Current tank contents

After moving fish around today, I thought it would be a good idea to compile a list of what I have in each tank:

110g Malawi Peacock and Haplochromine tank:

  • A half dozen mixed sex Protomelas taeniolatus “Super Red Empress”
  • About a dozen mixed sex Ruby Red peacocks (Aulonocara Stuart Granti “Maleri”)
  • One male OB Peacock
  • One male Red Shoulder Peacock
  • One male Eureka Peacock
  • One male Sunshine Peacock
  • Two juvie Peacocks of unknown sex or variety

65g Malawi Mbuna tank in the kitchen:

  • Four bristlenose plecos
  • Four yellow labs (mixed sex)
  • Six mixed sex Rusties (Iodotropheus sprengerae)
  • Two hemichromis guttatus
  • Six mixed sex Melanochromis cyaneorhabdos ‘Maingano’
  • One male Pseudotropheus socolofi

37g planted display tank:

  • About a dozen Odessa barbs
  • Three yo-yo loaches
  • Two clown plecos
  • Some nerite snails

20g community kitchen tank:

  • One paradish fish
  • One male Apistogramma macmasteri
  • A pair of Aplocheilus lineatus (Golden Wonder killifish)
  • One Siamese algae eater
  • A few Otocinclus
  • One unknown corydora

40 breeder “Malawigumi”

  • Six mixed sex Labdichromis sp. “Hongi”
  • About 15 Hemichromis guttatus juveniles

50 breeder (with Poret foam divider)

  • The left side has one Hemichromis guttatus female and about 25 fry
  • The right side has numerous species of killifish, apistos, and Nannacara anomala

10g under the 40 breeder “Malawigumi”

  • The most adult breeding pair of Hemichromis guttatus and about 25 fry

75g Malaysian tank

  • About 6 giant danios
  • Numerous mixed rainbow fish
  • Plucky, the 14″ pleco
  • About 10 Harlequin and Espei rasboras
  • Some amano shrimp
  • Some Otocinclus
  • Four male Aplocheilus sp. “Manipurensis”
  • One female betta
  • Five Pearl Gouramis

90g Amazon river tank

  • Two Tangerine Discus
  • Two Brilliant Turquoise Discus
  • About 24 cardinal tetras
  • Four Long-finned bristlenose plecos
  • A breeding pair of Apistogramma cacatuoides ‘Orange Flash’
  • Six sterbai cories
  • A pair of German Blue Rams
  • Amano shrimp
  • Nerite snails

I plan to break down the 20 high, replace the substrate, and move the Odessa barbs and Yo-yo loaches into that, then move the Tangerine discus into the 37g by themselves, where I hope they will spawn.  Plus, given that the 37g is visible from the living room, dining room, and kitchen, it just seems appropriate that our prettiest fish should be as easily observable as possible.

Posted in 110g, 20 high community, 37g planted display tank, 40 breeder, 50 breeder, 65g Lake Malawi, 75g Malaysian biotope, 90g 'Brazilian Love Shack', Amano shrimp, Ancistrus cf. cirrhosus, Ancistrus cf. cirrhosus (long-finned), Apistogramma cacatuoides, Aplocheilus lineatus, Aplocheilus sp. 'Manipurensis', Aulonocara jacobfreibergi 'Eureka', Aulonocara jacobfreibergi 'Lemon Jake', Aulonocara sp. "Stuartgranti chipoka" Ruby Red, Aulonocara sp. "Stuartgranti chipoka" Sunshine, Aulonocara sp. OB, Aulonocara sp. unknown, Betta splendens, Corydoras sterbai, Danio aequipinnatus, Discus, Espei raboras, Harlequin rasboras, Hemichromis guttatus, Hypostomus plecostomus, Iodotropheus sprengerae, Labidichromis sp. Hongi 'Red Top', Labidochromis caeruleus, Macropodus opercularis, Melanochromis cyaneorhabdos 'maingano', Microgeophagus ramirezi, Nannacara anomala, Otocinclus sp., Paracheirodon axelrodi, Protomelas taeniolatus "Super Red Empress", Pseudotropheus socolofi, Puntius ticto (Odessa barb), Siamese algae eater, Tangerine Discus, Trichogaster leerii | Leave a comment

Plants being beautiful

After all the dreadful heat and humidity this summer, it’s been nice to see a couple of our plants thriving.  The Lazy Susans in front of our house have been blooming all summer so far:

Our Sarracenia rubra ssp. wherryi took the longest time to finally open up one of its pitchers.  It should have done that in April or perhaps May, but it took until early August.  Nonetheless, it was worth the wait:

I should have taken pictures of this No-ID Phal when it had flowers on both spikes, but the flowers left on the second spike are still hanging in there:

Our Doritis pulcherrima has been in steady bloom since we got it.  It just keeps growing new flowers off the tips of the spikes as older flowers lower on the spike drop away.

