Guppysnail Aquarium Journal

[Isaac M]

@Guppysnail for crypts I would highly recommend root tabs or organic soil or some sort of enriched substrate. They can grow in plain gravel too but they just wont grow as great. If you are worried, I would go with bolbitis or even a different kind of anubias, there are some interesting ones out there (coffeefolia is easier to find but also really beautiful!). 

But I understand, it took me a long time before I got comfortable doing certain things as well, using organic soil in my aquarium for example took some bravery on the first try haha 

If it makes you feel any better, my tap water is similar, higher tds and around 15ppm nitrate. I think it has helped with growing my plants! 

[Jawjagrrl]

On 3/11/2022 at 11:21 PM, Isaac M said:

@Guppysnail for crypts I would highly recommend root tabs or organic soil or some sort of enriched substrate. They can grow in plain gravel too but they just wont grow as great. If you are worried, I would go with bolbitis or even a different kind of anubias, there are some interesting ones out there (coffeefolia is easier to find but also really beautiful!). 

But I understand, it took me a long time before I got comfortable doing certain things as well, using organic soil in my aquarium for example took some bravery on the first try haha 

If it makes you feel any better, my tap water is similar, higher tds and around 15ppm nitrate. I think it has helped with growing my plants! 

Just saw Cory's livestream from Thursday earlier and he mentioned his well water was about 10ppm and what a boost it was for his plants. I rarely register any at all despite using easy green weekly. I do have floaters in every tank though.

My crypts were very slow to take off, but they didn't melt much when they arrived. They are a background plant in my teeny shrimp tank along with a lily that has done really well. Substrate is a tiny bit of crushed coral, plain gravel, fluval stratum and a bit of sand in the front. 7 months in and I trim leaves occasionally so the endlers have room to swim.

[Minanora]

So I was going to mention Crypts. I have a Tropica in my sons tank and what I was told was a wendtii green but it totally looks like a bronze or tropica as well. Anyway, they do great in my sons tank. His tank is low/medium light. I haven't fed it root tabs since I almost killed all my fish with a root tab nitrate spike. The substrate is just big box pooo gravel and seachem flourite sand. Crypts going strong for almost a year now. I even parted off a baby crypt and it has like, 3 more leaves. 🤣

[Minanora]

Also.... Is this a mutt guppy? What are the origins of this lovely lady?

I have three that are very similar.

[Guppysnail]

On 3/12/2022 at 2:27 AM, Minanora said:

So I was going to mention Crypts. I have a Tropica in my sons tank and what I was told was a wendtii green but it totally looks like a bronze or tropica as well. Anyway, they do great in my sons tank. His tank is low/medium light. I haven't fed it root tabs since I almost killed all my fish with a root tab nitrate spike. The substrate is just big box pooo gravel and seachem flourite sand. Crypts going strong for almost a year now. I even parted off a baby crypt and it has like, 3 more leaves. 🤣

I have the big box gravel in that tank.  I was close to going for it just to see if I could grow it. Ive grown several things things that are said to not grow without xyz.  You convinced me. I’m going to get 1 or 2 at the LFS when I go if they have them and try a few different things.  

[Guppysnail]

On 3/12/2022 at 3:08 AM, Minanora said:

Also.... Is this a mutt guppy? What are the origins of this lovely lady?

I have three that are very similar.

She is the offspring of my second try at orange.  The mom was pregnant when purchased so I have no clue. I have only two of those girls left. I never got orange males because the spinal birth defect rate from both sets of original moms was to high.  Those two girls are older but they did not get introduced to males until roughly 9-12 months old because I feared more spinal birth defects so are still dropping fry and hanging strong.  They were introduced to males out of necessity tank space issues. By the grace of Mother Nature I have had no spinal defect fry from them.  However it may be they are in the 29 community and the slower defects are being consumed before I see them.  

[Isaac M]

@Jawjagrrl I agree, I believe it contributed a lot to my early success with plants as I had no idea what I was doing 😂 regarding the easy green, you will get 3ppm of nitrate for each pump in 10 gallons of water. I do not know how big your aquarium is or how much you dose but you may need to dose more if you want to register some nitrates. However, if your tank is doing well currently, there is no need to change anything. 

I agree with @Minanora, crypts can grow in normal plain gravel, I was just saying that they typically grow better with easy access to fertilizer at the roots. Here are some examples from my personal tanks:

Plan gravel 29 Gallon, No fertilizer. Crypt Wendtii in the foreground. 

Here is the same aquarium a year and a half later as it is being torn down for an upgrade and you can see how much the crypts have grown: 

Here is a 11 month time lapse of my 40 gallon breeder with organic soil + some additional fertilizer below a sand cap. Started as a Crypt Purpurea tissue culture: 

 

In both cases, they have grown well and I think they are beautiful plants which is why I recommend them. With the care you show your aquariums @Guppysnail, I have no doubt that you will be able to grow strong beautiful plants of all sorts! 

