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It is often surprising to realize just how many of our aquarium plants are native to the United States and especially the Southeastern US. One of those exotic looking yet home grown plants is the lovely banana plant, Nymphoides aquatica. Found from New Jersey to Florida in ditches, still waters, and ponds it is one of my all time favorites. My first task was to locate where it could be found in North Carolina. I used my Manual of the Vascular Flora of the Carolinas to narrow the search down to specific counties. Craven County had a dot, and so was added to my itinerary for my aquatic plant collecting road trip. I thought surely I could not mistake banana plants for anything else, but you can never be too careful, so I brought my trusty, Godfrey and Wooten, Aquatic Plants of the Southeastern United States just to be sure. After several productive but non banana plant ditches I hit upon this site. Shazaam! Banana plants galore! Checking my Godfrey and Wooten for confirmation against what I was collecting I was sure I had success! Even a few baby banana plants. The eternal question always is: What do plants want? Knowing where and how they grow natively in the wild would go a long way towards answering this question, so I was determined to make observations and take measurements. Here was the temperature This is the water chemistry No nitrates, no GH, no KH and a very low pH. Surprisingly there seems to be a bit chlorine, but whatever the source, I guarantee it did not come from a water treatment plant as I was in a very remote unspoiled location. The substrate was 3 inches of mulm, over a couple inches of mud, over a sandy bottom. Most plants were firmly rooted all the way into the sand in about 1 to 3 feet of water. Some plants had lily pads nearly the size of my hand. Smaller plants on runners or nearer shore had more bananas. Some plants were flowering with delicate white flowers floating just above the surface of the water. I collected a handful of plants and headed quickly home to the 1930s Historically Accurate Planted Aquarium as these would be a very authentic addition!

Ramshorn Snail in my guppy tank.

So good!

Thanks for all of the info. I found something I could use in every response. For instance, I am rinsing my API test tubes in tap water only. I will follow the advice of rinsing them in tank water after I rinse them in tap water. I will be using my Tetra Easy Strips only to see if there are big fluctuations, and rely on API Test Kit for more accurate levels. I will hold off on the water change I was planning today and let my filter continue to cycle while monitoring the water. As always, I so appreciate all of you. I would be lost without this Forum .

Sunday breakfast

Another aquarium plant that I collected in that same ditch as the parrot feather and Ludwigia was Utricularia macrorhiza. It is a relative of the aquarium plant Utricularia graminifolia. Both are bladderworts. Bladderworts are very cool because they are a carnivorous aquatic plants. They have little bladders with trap doors and it is possible for them to ensnare aquatic insects like Daphnia. Some people think this strategy has evolved because the bladderworts live in such low nitrogen environments any additional nitrogen source is extremely valuable to the plant. They also have lovely flowers.

This post has been a well documented lesson in what to do for a fungal infection. Thank you so much for the steady stream of updates @BreeMarie, this is model for what I wish every post in the disease forum would be. It is how I learn on this forum. A problem is posed and then a course of treatment is followed. Often we never hear from that original poster again. One of my recent wild collected fish has injury in the same place that is developing a fungus. After following your experience here, I know exactly the course of medications I am going to treat the injury with.

Fire is looking pretty good. Considering dosing ichX and maracyn one more time after a water change today. It would be the third treatment. Her Dorsal fin is growing back!! Yesterday morning it was nothing but two clear little bits. Now it is all about a millimeter tall when she sits still and isn't zipping around. She is a fiend for the Xtreme Krill Flakes.

Snail just barely hanging on. The cherry shrimp are my new additions to the tank.

Been there. Done that mistake. Now, I always flush my tubes with tank water once, empty them out, then refill them with more tank water before testing. If you're filling them with a plastic pipette, do the same. Clean it out with the water you're going to be testing with. I find the API Ph test to be the most sensitive to residual water from a different source. I will second this observation as well.

Drove an hour and a half each way, did not have the fish I wanted. So we bought a puppy

Aquariums hold many more living things than fish. What is in your tank? I caught this grass shrimp last week in a ditch while collecting banana plants.

So I started with 20 fry over a year ago and I plan on starting my breeding project now that they are coloring up. I have a 55 for my males and a 75 that my females are living in at the moment but that will be the fry tank. I have 7 males and 10 females that I have selected. I plan to move the males in with the females after a week or so of good feeding. I have a pump blowing water over the spawning area in the 75. I do have a question what dose the temp have to be to get them to breed I am keepIng them in the garage and I want to know How low they will still breed at. I know they do well in cold water in the 50s and I've seen them in ponds with ice on them I'm just wondering if anyone has breed them at those temps?

