Sub-alpine Creek biotope

[OnlyGenusCaps]

On 3/17/2022 at 6:15 PM, Odd Duck said:

I’m wondering if I can grow it as an emergent with the rhizoids in the water?

If you are thinking about Arbusculohypopterygium arbuscula (sorry @Biotope Biologist, I had to!) here, I am going to guess the answer is "no".  I had trouble keeping it on a mist bench.  The trick with this one (I think, but then what the he🏒🏒 do I know, I killed it after all) is that it doesn't tolerate drying out fully, but it must dry out some.  I over misted it, I think.

It was a shame because I got the moss from a friend who brought it back from Chile for me (he studies mosses and has both the export permits and import permits as well - yes, not only am I a nerd, I know nerds). 

[Odd Duck]

On 3/17/2022 at 9:20 PM, OnlyGenusCaps said:

If you are thinking about Arbusculohypopterygium arbuscula (sorry @Biotope Biologist, I had to!) here, I am going to guess the answer is "no".  I had trouble keeping it on a mist bench.  The trick with this one (I think, but then what the he🏒🏒 do I know, I killed it after all) is that it doesn't tolerate drying out fully, but it must dry out some.  I over misted it, I think.

It was a shame because I got the moss from a friend who brought it back from Chile for me (he studies mosses and has both the export permits and import permits as well - yes, not only am I a nerd, I know nerds). 

I’m afraid my air would be too dry and both air and water too warm for it.  If I had a ready source for it, it might be worth trying growing wet without mist and just ambient humidity directly off the water, but as much as I would like to try my hand at it, I’d bet that I would be dooming some innocent moss to certain death.

I do have an old 12 gallon tank with a full coverage Regent (Marineland) hood.  I once had it set up for frogs since it holds in humidity very well.  I have it rigged to use a powerhead dropped into the tank that pumps water up to foam blocks in a tray that flows across and drops back down by gravity after kind of touching a biowheel (did they ever work as designed?).  I had it set up to waterfall/trickle down across a big rock chunk at one point.  I could pretty easily rig a floating fogger on a timer to bump humidity.

I need to replace the old fluorescent light in the hood, but I’ve been meaning to do that anyway.  Been wanting to try some small carnivorous plants again - butterworts and sundews, maybe some sun pitchers (Heliamphora minor or pulchella).  Get some Utricularia in a “pond” section.  They have such beautiful, oversized flowers relative to the plants.

Hmmmmm.  This is going to take some planning and reading.  I need to get rolling on my Offish first.

[OnlyGenusCaps]

On 3/17/2022 at 11:25 PM, Odd Duck said:

I need to replace the old fluorescent light in the hood, but I’ve been meaning to do that anyway.  Been wanting to try some small carnivorous plants again - butterworts and sundews, maybe some sun pitchers (Heliamphora minor or pulchella).  Get some Utricularia in a “pond” section.  They have such beautiful, oversized flowers relative to the plants.

I don't want to pull from this awesome journal, so if you want to talk CP, start a thread on off-topic, tag me so I know it's there, and I'll be happy to do so!  I've scaled back (to make space for tanks!), but at one point I was keeping over 75 species, and serving on the board of the international society.  My point is, I can be coaxed into talk about those plants.  😏

[Biotope Biologist]

Y’all are nerds! Haha and I don’t mind having tangents on my journal. 

[OnlyGenusCaps]

On 3/18/2022 at 9:21 AM, Biotope Biologist said:

Y’all are nerds!

I don't know what you are talking about.  🤓

[Biotope Biologist]

I have today off so coffee in hand I spent a good half hour watching the tank. The hydra have taken off as have my baby ramshorn snail army. They form these tight groupings on the surface of the water in the morning before descending on the algae and biofilm in the tank. It doesn’t appear that the hydra can catch baby snails as I watched one trample over a colony.

This rock this morning had about a dozen baby asellus isopods on it. Again the hydra have no effect so their meal must be smaller. The isopods were eating the snail eggs it appeared. I have found some cases completely devoid of eggs, perhaps this is where they are going. I spotted 4 in this photo now we play a game of ispy 😋

under the mayaca lurks Joan Jett. This rock is her home and she comes out to say hello and tend her garden before going back in. I couldn’t grab a pic of her she was shy. I have seen the male in their too from time to time and I couldn’t tell but it looked like she was holding an egg case this morning 

Edited March 18, 2022 by Biotope Biologist

[Biotope Biologist]

The micro inhabitants of this tank are indeed doing well. I have seen some adult cyclops scooting along the bottom this morning as well as some rhabdocoela and some very very small detritus worms sticking to fallen pine needles. 
 