The flowers are tiny; here’s an underexposed closeup:

And finally (and perhaps most exciting), is the Psychopsis Mendenhall ‘Hildos’ which we won at the NCOS Summer picnic in orchid bingo, has flowered, and it is spectacular:

Posted in Doritis pulcherrima, Psychopsis Mendenhall 'Hildos' FCC/AOS, S. rubra ssp. wherryi | Leave a comment

More Jewel cichlid spawns

Guppies have nothing on these guys!  The Jewel cichlids in our 65g African tank laid eggs again today:

Furthermore, the Jewel cichlid juveniles (from a previous spawn a few months ago from those same parents) have themselves paired off and spawned:

Posted in 50 breeder, 65g Lake Malawi, Hemichromis guttatus | 1 Comment

Happy Birthday to me! A new fish tank

I bought a very nice planted tank from a fellow GWAPA member today.  Actually, Amy’s parents bought it for me for my birthday.  :-)   It’s a 37 gallon, which has the same footprint as a 29g, but is taller.  It came with three large pieces of mopani bog wood with lots of java fern and bolbitis attached, as well as some crypt wendtii planted in ecocomplete.  It also has Odessa barbs, a pair of yoyo loaches, and a pair of clown plecos.

It was pretty cool, in a time span of about three hours, I went to his house, we emptied the tank, loaded it in the minivan, brought it home, set it up and filled it and Voila!  Instant gorgeous planted tank.  What a nice Birthday present!

Sorry for the lousy iPhone pics, I’ll try to get better ones up soon.

Posted in 37g planted display tank, Bolbitis heudolotti, Cryptocoryne wendtii, Narrow leaf java fern | Leave a comment

New Paphiopedilums

Earlier this year, we joined the American Orchid Society, and as part of our two-year membership, we got a coupon for $30 off any order of $100 or more from a list of orchid vendors.

We finally got around to spending that coupon, and we just received the following orchids from Piping Rock Orchids:

  • Paphiopedilum bullenianum
  • P. dayanum
  • P. javanicum
  • P. niveum
  • P. victoria-regina
  • P. primulinum

Most of the plants are either blooming size or near blooming size, and the primulinum has three growths and has obviously previously bloomed twice.  I’ll get some pictures posted soon.

Posted in 54g corner bowfront, Orchids, Paphiopedilum bullenianum, Paphiopedilum dayanum, Paphiopedilum javanicum, Paphiopedilum niveum, Paphiopedilum primulinum, Paphiopedilum victoria-regina | Leave a comment

Repotting mini-phals

Tonight I repotted our three mini-phals (Phal. I-Hsin Symphony, Phal. Sogo Vivien, and Dtps. Sogo Yenlin) into “semi-hydro“, using PrimeAgra as the medium. It was really easy to do. I removed the sphagnum moss they had been potted in (getting it really soaked, and spraying it with the sprayer at the kitchen sink made it easier) with tweezers so as to avoid damaging the roots.  Then I took old peanut butter jars, drilled two 1/4″ holes in them about an inch from the bottom, and filled them about 1/3 of the way with PA.  Then I settled the bare-root orchids into the jars, and slowly started filling in the gaps with PA pellets, shaking the container to get them to settle in.  Five minutes later and Voila! semi-hydro mini-phals.  This was about the easiest thing I’ve ever done with Orchids.

Posted in Doritaenopsis Sogo Yenlin M-P0667, Phalaenopsis I-Hsin Symphony, Phalaenopsis Sogo Vivien M-P0398 | Leave a comment

Father’s Day Orchid Double-header

What a better way to spend Father’s Day than engaging in one of my hobbies/obsessions!

Early in the afternoon, the Brookside Gardens Orchid Club had their meeting, at which Julia Redman gave a talk on Orchid hybridization, flasking, and seedling development, in which she described how to pollinate orchids and raise the seed.  Having had some exposure to plant tissue culture through my experiences with GWAPA, it was reassuring to see that growing out orchid seed uses most of the same techniques, with just slight changes in the protocol (the sterilizing techniques, growth media, and schedule to replating).  It was an excellent talk and I learned a lot, enough to perhaps try my hand at pollinating orchids and raising the seeds (more on that below).

Julia also brought a number of orchids for sale (she grows and sells orchids through her website), and I bought two Paphiopedilum hybrids – S. Gratrix and Paph (Puck’s Apple x gardineri).

BGOC members had numerous gorgeous orchids on display, but the one that really caught my attention was a beautiful Phalaenopsis equestris Chryss Mavrides brought.  I love orchid species (the world of Orchid hybrids is just so complicated that for a newbie like me, it’s just much easier to concentrate on species), and Phals and Paphs are my primary interest.  This gorgeous plant had been in continuous bloom for three and a half years, and had numerous very long spikes from which new flowers bloomed on a regular basis.  And when a given spike stopped flowering, it created keikis, essentially baby plants with leaves and roots that can be separated from the mother plant to yield new plants.  Utterly beautiful and fascinating, I really need to obtain one of these orchids!