Today I worked aquarium maintenance for 4 hours or more. The day shot away from me as I performed water changes in all four aquariums, and separated fish where I felt they needed to go. . Here is my favorite home bred male. He is a cross between a blue dragon male and a purple dragon ribbon fin female. He is larger than his father (trait I’m breeding for) and a deep indigo blue with snake skin body, metal saddle and a gorgeous half moon tail with a flash of deep gold not all his colors and detail came thru the picture. He will be bred to two Blue Dragon females I purchased recently These are in a 10 gallon aquarium. The male will be removed after a couple weeks Here s the trio in their own ten gallon aquarium Below is another ten gallon aquarium I recently rescaped for a different strain of Blue Dragon guppies These are home bred Ribbon fin females. These are the sisters of the male above they are half Blue Dragon and half purple dragon ribbon fin cross. Their size is better than what I started with and I love their form. I think they look wonderful. They have been moved into this tank to acclimate them while they finish maturing. They will be bred back to their father. Here is the father in an earlier photo That is the plan for now. Though when time comes I might choose one of the other sibling males to mate with these females If one matures out as well as the father. Will update in a couple weeks or when a change is noticed. Let me know what you think

Today I finally accomplished a 9 month long goal. Upgraded my 20 gallon tall to a 75 gallon, again. Stand still needs it's trim and bookshelves. Thankful that my husband built the stand and helped me get the sucker in place. Now my happy lil trees will have room to "grow" and I don't have to part with an antique family heirloom. Still have more plants to put in. But the few fish and shrimp that are in there are happy as could be. Also found 3 surprise flagfish fry when I was searching the 20 for shrimp to transfer over. I thought for sure any eggs or fry would become snacks so was not even thinking about baby fish. No thought to take a picture either. It's only been a little over an hour since I moved them and the 2 flagfish are already doing their dance. There is also a pair of praecox rainbows in there. Internet says fish don't school/shoal with other species, but all 4 of these stuck together the first hour. Explored together, played follow the leader. Tomorrow some of the mulmy substrate from the 20 will go in the 75 as well. I also have some black mollies, cherry barbs and white clouds to add in a few days. Husband was rushing me to move the fish so he could go to bed. Better tank pictures coming soon in the journal section.

Double bonus today, recently paired off angels AND tiger turquoise discus both spawning! (Note: this discus pair has only spawned one other time so far, they are not the pair that go at it like rabbits)

I know its nothing spectacular, but I have wanted to try a florida flagfish for a while (2 years maybe?). I just have been hesitant due to reading comments about them being aggressive or fin nippers. I finally hit order today. So wish me luck!

That definitely makes sense @Jessica.! I went that way, one, because of Cory's advice but also because it made the most sense to me personally since this poor fish was already having the roughest go of it and I've heard that the treatment isn't the easiest thing on their little bodies. And per this post thanks to you and others I'm feeling encouraged to follow my gut a little more than before all of this. Thank you @Cory! That is exactly what I'll do. I appreciate the 3-5 day method guidance. That makes a lot of sense and helps me on knowing how to make a decision moving forward for sure!

I was eyeballing archers. Now got five. Thankfully the wife wasn't too upset with spending that much money on fish lol. Resting the bank account for now, but maybe some more apistos. I feel like you can never have too many apistos.

Daphnia Blackworms Mosquito larva And it wouldn't be complete without baby brine shrimp, a cone full every 12 hours!

"We're gonna need a bigger tank!"

https://youtu.be/ikA2IiG_8gk

I currently keep a strain of White Cloud Minnows that is said to be extinct in the wild. I also know that the Chattanooga Aquarium is currently doing a program to breed some endangered species atm.

Go grab some White Clouds and you can do just that. The #1 cause of species loss is habitat destruction, to really tackle the issue their environment needs to be addressed.

@Kelly I find that I get variant readings if I use two different products like the API drop test vs the API or tetra strip tests. After you use one or the other a lot, you get good at interpreting the readings. With the strips I'm just interested in the trend (and the convenience of using them). Is nitrate going up? Is nitrite suddenly registering on the strip? Is my Ph suddenly very different from the last time I tested? I don't trust these to be super accurate, but I do trust they will show me changes over time, when compared to the last reading I took with them. I then use the API liquid tests to get a better, somewhat more accurate reading because I have come to trust these the most, personally. In general I'm ok with any test getting me in the ballpark of what the real measurement of something is. My personal feeling is that being approximately kind of accurate is a good enough measurement for the majority of aquariums. As important as that is understanding sudden changes from a prior reading. The difference between 2 and 10 nitrite and 5 and 20 nitrate seems like a huge difference. However, the reading on one of your test products vs the other seems to be a 4-5x difference. Could these products just use different scales? Don't know. Just a thought. Maybe not? Either way, the important take away from this is you're showing nitrite, so I'd hold off on adding fish until that reading is closer to zero on either test. Any maybe hold off on a water change so your nitrifying bacteria colonies grow and get established so you have them present in enough numbers to process nitrite when fish arrive. Even if your tests are off, your numbers in regards to nitrites should start to trend downward. And if they do, that's a sign the cycle is continuing as it should in the right direction. Nitrates as a result should trend upwards, and when nitrites are close to zero, but nitrates are higher, then water change to get nitrates to a reasonable level and add fish!

