Yesterday I woke up and I looked at my mini pond next to my bed, and I looked at the blue sky and just felt good. It was like spring had sprung and so I decided to take a spontaneous trip to Wildwoods World of Water with
@shangman . Pre-Covid this was my vibe, wake up and go somewhere! I was hardly ever still.
As to be expected, it was a great visit and we came away with some really beautiful plants and fish.
The day before I actually discovered some Golden Ricefish being sold in my local Maidenhead Aquatics and so obviously I copped it!
@Alex Papp told me Wildwoods had some Platinum ones so I went the next day and sure enough they were there. They are incredibly beautiful and iridescent in real life, and videos don't do it justice. They seem to be comfortable already and took a feeding on the day of arrival which is always a good sign. I'll keep them in this contest tank until spring when I'll put them in an outdoor pond. But to be honest, they look great in here.
In terms of plants, it was a real treat! I picked up some 1-2 grow Eleocharis Mini and Eriocaulon Cinerum for the contest tank. The eleocharis fits better than the gratiola I had previously and I'm hoping will grow better too. The eriocaulon is an experiment and if it doesn't grow I'll just put some stem plants there and be done with it. I also got some Rotala Mini Butterfly from Dan which is a great hot pink colour. I doubt it'll stay that colour in my water but we'll see. Additionally, some really nice Cameroon moss which I've tucked into crevices and they look like mini ferns which really emphasises the diorama scale.
Dan mentioned that last time I bought blyxa it was actually japonica rather than aubertii and that they had true aubertii in stock currently. You can tell the difference straight away in terms of size and leaf growth. Hopefully it does as well as the japonica has, it'll go into the Tidy Jungle. Also picked up some Water Mimosa and an interesting floating Ludwigia with white sacs on it, never seen it before but it looks good and I can't remember the name of it.
The show stopper was an Echinodorus Regine Hildebrandt that has some of the best colour I've ever seen on an Echinodorus. That will also go into the Tidy Jungle and I've put it front and centre!
The day didn't end when we left though. On our way out Dan told me about 2 more fish shops (dangerous) and that's where I found some gorgeous Gold Tetras. The pictures and videos don't do them justice, they are much more pretty and iridescent in person and a very cute size. They'll be my fish of choice for the contest tank. It's also ironic that they like to hang around in the exact places I'd be interested in photographing for the final shot.
Definitely pay a visit to Wildwoods if you can, easily my favourite shop so far for fish and plants.