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My 5 ft planted community

rr16

Active Member
5 Year Member
Messages
536
Well, here are a few from my 5 footer - approx. 250m litres when full!
2 female aggies.jpg
2 female aggies.jpg
5 footer.jpg
2 female aggies.jpg
5 footer.jpg
 

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  • female aggie defending.jpg
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Duffmanj

Member
Messages
117
Real nice tank man. What apistos do you have in there other than agassizii? Don't recognise them immediately
 

Josh

Administrator
Staff member
5 Year Member
Messages
496
Location
Redlands, CA
Excellent looking tank and great photos! I'm hoping my new 60 gallon project turns out looking something like that! :)
 

rr16

Active Member
5 Year Member
Messages
536
1 male and 1 female panduro and 1 male and 3 female aggasizi. Had this tank going for a while and I guess it's my South American community.
 

rr16

Active Member
5 Year Member
Messages
536
Thanks. Have just pulled a load of the Hydrocotyle out and let some more light down to the front of the tank. I've swapped the A. panduro pair and put them in my blackwater set-up upstairs and put my male A. barlowi in this one until I can get a female. The A. panduro male is really starting to mature and colouring up nicely upstairs in the blackwater and has a lovely fluorescent orange marginal stripe to his tail. Will get a pic at some point.
 

Dano1311

Member
Messages
50
Location
Chesterfield, uk
what sort of fertliser do you use, ive tried using a carbon based one and once i started using it, i started to get a black algae growing off wood/glass and now the plants, i have stripped wood out and scrapped all of it off but just comes back :( wondered if it was down to using a carbon based fert?
 

rr16

Active Member
5 Year Member
Messages
536
To be honest I haven't used any fertiliser in here for quite some time. I used to just dose JBL ferropol and for some time I had a DIY CO2 kit made from a coke bottle, but I haven't replenished this for quite some time. I'm thinking of dosing JBL ferropol again soon but will see how the plant growth goes with some more light entering the lower levels. I do have peat in the filter and in bags dotted around the back of the tank so these may be adding some nutrients, as may be the decaying leaves. Where there are areas with more exposure to light I do tend to get some blue-green algae and also some black brush algae, but this is limited due to the surface cover. The Beckford's pencil fish seem to keep the blue green algae in check as they will often be seen feeding on it. I haven't done a water parameter check for quite a while now but am going to do one over the next few days and check the nitrates etc, but I imagine the nitrates will be low as they often are due to the uptake from the plants.
 

rr16

Active Member
5 Year Member
Messages
536
Well, the nitrates were between 1-5ppm, the ammonia and nitrite 0, the phosphate high at 1.8ppm and the iron pretty much zero. GUess that means I'll be dosing with ferropol when I get some!
 

rr16

Active Member
5 Year Member
Messages
536
Hi all,
Have a look at the "Duckweed Index", it is just a KISS solution to maintaining plant growth without needing to test, and carbon etc. Details toward the bottom of this thread <http://www.apistogramma.com/forum/threads/daphnia.12707/>.

cheers Darrel


Hi Darrel - just a question you may be able to answer. I've had a massive die off of duckweed (Lemna?) in this tank recently (without even noticing so I mustn't have been paying attention!). This has come about after the Pistia stratiotes has spread a lot. The Salvinia has also died back a lot. Do you know whether Pistia releases any chemicals that will inhibit the growth of , or kill, other plants such as duckweed? I suppose it could be that the nutrient levels in the tank are generally rather low also as the Pothos and the Hydrocotyle are probably taking a lot of the nutrients from the water column. Anyway, just a thought and therefore a question to a botanist as I have heard about chemical warfare in plants before with many releasing chemicals to inhibit others.
 

dw1305

Well-Known Member
5 Year Member
Messages
2,755
Location
Wiltshire UK
Hi all,
I've had a massive die off of duckweed (Lemna?) in this tank recently This has come about after the Pistia stratiotes has spread a lot. The Salvinia has also died back a lot. Do you know whether Pistia releases any chemicals that will inhibit the growth of , or kill, other plants such as duckweed? I suppose it could be that the nutrient levels in the tank are generally rather low also as the Pothos and the Hydrocotyle are probably taking a lot of the nutrients from the water column. Anyway, just a thought and therefore a question to a botanist as I have heard about chemical warfare in plants before with many releasing chemicals to inhibit others.
It is most likely to be a nutrient and light issue, Pistia is pretty effective at harvesting both parameters.

I've got some tanks with Duckweed (Lemna minor), Salvinia and Pistia, but the Duckweed never looks very happy (too nutrient poor, low pH?) and if I left them alone over time they would become Pistia dominated (it would shade the Salvinia out).

Inhibitory chemical release is called "allelopathy" and Pistia contains a whole raft of potential allelochemicals, many of which are active against micro-algae in solution.

There has been a lot of work on Pistia and α-asarone, but the actual role of allelopathy in vivo isn't clear.

cheers Darrel
 

rr16

Active Member
5 Year Member
Messages
536
Sounds interesting. Thanks for the reply. Allelopathy eh. My biology practical project at A - level involved trying to germinate lettuce seeds in petri dishes with citrus seeds (one of them anyway - the other no doubt involved a measuring cyclinder, hydrogen peroxide and potatoes!).
 

rr16

Active Member
5 Year Member
Messages
536
Here are a few of the male A. barlowi in here that I've taken in the last day or so.
 

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  • A barlowi male and aggie male.jpg
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rr16

Active Member
5 Year Member
Messages
536
I just love it when this happens! We'll have to see what happens. Another female aggassizi just got into the cave and was chased away but the female barlowi seems to be routing around there a lot. I guess I'll just wait and see what happens, but a nice sight to come home to.
 

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  • Female aggassizi with eggs.jpg
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rr16

Active Member
5 Year Member
Messages
536
Here are a couple of videos of the barlowi. My videoing skills need brushing up on.
 

rr16

Active Member
5 Year Member
Messages
536
Well, nothing seemed to come of the wrigglers, but I've now put my A. nijsseni male in here, along with a young possible A. barlowi I picked up the other day. So, in with the mix of the other apistos and the discus, it's making for an interesting mix at the moment! Glad I put more leaf litter in. Here are a few pics.
 

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rr16

Active Member
5 Year Member
Messages
536
Here are a few photographs from today in this tank. I was about to move a load of wisteria out to let light through for other plants when I found 2 approx.7-8 mm Nannostomus beckfordi fry. I decided to leave the plants as they are!
 

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  • A. agassizi female in plants.jpg
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  • A. barlowi pair.jpg
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  • N. beckfordi fry 1.jpg
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rr16

Active Member
5 Year Member
Messages
536
For anyone who's interested here are a few mediocre pictures of a territorial dispute between my A. nijsseni male and the A. barlowi pair!
 

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  • A. nijsseni display.jpg
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  • apisto territorial dispute 1.jpg
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