.jpg
http://www.orchidboard.com/community...cture12845.jpg

Was that a CO2 tank? If you covered the tank completely to exclude light, and turned off the lights, how long would it take to kill the algae?

Nope. A plain ol' freshwater 75 with cichlids in it. Bought a piece of java fern that had black algae on it. Voila!

Yipes! That is a ton of algae. If I had it that bad, I would be taking out each stick and stone and scrubbing it. How did it eventually clear up?

My brown algae problems started when I put a (supposed) diatom reducer in the filter. Since the filter had just been washed, I did not take it out. I think this weekend. I really would like to save my sword plants.

I also got a new light that was a higher light output. I think the higher light really started the problem.

I am not sure what I have really. It is a rusty brown color. Then there are wispy white algae like patches. I vacuum the bottom of the tank occasionally. My fish hate me so I try to reduce scaring them as much as I can.

Rusty brown = diatoms
Whispy white algae-like patches. Likely a fungus. Overfeeding perhaps? If it were staghorn algae it would be harder to remove.

I put my fish into a different tank, blasted the tank with algaecide, then waited. Then washed off rocks, etc. Didn't even attempt to save the plants. The base was Tahitian moon sand (black). So no intensive gravel filtering there.

I'm still fighting it, but cleaning more often. The filter gets dirty faster. Since last writing, I've put in a circulation pump to keep the water circulating better and keep the algae from falling on things, so it gets into the filter, I also started to scrub the plants with a "fine" scratchy pad hoping that if i get the stuff off them the plants will grow faster. I also put another of my "homemade" fertilizer tablets under the plants. I still will have to vacuum every day. Before, I had a different set of plants and parameters. I had low light (anubias etc) on wood with a bare bottom tank, then I added sand, and then I added a substrate and took out the plants and went over to amazon swords. They have melted a bit, but are now getting new roots. Sadly they were big and beautiful when I bought them, but they also came from overseas and were originally immersed instead of submerged. I am guessing they will take a whole year more to grow to the big size they were before. In the meantime, when it is safe to send plants through the mail, I will get some fast growing plants, cabomba, ludwigia or something like that to out-compete the algae.

Tell me what you think would make a good companion plant for swords that will get very tall. (in a 75 gallon).

There are a few things I can't afford to do like go RO water. Any other ideas?

Sadly OB will not allow me to post photos unless they are in the cloud (some server) and have a URL. Nothing works like it used to work, so I can't post anything. You used to ever upload a thumbnail from your computer, and now I can't do that either. So my not posting photos is the fault of OB, not mine.

Okay, plants, aquariums, and finally some sourdough pics by hungry requests. This is what occurs with the wild yeast and some good bacteria floating around.

First we have an unfed starter...kinda gross looking, right? Lost the picture of the starter ready to use, so here it is just after kneading. Third is the bread five hours later after its final proof. Plopped onto a pan, boule slashed, and ready for the oven. And then, the best part... ready to eat.

Hold on!?! WW you aren’t sharing sourdough??

This thread needs to come back. We have to have some more aquarists around

My tank is humble and small but I’ll post a pic tomorrow to get this rolling again

With the way our postal service is going, I doubt shipping sourdough would work well. The starter, probably.

The aquariums I have left are all in storage in the garage. Plants have kinda taken over their spaces for now. Reason #27 for needing a greenhouse.

Some drosera capensis and a butterwort. They pretty much eliminated the gnat issue in my tent and have started to become malnourished...started feeding betta pellets.

Attachment 146746Attachment 146747

WhT kind of ping? Looks like one of mine. Sethos or something like that

Moranensis J. Ordered off eBay...arrived with a tiny bud tucked under the leaves which I recently pulled out and planted off to the side. Honestly, it’s done very well and looks much better than when I got it. The growth rate has dropped precipitously with the lack of constant gnat feedings. Fed it some spider and grasshopper bits the other day and just gave it a couple dabs of betta pellets. Such cool plants!

Killing a little time... have enjoyed seeing this thread stay afloat, along with the photos of sour dough:), the BBA aquarium farm, and the ping and sundew.

Always had the 'bug' for aquatic critters and plants. My fishroom has been retired for some time, and like MrHappyRotter and WaterWitchin, I try to keep things simple (and what remains of the fishroom is stored in the attic).

Just recently broke down (because of laziness on my part) 2 small 10-gallon farm tanks that I kept going mainly because of the 'bug', and to give friends some live foilage for their aquariums. These were fairly easy to maintain - ferts & CO2 (CO2 gas injected into a simple diffuser, CO2 levels were initially monitored by a drop checker until CO2 levels were dialed in and plants were happy).

Fairly uncomplicated... got complicated by me having to call a friend who owns a fire-extinguisher company to refill the CO2 tank (doing me a favor and never charging me for the refills). Managed to keep a small 3-gallon nano because of the 'bug' that won't go away. Low maintenance set-up, slow growing, low light - growing assorted ferns, anubias, moss, & buces).

Retired 10's

https://i.imgur.com/Iyiom1o.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/7bAW2Zz.jpg

The 3-gallon

https://i.imgur.com/7eMfrrz.jpg



F

i love how some people's "simple" is another person's "amazing setup"

you are the former, I the latter :)

@ Wisdomseeker - Wow, those are beautiful; Your setups are so clean and elegant! Would you mind showing your spaces that house the tanks as well as your ping terrariums?