I now see why my hydra population exploded like it did although they have since retreated back to the tops of rocks and pieces of leaves.

 

And finally some proof that my winter heath didn’t just flower out and die on me. It still looks quite hideous at the moment but hopefully with some time will grow back these pine needles.

[Biotope Biologist]

Well it’s been “some time” was still worried the heath was going to need to be relocated outside but here is some hope. Some more hope is that I talked with a nursery and they said it is very common for these to do this after flowering so they push to get these out the door before it starts looking like death.

The algae is starting to look good. I have some hair algae in the 5 gallon too that I intend to start cutting into this tank. Far from the reaches of the onslaught of my ramshorns. Perhaps I was too premature with my purchase of them. I am aggressively culling babies.

 

Finally I intend to buy a hygger wavemaker 1600 gph for this tank. The ACO powerhead does it’s job but it’s bulky and I’ve always wanted to play with a wavemaker. I’ve heard they can make much more natural stream currents. And I feel I am only a couple months out on starting to add fish friends. 

[Biotope Biologist]

Sorry guys! I was temporarily neglectful of this tank for a time as I was waiting to hear back on a field research opportunity this summer (I didn’t get it).

 

But truly that was a blessing in disguise as I am ready to add fish and update this tank. Fish will come this weekend so I can dedicate the weekend to watching them. 
 

On to tank updates:

I moved the tank upstairs to get more light to the terrestrial plants. They were suffering downstairs in the dark.

The heather I had to say goodbye to. It started dropping new needles and I couldn’t transplant it without uprooting the rest of the structure, so off with it’s head. It has been replaced with some more moss collected at the creek as well as a clipping of false lily of the valley I got to start (my brother is becoming useful to me 😋). @eatyourpeas I saw the spider again she was healthy but immediately burrowed into the moss. Hopefully she will build her nest in the maidenhair so we can all enjoy. She has a crimson abdomen and black legs.

I had to make the unfortunate decision to buy assassin snails to diminish my ramshorn population. I saved 6 adults and put them in the jar but the rest are prey now. They were eating my plants and making it hard to cultivate algae. I admit my purchase of them was a bit premature.
 

on the prowl

[eatyourpeas]

Looking good, evolving nicely. I hope your little friend is a Phidippus johnsoni and not a Black Widow! 

[Biotope Biologist]

On 5/4/2022 at 11:11 AM, eatyourpeas said:

Looking good, evolving nicely. I hope your little friend is a Phidippus johnsoni and not a Black Widow! 

I was hoping the same thing! I really want a jumping spider for my isopod terrarium (apparently they don’t hunt or target isopods) and perhaps I could find this lovely lady a male… first I should ID her but she is incredibly fast.

[Biotope Biologist]

6 rainbow shiners now call this tank their home. 5 hangout together in this corner. 1 is a loner. It hangs out in the rockwork and I can only get pics of it’s butt. They are very shy right now so I try to limit interaction with the tank. 

The assassin snails, in other news, are lazy. The ramshorns have attempted to breed with them unaware of the danger they may face.

 

I also went ahead and added the Hygger wavemaker. Apart from some minor technology gripes (I dont read instructions) I would say I love this thing. It is QUIET and while I was playing with the wave setting I ultimately went with the constant stream function as it replicates stream environment  in my mind. Look how small this fan is and I only have it set on 40% power. This will be making its way into my brackish mangrove tank as well.

[Torrey]

I snortled over the technical difficulties explanation 😆

Looking good!

I have to have a comfortable seating area near all my tanks. The first week of new fish is typically my butt parked on the closest bench or chair, while I channel my inner sloth observing the new inhabitants. As they adjust to my face, I gradually move the chair closer, and eventually add feeding while sitting in the chair and resting my hand on the rim.

Needless to say, I coordinate new additions with times I can get away with doing nothing else for a week or two 🤣

[Biotope Biologist]

The shiners proved to be jumpers! I am a quick actor, but I wasn’t quick enough to save 3 that jumped out last night. I gave the other 3 back to the store, hopefully someone with a tight fitting lid can keep them happy.

