Journal Mission Bathtub 2018

[zozo]

https://www.mountainmoss.com/blogs/mountain-moss/moss-nursery-the-mountain-mossery
http://www.mossacres.com/

https://portlandnursery.com/groundcovers/moss/

Yes of course there are nurseries also growing mosses, but number of sp. is rather limited.. And you get bags of dried tropical mosses to play with yourself i know i searched too..

I got a terrarium shop a stonethrow away from my street, i sometimes go there for plants..
https://www.dutchrana.nl/en/

They also have a green house with all kinds of rare tropical orchids, ferns etc. etc. Also the most beautifull decorative mosses growing on the sphagnum they use to tie the plants on. i've asked, can i buy the mosses without the actual plant displayed. And the answer was simply no.. Also talked about it beeing a mis in the trade, there must be a huge market for it.. And he told me, i wasnt't the first to ask and not the first whit that idea, many have tried, but all failed to make even a bit lucrative all where limited to growing mosses everybody already is growing. There is nothing to compete with.. The mosses that come with the plants come on their own they don't do anything special for it.

He told he also tried in the past, then you have a nice batch growing and a week later everything dying and nobody can tell why.. Mosses are just too wimsy.. The only mosses he sells is Java moss and some liverworts.. Thats it. He has no supplier for anything else..

 

[zozo]

It's great to see the fish back out in the open again

Yes they are, back to normal routine again begging for food when i come around.. Thank you..

 

[zozo]

Interesting things happening in the winebarrel.. Maybe this should be posted in the thread mosses that attach to hardware?
you need to look close to see but you'll see a tiny branch of Fontinalis antipyretica attached to the wooden side wall of the barrel.

I threw this moss in there from the beginning and it took 2 seasons before i spotted it growing right here attached.. Actualy growing this moss for years in the aqaurium already never had it attach on its own. Now i get a hunge, this tub is stagnant water.....

Leptodictyum riparium probably with some others Never planted it, it just appeared on it's own.. It shows both forms, emersed and submersed..

And this one realy intrigues me.. See the long bright red stem bellow, till now i found 2 of them.. They appear to be growing out of the same things that shows as a short red stem in the first pic.. @dw1305 had the idea it's a Bryzoan in an earlier post, back then tey were still white colored, but they turned redish now while more matured into the summer. Darrel does this grow form look familiar to you?. I still have no clue what it is.. I would need to drain the barrel a bit to maybe get a clearer picture.. but i'm pretty confident they must be originating from there..

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

Darrel does this grow form look familiar to you?.

I'm none the wiser, but it looks intriguing. If it is a bryozoan you should be able to see the feeding polyps.

cheers Darrel

 

[Edvet]

Could it be a root?

 

[zozo]

Could it be a root?

I thought of that and looked, if it is a root i can't realy find anything originating it. It looks like it is growing attached to the wood from such a group of shorter red spikes growing to the wood. It also feels hard textured, like a shell form, but didn't touch it to much don't want to break it..

I'll drain the barrel a bit to get it emersed and a closer look. And take a few more pics..

 

[zozo]

Drained it.. See the big red spike, got an even bigger oen still deeper and submersed and a few small newly develop ones at the right i circled.. I can not see it beeing roots from another plant.. Looks like it originates from the spike stuff on the wall..

Another angle

And yet another grow form in it, looks like it anyway. More leaf structured.. At least it curls and flatens..

The plot thickens!! What is this? An animal, a plant, a moss and algae?...

 

[Edvet]

Alien definately

 

[zozo]

Transpermia... We need a scientific name.. Cf Immanuelus Velikovskiianus?

 

[zozo]

I took a look with the microscope, can't realy see a resamblance with Bryozoa feeding polyps examples. What i see is more like a branch end that aint looks hollow. But it has some kind of transparent looking hair like polyp growing out of it..

Still waiting on the camera's lens addapter ring from ebay, to screw the microscope T mount on the camera.. Than maybe i can take a picture if it.

But Bryozoa? Don't think that's likely.. Seeing it under the microscope and after seeing the Caloglossa i lately found in my tank i'm more aiming towards some kind of a rodophyta. Maybe another Caloglossa sp.. But what throws me off is the very first picture i took from it this spring where it shows white spikes..

Also posted it on the national biology observation forum where somebody said likely a moss sp. but could give no ID. Still waiting for the pro to show up and find that thread..
https://forum.waarneming.nl/smf/index.php?topic=429513.0

 

[zozo]

After lurking the net a lot and getting a reply at an other forum stating it likely is a moss. I came to think it's likely a Lichen , because Lichen literaly translated in our language is Crusted Moss.. He only failed to add the crusted to it.

Anyway, aquatic lichens do excist only what i found didn't realy compare.. But reading about Fruticose Lichens meaning growing with a coral like structure and most lichens like to grow stalks. And lichens all like to grow on old wood.. I think to narrow it all down.. Lichen is the most likely suspect.

Which one, probably remains a mystery..

 

[zozo]

Wierd summer again, all is different from last year. Haven't changed much in strategy but the floaters in the tub don't thrive as good as they did last year. Why i have no idea other than it's climate related because other plants rock the boat. The Thelypteris palustris - Marsh fern i planted for the first time this year is doing exeptionaly well.
Realy happy i finaly tracked this fern sp. down and have it my collection. If you have a pond this is definitively a plant you want to look out for. My first time outdoor Echinodorus experiment also seems to like it and happily growing, it grew 7 new leaves in the past 8 weeks..