After the BGOC meeting, the National Capital Orchid Society (NCOS) had their annual picnic just down the road, and Chryss from BGOC secured an invitation for all BGOC members, so I went to that as well.  What a blast!  Clearly, these are cool and fun people who share a passion for orchids.  There was no formal talk, but good socializing, and I met several people who shared their experiences and knowledge of orchids.  They had an orchid swap table, where anyone who had contributed could pick an item, as well as an auction, and something I’d never seen before – orchid Bingo.  You buy a card (the columns, instead of being B-I-N-G-O, were O-R-CH-I-D, cute, eh?), and whoever wins gets to go up to the table and pick the orchid of their choice.  There were close to fifteen orchids on that table, so as the game got into the early evening, it became obvious that more orchids per game needed to be awarded, and I ended up winning an entire tray with five orchids in it!  (Which is why it really pays to stick around until the end of hobbyist club meetings!)

In the auction, I won three orchids:

  • A beautiful Oncidium Alosuka ‘Claire’ that is in bloom with close to a dozen beautiful yellow flowers, and
  • An Oncidium Mendenhall ‘Hildos’ FCC/AOS with two spikes, and
  • An awesome Doritis pulcherrima with nine spikes and numerous tiny blooms.

In the orchid bingo, I won a tray of orchids that contained:

  • An Epidendrum floribundum x Encyclia linearfoloides that is in bloom, with two spikes with 31 flowers on one spike and 38 buds on the other spike, and
  • Burrageara Nelly Isler ‘Swiss Miss’ in bloom with four flowers and 10 buds on two spikes, and
  • A Paphiopedilum niveum (‘In Charm BM/TPS’ x sub ‘Yuan BM/TPS’) that is in bud, and
  • An Oncidium alosuka ‘Claire’ that is in bud on one spike, with close to twenty buds (I think I’ll try crossing this to the other one I won in the auction), and
  • A Tolumnia Genting Angel with four spikes, one of which has seven flowers, with the other three in bud.

All in all, I came home on this awesome Father’s Day with 10 new orchids, many of which are in bloom or in bud.  I’ll get pictures up as soon as I can take and process them.

Posted in BGOC, Burr. Nelly Isler 'Swiss Miss', Doritis pulcherrima, Epi. floribundum x Enc. linearfoloides, NCOS, Oncidium Alosuka 'Claire', Paphiopedilum (Puck's Apple x gardineri), Paphiopedilum Gratrix, Paphiopedilum niveum, Psychopsis Mendenhall 'Hildos' FCC/AOS, Tolumnia Genting Angel | Leave a comment

Cryptocoryne undulata spathe

I have been growing various Cryptocoryne species in an emersed setup for over a year, but have been frustrated because none of them had ever flowered for me.  Earlier this year, my Lagenandra thwaitesii flowered, but until now, none of my crypts had.

Last week, I saw what I thought might be a spathe coming from a C. undulata I got from a fellow GWAPA member who is a crypt enthusiast and collector, and today when I went to water the Nepenthes that share that terrarium, there was an open spathe:

The limb has a subtle but pretty texture and pale yellow color that does not come out well in the photos (one of these days, I’ll buy a decent camera and learn to use it well), and the collar is smooth but quite pronounced.  Not a stunningly beautiful flower, but there’s something about it being my first Cryptocoryne flower that enhances its inherent beauty.  :-)

Posted in 75g terraria, Cryptocoryne undulata, GWAPA, Terrarium Plants | Leave a comment

Moving plucky

I had twice seen Plucky (our 12″ common pleco) trying to suck on the new Discus we bought this last weekend.  Tonight, right after the lights went out, he tried it again.  So I turned the lights back on, grabbed two nets, and moved him to the 75g.  He seems to be settling in OK, but I think the other fish in the tank are a little stressed about it.

Really weird; I had heard of “attack otos”, Otocinclus catfish (which only grow to 2″ long at most) that will try to suck on the slime coat of Discus.  But a large common pleco?

Posted in 75g Malaysian biotope, 90g 'Brazilian Love Shack', Hypostomus plecostomus | Leave a comment

New carnivorous plants

We went to the Repticon convention last weekend and stopped by the booths for Glass Cages and Black Jungle Terrarium Supply.  We got a 50 breeder, a 1/2 15g (same footprint as a 15g, but half as tall – great for fry grow outs or killifish) and a 1/2 10g.

We also bought a couple of carnivorous plants from Black Jungle.  We had hoped for some nice Nepenthes, but the only ones they had that appealed to us were hybrids of ampullaria and rafflesiana.  But we got four new ones:

Sarracenia leucophylla var. ‘Tarnok’:

Drosera spatulata:

Mexican butterwort (Pinguicula moctezumae):

and Dionea muscipula ‘Akai Ryu’, which has very red traps and foliage:

These plants are all currently residing in a tray outside, next to S. rubra ssp. wherryi, S. purpurea, another D. muscipula, and the other Tarnok  that hasn’t seemed to come out of its winter dormancy, and may well be dead.

Here’s some closeups of the other four plants on the tray, which we got either from Sarracenia Northwest, or from Michael Szesze’s Carnivorous Plant Nursery:

Posted in Dionea muscipula, Drosera spatulata, Pinguicula moctezumae, S. leucophylla var. 'Tarnok' | Leave a comment