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Journal Mission Bathtub and the Pollywog Party...

Thanks, Tim! :)

It just gets better and better each year.
Not without you.. :) You gave me the idea to go a tad more exotic and play with Swords this year... :thumbup:

The goldfish love their window on the world.
They do! Did it before in this tub, before i was UKAPS member, but it kinda didn't work out that well back then and discarded the idea. Imagin it took me all those years to finally come up with a simple solid and manageable construction to make it work in this tub. It seems Grandma was right, after all, she always said, wisdom comes with age. Actually she meant it comes with experience, but obviously that takes an age. :rolleyes:
 
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Love it zozo this is a special thread.
And its epic. Love to read it mate. Hope your well mate.
Bought 4 small maple Acer trees. To give the garden some colour.
When they turn up I will need some tips of you bud.
Fred

Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk
 
The Pollywogs are doing fine, grew some bigger eyes already and slowly growing legs. Getting cuter each day again.
I guess they still feeding on sifting the substrate debris and biofilm, but there are enough Daphnia in there for future dinner.
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The Red Tiger Lotus is finally adapting, at first it didn't do much and I was it afraid that it ain't warm enough... But it's growing its first floater leaf now that is pearling too. :) So that's a very good singe, I hope it will surprise me with some flowers later in the summer.
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The glass dome at the left is a great addition, not only fun for me and the fish. But it also gives next to more swimming space some extra protection too.
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2 years ago i had a predator visiting and snatching a few of my favourite tam fish from the tub. That was exactly at the open spot the glass dome is. Now there is no way to get to the fish. This year i also placed some 24x24 perforated plant pots upside-down in the tub. Did cut a few holes in them and placed a coated steel mesh on top of that again as a platform. With some plant baskets and pots on top of that to weigh it all down and keep it in place. The upside-down pots on the bottom function as caves to hide than there is a level above it making a shallow... A labyrinth in, between, under and over the baskets and pots.

And the Fancy black pop eye twin-tail goldfish (Whatever they are called) i have in there keeps making me wonder?? It's a real beauty and i can not seem to get a decent picture from it. It never comes into the dome, not even for food. It swims under it and passes it and refuses to come up. At first, i thought it is an eyesight thing? It is as blind as a bat and simply doesn't see that it can go up and in and it swims past it. While all other having a party in it. But!? If i get out of bed around 5 o clock in the morning i look and then i see Fancy Henry in the dome all alone by itself hanging out. :bored: Then i go outside, he spots me and dives down not to come back again... :arghh: Thus it definitively has eyesight and now i think its eyes might be hypersensitive, during the day (when the sun shines) it never comes up into the dome... The light might be too bright for its deformed poppy eyes? I have no clue.... But i'll stay hunting for 'm to get a decent snapshot.

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Great photos Marcel, and the tub looks very predator proof :)

Thanks, Tim, I hope so too if the fish play it smart, there is no way something can get to them. From above i'm not afraid anymore anyway, did roof most of the garden with a net. Because the neighbours chestnut is bugging me too much with falling debris and spiky grenades falling on my head. Now all falls on the net roof and i can bump it all straight back to his garden... :cool: Cleaner garden less trash in the bucket. No place for a heron to land... Win-Win...
 
:) An early morning snapshot, by now the fish are conditioned and come into the dome when they see me, hoping and waiting for food. The tub grows in nicely, noticeable at the plants at the background.
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The Tiger Lily is growing steadily and developing new floater leaves a day or 2 maybe and they are at the surface.
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For so far a myth busted i guess :) at least reading quite some reports this plant absolutely needs CO² to thrive in an aquarium. Obviously not really, if it gets enough light... Since this is low tech under the sun... :cool:

An update on the Pollywog adventure, i can, unfortunately, only report without any pictures.. 3 days ago was the last time i saw them still looking the same as in the last picture posted, then 2 days later they all seem to be gone... Didn't find any bodies but could not find a single pollywog back. And i wondered how that could be, shrimps are fine, snails are fine, plants are growing. Absolutely no reason for them to perish and disappear. But today i looked again and a bit closer and i'll be darned i see 1 tiny 6mm completely ready develop baby frog swinging around over the substrate.

Now i know tadpoles transition from Gill breathing to Skin breathing and need dry surface while growing into little frogs. What i didn't know is that this transition is a matter of a few days. Since the tank has floating and emerged plant leaves i guess they crawled out of the tank already overnight as baby frog. :confused::cool: Stunning actually how fast it goes and even more stunning all pollywogs were the same size, but the baby frog i caught was significantly smaller maybe half the size. So obviously they shrink during this transition.