No problem, you caught me at a good time (my afternoon off so I was able to snap a few photos).

I have several pings scattered about. I did have one dedicated ping terrarium. Over the weekend I made several ping divisions, gave away several plants, and broke this terrarium down over the weekend (to make room for several new orchid divisions, also made over the weekend). My camera is not not very good with full shots of my large terrariums (crappy clarity) but does a fair job with the smaller setups. I have a small cubby hole under one of my terrariums that allows me to maintain a small tray of some of the divisions I kept. The small exo (8x8x12") and one of my acrylic set-ups came out okay with the camera pictures. Kind of gives you an idea of the spaces. Other pictures are pings in different orchid set-ups. Photos below.

https://i.imgur.com/vpGABfgm.jpg https://i.imgur.com/JLFtrS7m.jpg https://i.imgur.com/ikuXOjtm.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/6AfALtdm.jpg https://i.imgur.com/uhHpivZm.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/vgEFrwKm.jpg https://i.imgur.com/H3mFbFHm.jpg https://i.imgur.com/6TE6JnDm.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/EUPuNuAm.jpg https://i.imgur.com/yQ7Jdvam.jpg https://i.imgur.com/djHblE7m.jpg

amazing as ALWAYS WS....so calm and tranquil

forgive my ignorance but how do you divide a ping? i have one that is clearly several plants at this point and I was just assuming it was better to leave it like that, i did not know propagating like that was a thing...is there any downside? how do you do it? a razor blade? just put and twist?

thanks

Awesome, love it; Thanks for sharing! Do you feed the pings? Mine seemed to really slow down after not eating for a couple weeks.

Nothing to forgive, and you sure the heck are not ignorant! Years ago I had to testify in court, along with another very talented specialist (supposedly as expert witnesses) regarding a major water pollution violation.

As I was questioned, I responded truthfully and did not go beyond the facts. The defense lawyer ripped me a new one per se (really putting me on the defense) until I asked a question, and stated: "the reason I asked my question is because I did not know and would like to know/learn. He dismissed me and called the other expert witness to the stand.

The defense lawyer introduced the other witness as an "expert witness". This particular witness stopped the lawyer "dead" in his tracks by saying: "There is no such thing as an expert. An expert knows how to perform sex a hundred different ways, but guess what? He has no one to perform it with! I am not an expert, I am a specialist. An expert realizes there is something new to learn everyday about their specialty. And again, guess what? I definitely have someone to perform with."

Bottom line: the lesson I learned ~ only the smart ones ask questions. It also provides answers to people like me that don't often ask questions, or are afraid to ask questions.

I usually let mine clump togeter until they really start hanging over the pot (overcrowded). At this point I will gently use a teaspoon under the roots of the clump to pull the cluster free. Then I *gently* twist and pull the offsets from the clump. I will usually lose a few leaves in the process, but it's no biggie. Also some of the removed offsets might (or might not) have roots. Again, no biggie, roots and leaves will grow in short time. After being removed, I repot the individual plants. A couple of weeks and they have a good toe-hold and are strong. Photo below shows a cluster with 4 new offsets attached to the mother. Did not divide this one until leaves were hanging off about 1.5" of the pot diameter.

http://i.imgur.com/Kv1Reqb.jpg

Occasionally with a *weak* orchid or tillandsia fertilizer, outside of the stray fungus gnats they capture on their own.

I love that story and I thank you greatly for the knowledge

:bowing:

Do you try to root the torn leaves? I've read this is supposed to be fairly easy with the Mexican Pings.

I’m trying this now but only have one leaf to spare at the moment so odds may not be in my favor. I do have a few sundew leaf cuttings in water that are starting to generate plantlets...pretty cool.

Love the story, wisdomseeker.

Thanks for the compliment - much appreciated!

Glad you brought this up. Leaf propagation is another way to get a ping population going. Slow, but it definitely works. Personally, I toss my torn leaves... have been down sizing my plant populations and trying to keep maintenance tasks bearable... a ping farm would become overwhelming for me at this point of time.

Definitely let us know how things work out. Sundews are a lot of fun, and they are amazing plants.

Will do! They’re just budding atm but I’ll post up some pics as soon as they get rolling. And I’ll always take any pings you need to rehome! :dance:

So my daughter wants a carnivorous plant now. She always gets problems with fruit flies, and I told her she needed some carnivores. Of course she tasked me with finding her the perfect match.

She leads a pretty hectic life between work, two small kids, restoring an old house, etc, etc. Her husband does most of the plant watering inside. I've never been successful with carnivorous, but as I've read a bit (instead of just grabbing a venus flytrap and going for it) I realize some of my errors.

Also, I realize there quite a few variances in their cultural requirements... who knew ya couldn't just treat them like a common philodendron or hoya? :biggrin: Anyway, something that eats fruit flies, doesn't go dormant, preferably sits in a saucer of water, north facing window (their phals grow well there) and easy grower?

I figure the sitting in water part would go with their lifestyle, which is water plants once a week. Recommendations please?

i have a second small bog i started in the n yard and i took a few of the leaves off the bottom of a couple pings to try that....i am quite nervous about splitting the big one though lol