 

As for me I go back to tried and true white clouds. I have a school of 10x young ones. They are unfortunately not strong enough swimmers for the wavemaker so I can leave that off until they become stronger swimmers. Even at 40% power they couldn’t hang

 

[eatyourpeas]

I am a fan of WCMMs and loving mine to pieces! I think these guys look great in your tank! 😍

[Biotope Biologist]

On 5/17/2022 at 11:52 AM, eatyourpeas said:

I am a fan of WCMMs and loving mine to pieces! I think these guys look great in your tank! 😍

I have always loved these lil' guys! Once they get older and color up they will be a sight to behold. I was bummed about the Shiners, I had a vision in my head for how I wanted this tank to be. But at the end of the day I worry more about their safety.

 

The White Clouds are so much more interactive and curious! I starved them this weekend while I was away and came back to see full bellies, so they are hunting too.

[eatyourpeas]

On 5/17/2022 at 12:02 PM, Biotope Biologist said:

I have always loved these lil' guys! Once they get older and color up they will be a sight to behold. I was bummed about the Shiners, I had a vision in my head for how I wanted this tank to be. But at the end of the day I worry more about their safety.

 

The White Clouds are so much more interactive and curious! I starved them this weekend while I was away and came back to see full bellies, so they are hunting too.

Mine survived ten days of my absence. They were happy to see me and get food. The pea puffer, on the other hand, is being like a cat and giving me the cold shoulder. 🤪

[Biotope Biologist]

Feeding time! They can’t eat a whole block of hikari daphnia so I divide out the cubes and freeze them into bigger cubes. The idea is slow feed but I think my water is too warm 🧐

They are coloring up quickly!

[Biotope Biologist]

Some macros of the lil’ ones. Notice the assassins snails have not done their job.
 

[Patrick_G]

Nice pics, I love the lateral stripe. I had no idea they had some blue in there.

[Biotope Biologist]

On 5/27/2022 at 12:10 PM, Patrick_G said:

Nice pics, I love the lateral stripe. I had no idea they had some blue in there.

Their lateral stripe when excited is an iridescent pink/blue it’s really fun to see. They mostly only do this around feeding time.

 

I am also noticing a prominent yellow finnage in a handful of them, making me think I might have received the selective bred ones by mistake (I’m not mad they were double the price I paid).

Edited May 27, 2022 by Biotope Biologist

[Torrey]

On 5/27/2022 at 12:57 PM, Biotope Biologist said:

Some macros of the lil’ ones. Notice the assassins snails have not done their job.
 

ORD 🥰😍😍

My assassin snail played "Follow the Leader" and a snail version of Chutes and Ladders with the ramshorns. They'll eat them when they get hungry, and will do a decent job of making sure the eggs laid now don't reach adulthood, but you may need to ask your LFS if you can rent some assassin snails... I discovered a single snail eats ~30 small to smallish/middish sized snail a month.... the bigger ones need at least 4 assassins hunting together.

I currently have 3 assassins, and they will share a mid-sized ramshorn and MTS that are <3/4" long. Anything bigger apparently needs more assassins to take down.

I collect the shells every 2 weeks when I clean the tank, and soak them in H2O2 for 48 hours, then rinse well, and add to tanks for aesthetics and to provide my fancy snails and shrimp with a fully balanced source of MgCa, and other minerals they need.

This is a betta cup (for size perspective), and it took all 3 assassins to take down that largest ramshorn... which is half the size of my adult rams. It's actually kind of cool watching them hunt together. Was a bit disconcerting to watch the youngest assassin "playing with it's dinner"😲

On the positive side, no protein skim on the surface from the assassins killing more than they can eat at once.🤷🏼‍♂️ (video is the youngest assassin playing.... Apparently I originally bought a pregnant female assassin, and didn't keep enough snails going into the tank to keep everyone happy....😢. Problem now solved)

[Biotope Biologist]

The black lizard loaches (Homaloptera zollingeri [5x]) arrived today! 
 

Ordered them up from Portland and arrived the morning after. Very healthy looking, but skittish. I turned down the lights and closed the blinds.
 

They also got a light show this morning with lightning strikes very close to my house (it shook the house). Seems we are getting some dry air up from California.

 

Excuse the bad pictures I’m trying to zoom in from the couch as to not stress them. The WCM got some aphids and daphnia this morning to keep them distracted. Will get better pics in a few days. Didn’t know they had a banded pattern.

[eatyourpeas]

Fun! I just looked up Black Lizard Loaches and they look beautiful. Can’t wait to see more pictures.

My WCMMs love aphids too! It is nice to know they’ll have plenty of food when I go away for a while.

Thunder shook our house as well! 🤪

[Biotope Biologist]

All 5 hang out on this stump where they blend in effortlessly. I also changed the filter output because it kept dumping water on the floor. Love the configuration ability of this filter.