Well it appears to have been four months since I last updated, and - far more excitingly - it's a year to the day since I planted the tank!
So what does it look like a year later?
Generally speaking, the plants haven't died - which is a massive improvement on my previous two tanks, so I've clearly learned something along the way. Some of them have even grown, which is a bit of a pain really. I have to keep pruning them. That's not the easy life I was planning on. The whole point of being Low Tech is that I don't have to put a lot of effort in. Clearly the plants didn't get the memo. Especially the Limnophila Sessiflora. If you are looking for an unkillable weed, look no further. Here's a bit making a break for the wrong side of tank and trying to bully the AR mini into submission.
The Anubias Nana, which I melted back to the Rhizome in my first tank, is now happily ensconsed in it's corner. It's next to some Pogostemon Erectus, which looks exactly the way it did the day I planted it. If only all the other plants were as well behaved.
The one plant I thought I'd killed was the Hydrocotyle leucocephala (having also, I thought, killed my Hydrocotyle tripartita in the other tank). And then one day both Hydrocotyles popped up in completely different points of the tank alive and well and growing healthily. UKAPS is all about using our collective experience to gather data points that gradually paint a picture about what works and what doesn't. In that spirit I submit an opening hypothesis that the Hydrocotyle family of plants have some form of short range communication that lets them do coordinated reveals in order to deliberately confound their owners. I'm thinking possibly Bluetooth, but I'll let resident scientist and chief data collator
@jaypeecee data mine for the further detail we'll need to establish if that is indeed the case, or whether it's perhaps ZigBee, LoRa, or even (perish the thought) 5G.
Here's the unexpected fairy ring of Hydrocotyle.
You may note from the photo above, that, like many on this forum I have become Obucessed. According to the plant tags I've hoarded, I have Biblis, Catherine Dark Carpet, Green Jade, Kedagang, Pygmea Bukit Kelam, Red, Sintang, Theia Green, Theia Red and Wavy Green. Most of which reside in this tank. That has proved to be not very thought through. By way of example I give you this photo of Bucephalandra
Biblis Red Kedagang, um..., of a Bucephalandra.
You get my point. None of them look
exactly like they do in the emersed Tropica orAquadip photos. And I failed to make meticulous notes of which one I put where.
Just to reinforce the point, here's another one that may or may not be Sintang. Or Theia Green.
I've come to the conclusion that Bucephalandras are like whiskies. You can take two side by side and it's kind of obvious which one is a Glendfiddich and which is a Lagavulin, but if someone puts a whisky in front of you and says "Go on then - you say you like whisky. What is it?" you're stuffed. In fairness I did once identify a mystery malt that someone bought me at the end of a very long and boozy evening in Edinburgh, but that was largely because the chap who bought it was English, and it was the only readily pronounceable brand in the pub.
Sorry. I'm digressing. Onto the moss. I'm going to gloss over all the moss that is happily growing in places where it isn't supposed to - especially intermingled with the aforementioned Buces. Instead I'm going to focus on the moss that is doing what it's supposed to - and what you see in all the fab photos from real aquascapers - where it attaches to and starts growing over the wood. In this case partially emersed.
I think it looks dead good, so I spend many happy hours gazing contentedly at it.
Anyhow, onto the fish. First off the Red Lizard Whiptails (L010a). I think they are all grown up now, and are definitely benign rulers of the substrate. They will happily let shrimp climb over them, and put up with Otos curiously nosing them, but when they want something (usually an algae tablet), they are a bit like mini underwater bulldozers, and woe betide the snail that lies in their path. Here are a couple of photos.
@Garuf this may be of particular interest to you so you know what you're getting into.
There is one melancholy note in this update. We arrived back from a week away at the back end of last year to find a fish skeleton and some fat shrimp. Sadly Elton had not survived the holidays. Anecodotally I've heard that it's not unusual for Bettas to only survive for six months or so, but I'm still suspicious that I contributed in some fashion. I have much to learn about fishkeeping. We debated over whether to replace him, and eventually we might, but for now we decided to take a Betta break and seek an alternative replacement.
My thinking about fish sourcing has been turned upside down over the past year, almost entirely due to discussions and links shared on this forum. So I was extremely happy to source some wild caught Green Neon Tetras (Paracheridon Simulans). I'm sure it's not as clear cut as it has been promoted, but it makes sense that wild caught amazonian fish are a relatively sustainable industry that it is dependent on the rainforest thriving, so on balance a lot better than buying a frozen burger. They went into the quarantine tank / potting shed for a few weeks, and then into the tank about a month ago.
Interestingly whilst the Copper Harlequins and the Green Neons both are nominally middle dwellers, the Green Neons are definitely mid-low and the Copper Harlequins mid-high. so they fill different spaces in the tank. The Green Neons are way more fearless in the tank then they were in the quarantine. Whilst they were quarantining they hid behind the plants and only came out very cautiously. I fully expected them to vanish into the undergrowth and never see them again when they went in, but from the get-go they were bolder and happier in open spaces. I wonder if the Copper harlequins acted as a dither shoal for them. They do sometimes hang out together. Although the Green Neons make the Copper Harlequins look enormous, which was slightly surprising.
That leaves the Otos.
They are, I think, happy and healthy. Interestingly, when they are nestled up against the wood and stone they are fabulously camouflaged - when I go Oto counting (is it just me or does everyone spend vast amounts of time counting their fish to check all are present and correct?) I can frequently not realise that there are three right in front of me unless they choose to move. My own in-tank game of Where's Wally. Well it would be if one of my Otos was called Wally, at any rate. In fact even then that would be tough as I can't tell them apart. I'd have to call them all Wally. Then I'd be playing Where Are The Wallys, which somehow isn't the same.
Sorry; digressing again.
I'll close off with an FTS for form's sake. If I get my act together I'm sure there will be another update before Christmas.
Cheers,
Simon.
Oh! In case you're wondering why the photos have improved somewhat, it's because I upgraded lighting. After staring wistully at Kessils for 6 months, I had a stern financial conversation with myself and shelled out for a Lominie Asta instead, which is really rather good. I keep it turned most of the way down to minimum apart from when I'm taking photos, at which point I whack it up to max.