[Guppysnail]

@Isaac M, @Minanora, @Jawjagrrl I was thinking while looking this morning. If I use my pot method (pots are empty). And my new p,k,fe bravery and a pipette to squirt it into the pot where there is no flow and it won’t leak out of the bottom to quick.  I may be able to avoid root tabs with nitrate and other things I’m afraid of (not as much since @Torreyhelped explain them but still am). The nitrates in my tap are actually agricultural runoff not animal waste runoff. I give this credit also for my ease of plant success because it is fertilizer farmers use)   I think this method would work and if I see any deficiency add that to my mix. I’m also hoping it helps with melt. From what I’ve been reading disturbing the root in the soil of these guys freaks them out. If they are “free floating” more access to nutrients like my other plants and no disturbances from my gravel vac.  🧐 maybe?  
 

I went on tropica to look at my list of new plants I want to try this year and use to hide equipment which I normally don’t bother to do.  Several crypts are on my want list now. I’ve stayed away from them because they are temperamental but I’m ready to give it a go. I’m going to post pictures of each with a note about where I want each so when the weather is ok ( that day is not today) I  order and remember where I want them.  Thanks for your help.
 Isaac as always your tanks are so incredibly beautiful. 😍

Edited March 12, 2022 by Guppysnail

[Odd Duck]

@GuppysnailI’ve read that Crypts can be grown as epiphytes and I’ve got Crypts in a bare bottomed tank with some floating, some weighted.  It started as the plants in QT with the fish they came with.  Then I never got around to planting them because they’re a mix of unidentified crypts and they were doing fine, so I just haven’t bothered to do anything different.  They’ve been in there at least 6 months doing OK and I rarely fertilize that tank.  It gets water changes fairly regular because it’s one of my QT tanks.  Next batch of fish in there comes out on the 22nd of this month as long as no problems develop.  I’m considering converting that one to UGF with matten foam substrate.  I might finally pot them at that point.

[Guppysnail]

On 3/12/2022 at 10:59 AM, Odd Duck said:

@GuppysnailI’ve read that Crypts can be grown as epiphytes and I’ve got Crypts in a bare bottomed tank with some floating, some weighted.  It started as the plants in QT with the fish they came with.  Then I never got around to planting them because they’re a mix of unidentified crypts and they were doing fine, so I just haven’t bothered to do anything different.  They’ve been in there at least 6 months doing OK and I rarely fertilize that tank.  It gets water changes fairly regular because it’s one of my QT tanks.  Next batch of fish in there comes out on the 22nd of this month as long as no problems develop.  I’m considering converting that one to UGF with matten foam substrate.  I might finally pot them at that point.

ORD 😍 this is fabulous.  Absolutely what I needed to bolster my confidence in this!  Thank you. 

[Minanora]

On 3/12/2022 at 2:32 AM, Guppysnail said:

She is the offspring of my second try at orange.  The mom was pregnant when purchased so I have no clue. I have only two of those girls left. I never got orange males because the spinal birth defect rate from both sets of original moms was to high.  Those two girls are older but they did not get introduced to males until roughly 9-12 months old because I feared more spinal birth defects so are still dropping fry and hanging strong.  They were introduced to males out of necessity tank space issues. By the grace of Mother Nature I have had no spinal defect fry from them.  However it may be they are in the 29 community and the slower defects are being consumed before I see them.  

That is interesting. The one spinal defective female I have is the same color variation. She is the offspring of what was Misty. Misty came pregnant, her tail was full orange, lighter orange with a blue shimmer.

I will have to get photos of her kids that I still have.

And photos of the crypts as well. I'm going to rescape my son's tank soon, the trumpet snails are running my substrate layering. Oh wait, HAVE ruined. So there are some plants just chilling in their rockwool sitting in there. The poor Corydoras, the gravel is on the top layer, making it hard for them to find food.

Edited March 12, 2022 by Minanora
Added info about orange guppies

[Minanora]

@Isaac M your tanks are so beautiful! I agree with the root nutrition. I haven't fed mine in several months. I do plan to feed them again. I just feel like I have issues with the easy root tabs leeching into the water column. Even in my 75g. I'm going to do a deeper substrate in that 20g high when I redo it so I can try again.

[Guppysnail]

On 3/12/2022 at 12:16 PM, Minanora said:

with a blue shimmer.

Their dorsal fins have a blue shimmer. 

 

On 3/12/2022 at 12:16 PM, Minanora said:

Corydoras, the gravel is on the top layer, making it hard for them to find food.

Mine are on standard petco med gravel. They have no issues. Healthy barbels. Panda spawn continuously and my pygmys are little fatties 🥰. 