That large wig of Potamogeton Gayi floating in the tub, is 3 weeks worth growing and took it out of the little outdoor aqaurium. It was again suffacating the rest and trying to overgrow everthing else. So i gave that small tank that slowly was turning into a little impenetrable jungle a decent trim..

And this is how a low tech carpet of lilaeopsis brasiliensis looks like under the sun in the summer and it keeps on spreading steadily..

 

[zozo]

While working on my fiter box i heard some soft strange calls i couldn't realy give a place, never realy heard that sound before.. So i went on a search and found Fritz and Frida Frog that seem to have made a home in it. Having all they need it seems, shelter from the plants, streaming water, a puddle to bath.. Must be frog heaven for them..

Echinodorus kleiner bär is doing exeptionaly well in the sun. Thogether with some hydrocotyle..

As is teh Bog fern (Thelypteris riparius) on a piece of drift wood hanging to the tubs side also grows realy good.. By now it fermly attached to the wood and is propagating and spreading steadily via a running rhizomes in all directions. Didn't expect this fern to grow this fast. I'll definitively going to take this piece of wood with attached fern inside for the winter and hang it in an aqaurium. See how this fern holds in indoor condition. In the northern hemisphere it sheds its leaves during the winter. But it also seems to grow in South America etc. So it might just be an evergreen indoors. I think its a very nice fern for the bigger indoor riparium setups.

The only plants that yet didn't flower are the Nymphoides. And i have no idea why, Remarkable is i see the same plant in a natural pond near my home and also there it didn't flower yet.
Last year was different and the Hydroclyes shot one flower after another, but this year yet zip. And a lot less leaves then i'm used too. Maybe it's the heatwave we are currently in, 30 to 36°C alteady for weeks without any significant rain. Dryest summer ever recorded in our country.

 

[zozo]

Things are getting bushy... A bit of a jungle..

Despite the heavy heatwave we had, it was dry and hot for months, the driest season ever recorded. Everything in the garden died there was no way to water it sufficiently. Even plants in the water had problems.. Realy mad.. All ferns in the garden dried out exept the bog fern in the tub. This plant grew as only one as a champion.. Realy a fern i can recomend for all pond owners.. A beatyfull fern that can grow planted in substrate and on a piece of wood in the water..

This is the one i planted on a piece of DW that hangs with tie raps to the tubs side... On the left side is a rhizome growing almost 20 cm long creaping along the surface and sprouting new young growth. All from this summer from a deviced fern that i took out of the soil... Realy a stunning bog plant..

Here is Echinodorus Kleiner bär.. As said so often a remarkable plant.. If kept like this its a kleiner bär.. If planted 30 cm deep it grows into a großer bär..

Also little tank is bursting again..

 

[Edvet]

Do a video of the little tank, must be teeming with life.

 

[zozo]

Do a video of the little tank, must be teeming with life.

About a 30 baby goldfish are in it.. And snails and a few cherry shrimp.. I overdid it with the goldfisg eggs.. Actualy didn't know after some trimming i took about 10 eggs of a plant leaf and threw into this tank. But it seems each yellow ball looking like 1 egg holds triplets. But everthing else gets eaten by those hungry little buggers ofcourse..

As long as they are still babies i can hold them.. I need to put an advertisement soon on internet "Pickup baby goldfish for free".

But ii'll make a video of it.. Just have to wait for the right moment, whit the sun in the right angle or else it will be filimg a mirror.

 

[zozo]

Here is a video attempt.. As said hard to get propperly through the reflecting even on a cloudy day.. And hard to focus through the jungle plantmass.. Have to do it hand held on autofocus, can't realy use a tripod in this situation.. At the back right in a patch of taxiphyllum moss there are always some red sherries to find.. Not very good vissible, they hide well but grow more red and more robust in an outdoor situation. So you miight just spot them..


Another small vid, of last years stickleback family i held.. This bold little beautiful girl is the sole surviver.. Absulotely unafraid and still going strong.. Usualy they do not live this long in captivity, but this one seems to like it.. Completely self sustaining, she feeds on what ever she can find, snail eggs and little snails, insects etc.

 

[zozo]

Since they are so short lived, 1 day, one has to be quick if you see them do both at the same day.

All flowers are beautifull of course.. But if i had to make a choice, the water popy is still favorite..

Also did a massive trim back in the little auquarium.. Now the carpet is showing.. Still strugling what to name this.. Is this high or low energy? It grows on sunshine and mainly fishpoop..

What i realy love with this.. There aint no algae on the glass only cleaned it once this summer.. Even the glass bellow substrate level is clean, see the plantlets in down in the substrate behind the glassjust being healthy and green..

 

[tam]

Your goldfish family is expanding well! It all looks very lush and healthy. Really is amazing how algae free it is - now you just have to work out the secret and apply it indoors

 

[zozo]

Your goldfish family is expanding well! It all looks very lush and healthy. Really is amazing how algae free it is - now you just have to work out the secret and apply it indoors

There isn't much secret i guess. What looks distracting is that it doesnt realy show that this little tank is part of a much larger system. The tub and the tank are running over the same planted helophyte trickle filter. Whit a bunch of emersed plants in the tub as well. And the whole system is +/- 350 litre water. And i'm pretty sure the clue is in the plantmass, as well submersed as the planted trickle filter. The thing indoor is, making enough light to get the emersed growth running at top metabolic speed is not feasible with artificial light.