Lot's of great information posted. Here is my $0.02. Am by far, no expert, but I'll chime in with some practices that have worked for me. I have a lot of Java Ferns & noticed a potassium deficiency. Upped my Seachem Potassium to double dosing & the plants came back to life for me. Of course, every tank will be different, in many ways. Also , I double dose all aquariums with Seachem Trace, Phosphorus & Easy Iron, as appropriate & without issues. My aquariums are heavily planted & stocked & I do monthly 75% water changes. IMO, where folks may get into a problem, is when they look at I.E. Easy Green fertilizer & single out a specific nutrient they feel their aquarium needs and keep dosing. Easy Green is 'hot' in nitrogen & from many posts I've read, people are winding up with excessive nitrates in their tanks, just to 'up' another nutrient. Of course, are they doing regular maintenance, water changes, etc? Maybe\maybe not. Easy Green is a great fertilizer, but requires reasonably more tank maintenance. I use this fertilizer, as well, as appropriate, especially after a water change. Additionally, some people dose fertilizer too lightly and have issues. So, it's a give & take situation. Fortunately, I have become pretty good using Wonder-Shells, and know from approximate size, what it will do to my GH readings in various tanks. Everyone will have their opinion & what works for them & what comfort level\methods they feel is best for their aquariums.

Planaria always have the goofiest looks on their faces. They look like they are cross-eyed 🙂

I'm starting up a pond breeding project here in the Aussie summer of Native glass shrimp. Peacock gudgeons and Red neon blue eyes. I can't wait to get my tank (picking up next week) and get it going ! I may even post a blog on it here on how it goes and what it takes and my successes/failures.

Also to add. Remember to RINSE THE TEST TUBES each time. Not just in the tap water but flush them with tank water a couple of times. I've had people panic about 8.4 pH when it turned out to be the residual hard hot tap water they cleaned it out with mixing with their water and throwing the test out. Rinsed it a couple of times in their water and then all looks normal again. It's a super common practice in any scientific water sampling even with brand new water containers to rinse no less than 3 times before taking water to test.

The new fry system hard at work in the fish room. Trying to get more active in the forum and I thought this was a good starting point. This has changed the way I breed fish. Thanks Master Breeder Dean for being willing to share your knowledge.

She's making more shrimp for me.

Apple snail, in it's own tank, asking for more plants to devour.

A recently-trimmed crinum offers a yummy snack for ram's horn snails, while an assassin snail keeps an eye on his dinner. 🐌🐌🐌

I've got some Vallisneria flowering like crazy. Thought I'd share. I wonder if anyone knows why Val flowers? I've never had it do this before. It's sending up dozens of little blooms. The tank is an a greenhouse. Maybe the shorter days are triggering it? Temp ranges between 75-65. It's gonna be time to break this tank down for the winter soon, and I will miss the val. I started with 5 plants in the tank in May. The flowers sprout up in these long curls, then bloom when they hit the surface. (Forgive the reflections. There's not I can do to take photos in the greenhouse without getting them.)

My default position on all incoming fish is they have parasites. I would monitor poo and eating of all the others in the tank if he did have em and died from them there is a almost certainly parasites in the others now.

@Kelly your readings are a little confusing. I would tank a sample to lfs. They should offer complimentary testing, and maybe they can walk you through things. of course, it could just be some wonkiness with the tests, but since they likely test water all the time they can help pin point any issues or concerns.

I'm really pleased with mine as well.

Today I finally got my Quarantine Tank. Now I can get it setup this weekend and cycle it. I will use the extra sponge filter I have in my community tank. Also, added 10 cherry shrimp.

I like the Wonder-Shells for slowing raising my GH and pure baking soda for raising my KH. Have to be careful will the baking soda, though. It will raise the water KH & pH quickly. It is potent and should be used in small increments, to obtain your desired results. You mentioned that your pH is already 7.5 There are many products to get you there, as mentioned, but it will come down to personal preference. I don't 'chase the numbers', but rather try to add a bit of supplementation to keep my water in check. Often I marvel of what a fine balance aquariums really are; keeping both fish and plants thriving.