:D For so far observing the transition, i missed it all... Luckily i was able to net out that 1 tiny baby frog still in there. But didn't take a picture from it. Did put it straight into the little Paludarium. It immediately went into hiding. But i guess i might catch a snapshot, later on, no idea actually if the Paludarium is deep enough to prevent it from escaping.

Thus baby frog is in here now and this is also growing in really nice. :) Bog pimpernel steadily creeping around and the Rotala indica in the background is slowly growing out of hiding...
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:cool:
 
:D Found another one in the substrates mud, darn well disguised and indeed they do shrink half the size.. This was 3 days from Pollywog with 2 short hind legs into almost ready baby Frog... Amazing!!

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And released into a new environment with land... And it climed the rock on it's own already

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:thumbup:
I'll keep watching, caught 2 and if non escaped i must have 5 or 6 more... :cool:
 
Some updates on the Jungleboogie ongoing experiments... :)

This is the Daphnia tub, it had a very small piece of Potamogeton Gayi surviving the winter and it grew into this.
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The Red Tiger Lily is doing fine, no flower sign till now, the floaters are lovely freckled and i actually can't really see the tiger in it. But ok, the leaves are very delicate, much more delicate than her winterhardy neighbour RoseNymphe Bonsai, who is ready to flower but yet not fully there. Thus a pink lily flower is defintively comming up soon.
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The 2 Echinodorus - Rose - Uruguayensis at the background seem to be very susceptible to snail damage.. They seem to get eaten faster then they are able to grow. Can't help it, my garden is a slug and snail farm...
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The Echinodorus cordifolius seems to be less tasty or simply grows faster and is looking relatively good.
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Same as the Echinodorus Kleiner bär who already is flowering abundantly.
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But the little white flower in view isn't Echi's, it's from the Gratiola...
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Bogpimpernel is happily trailing over the edge and flowering... Something that only occurs when it's grown outdoors. I've found it to be impossible to make it flower indoors. Pitty because it's a lovely plant, definitively a favourite.
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Same as the Hydrocothyl and Creeping Jenny.
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The little Paludarium also is doing really good. As you can see a massive carpet of Bog pimpernel, the Rotala is going mental also and it has a happily growing Brasilian Hydrocotyl tho it looks like its getting outcompeted a tad.
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It also contains an emerged growing Echinodorus uruguayensis that is doing much beter with no snail damage at all. But it indeed is a slow grower.
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Watermint... :cool: Nice tea actually... :p
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What is remarkable, i did put a little plant pot in the dome, with some bog pimpernel and a small piece of Persicaria.
It does great, but its gas respiration is that much, that the dome, is filled nearly completely with the gas every 2 days.
Then i have to suck all out again to fill it with water. Rather a lot, don't you think? That's taking about 20 litres of gas (Co² + O² and what more?) from the water and breath that into the tank. Something you never would notice otherwise.
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I find that amazing gas exchange quality for so little amount of plant mass... :cool: What ya know? I didn't know that it is that much.. :thumbup:
 
Looks awesome :)


One of my favourite plants! looks like a mini bamboo in the fish tank!! :)

Thank you Paulo... And yes it does look a little like that... Then take a look at Hygroryza aristata
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It can be grown as floater but also semi emerged, then it erects and actually is a real Bamboo relative... :)

Btw, if yu ever like to have some P. gayi, drop me a line i'll send you a bunch.. 💪 For me it seems impossible to kill, already have it for over 7 years around..
 
Btw, if yu ever like to have some P. gayi, drop me a line i'll send you a bunch.. 💪 For me it seems impossible to kill, already have it for over 7 years around..
I will keep that in mind, I would love to get some back at some stage ;) cheers
the Hygroryza aristata looks too big ;) the P.gayi is more like it for me haha
 
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😍
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The little paludarium is bursting from its seams... :)
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Rotala sold as indica but i suspect it to be rotundifolia is flowering. Not that nice of a picture behind dirty glass... But still looks nice.
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Watermint growing huge..
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And flowering, it fills the garden with a sweet smell... :cool:
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It seems to be susceptible to Thrips, at least the light silvery colloured spots look like typical Thrips damage. But it doesn't yet seem problematic.
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And it seems to be a very good bog pimpernel year, never had it growing this much.
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💪


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:p
 
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