[Minanora]

On 3/12/2022 at 9:32 AM, Guppysnail said:

Their dorsal fins have a blue shimmer. 

 

Mine are on standard petco med gravel. They have no issues. Healthy barbels. Panda spawn continuously and my pygmys are little fatties 🥰. 

ORD... 💚

My peppered look good right now. However in the past, before I had the sand, they were all worn down. I may just add a ton more sand so the level of sand is just higher than the gravel. I wonder if that may be hard on the roots of the plants though... I also want to cover up the imaginarium gravel because it's not actually black. It's black coated... Which is really annoying.

[Guppysnail]

On 3/12/2022 at 12:47 PM, Minanora said:

it's not actually black. It's black coated... Which is really annoying.

I’m ORD too 🤣. I have been here and done that in 4 tanks I setup at the same time for guppy breeding.  😡 miserable stuff. I went with natural color I think nutmeg and bronze. I like it much better. 

[Minanora]

Bent spine girl and sisters. She looks like she got smashed. lol. She's so sweet and friendly though.. She loo

 

[Minanora]

Crypts. Tropica

Wendtii Green

[Guppysnail]

@Minanora the two I have are v shaped but as they grew their tails curl down and the curving worsens. I suspect scoliosis. They were born right as their mom passed away so I thought they got stuck. Which is probably true but the stuck did not bend the spine as I now believe. The scoliosis did and that is why they were stuck. That’s why I discontinued the line. I really think it is scoliosis vs just defects in mine. I’ll get pics of my two girls. They are the most lovable sweeties and swim and play and pick for food actively so I let them be. 
edit add awesome crypt

Edited March 13, 2022 by Guppysnail

[Blaha]

I have some Luscens. Probably too small for your goals. I've given it some root tabs in the past, but it's been ages since I've needed to and now that my light and algae is in a more manageable state they've been blowing up (by crypt standards which is still very slow)
I also have a full bottom gravel tank and it's a couple inches deep which helps trap stuff. I know you do pots for everything so likely you would want/need root tabs. Idk. My Luscens and my Lotus Bulb ae the only plants I've successfully kept. I have an Anubias Nangi and It hasn't died, it just also hasn't grown any new leaves ever. I know they are slow but it's been a couple months

[Guppysnail]

On 3/12/2022 at 7:27 PM, Blaha said:

I have some Luscens. Probably too small for your goals. I've given it some root tabs in the past, but it's been ages since I've needed to and now that my light and algae is in a more manageable state they've been blowing up (by crypt standards which is still very slow)
I also have a full bottom gravel tank and it's a couple inches deep which helps trap stuff. I know you do pots for everything so likely you would want/need root tabs. Idk. My Luscens and my Lotus Bulb ae the only plants I've successfully kept. I have an Anubias Nangi and It hasn't died, it just also hasn't grown any new leaves ever. I know they are slow but it's been a couple months

With @Odd Duck’s encouraging floating growth I’m getting several kinds when (if) it ever warms up. I really like them just was always turned off by the melt at every opportunity thing. 

[Minanora]

ORD

@Guppysnail ❤️ I've never had my crypts melt. Just my clown pleco likes to take nibbles to remind me that he wants his own food. 😛

@Blaha Crypts are slow! But they're so beautiful.

[Odd Duck]

On 3/12/2022 at 6:30 PM, Guppysnail said:

With @Odd Duck’s encouraging floating growth I’m getting several kinds when (if) it ever warms up. I really like them just was always turned off by the melt at every opportunity thing. 

Now wait a minute!  I never said they couldn’t still melt.  They are Crypts, after all, which can be fickle.  I only said that you can grow them as epiphytes!  😆 

I’m sure you’ll do fine.  If I can grow Crypts, you can grow Crypts!  😘 

[Torrey]

On 3/11/2022 at 8:18 PM, Guppysnail said:

I hope I never see the day I stop learning. It would be a boring way to live. 

According to the Elders in my family, we don't stop learning until the day we die. As a child, I thought they meant can't learn after you are dead. As a TIA and stroke survivor?

We keep learning until we die!

[Guppysnail]

On 3/12/2022 at 8:23 PM, Odd Duck said:

Now wait a minute!  I never said they couldn’t still melt.  They are Crypts, after all, which can be fickle.  I only said that you can grow them as epiphytes!  😆 

I’m sure you’ll do fine.  If I can grow Crypts, you can grow Crypts!  😘 

The power of positive thinking 🤣 I’m sure they will melt at first. I’m just worried because I change things so much they will melt more than grow. We shall see. 😁

[Torrey]

On 3/12/2022 at 9:06 PM, Guppysnail said:

The power of positive thinking 🤣 I’m sure they will melt at first. I’m just worried because I change things so much they will melt more than grow. We shall see. 😁

As long as you are changing consistently, the change will become the consistency they crave?