The image above shows the three ‘larger’ varieties of Tonina fluviatilis, with classis T. fluviatilis in the top of the image and rear of the tank, Tf “lotus blossom” in the left center and Tf “narrow leaf” in the bottom right. The lotus blossom variety is one of the most distinct strains with really stiff upright stems but the classic and narrow leaf varieties of T. fluviatilis appear more similar with more ’slack’ stems, leaves that eventually turn downwards and more vertical growing potential. Although some strains of Tonina, Syngonanthus and Eriocaulons can have really subtle differences that tell them apart, it is easy to see why Tf “Narrow Leaf” is called that, with it’s much more slender leaves that make it look almost reminiscent of Syngonanthus caulescens. This is one of my favorite new varieties of Tonina style plants and it is sure to become a popular plant in the hobby once it spreads beyond just a handful of aquarists that are currently keeping it in the U.S. One more pic after the break.
If you’ve been trying to read your plants to determine what kind of nutrients your plants need, Aquatic Plant Central member Zapins has put together a diagram that will make leaf divining that much easier. There is a small suite of nutrients that are crucial to sustained plant health and when a deficiency manifests itself, the appearance of aquatic plant leaves will reflect what kind of nutrient(s) is lacking. Senior APC member has taken the time to sketch out a very detailed, easy to follow diagram which will make it that much easier to get the hang of dosing your planted aquarium. Big thanks to Zapins for making this diagram available. The original APC thread can be seen here, follow the break for the full plant deficiency diagram.
Bucephalandra motleyana is a gorgeous species of aquatic plant from the rivers and streams of Borneo. Bucephalandra are rheophytes that are especially well adapted to live in flowing water. Bucephalandra is one of the rarest plants in the aquarium plant hobby and still very few people have ever even heard of this plant. When people first look at a Bucephalandra plant they immediately compare it either to Cryptocoryne, Anubias or both: The slender olive green leaves make it look like a crypt but the creeping rhizome and holdfast roots are more like Anubias. There are only three described species of Bucephalandra, B. gigantea, B. motleyana and B. catherineae, but there over a dozen distinguishable varieties, some of which may represent new and undescribed species. One of my favorite strains is B. motleyana “kedagang”. Granted Kedagang is the only variety of Bucephalandra we have ever seen or grown but after poring over images of all the Bucephalandra varieties we could find we are convinced that Bucephalandra “kedagang” is one of the most desirable. Bucephalandra “kedagang” has tapering leaves with a ruffled side edge, “sparkles” on the surface and a rhizome that is usually red to pinkish. It has taken quite a while to grow our first three leaflets into a sizable plant but now that the leaves have become more mature, the plant has begun to sprout leaves at an appreciable rate and the larger leaves are really start to show off some nice sparkling on the surface. Hit the read link for several more pictures of this awesome new aquatic plant.
The wine red and king kong shrimp may still be far from being widely available in Europe and North America but like the high grade crystal red and crystal black shrimp before them, we can still enjoy these new ornamental shrimp varieties through pictures and video. In this case, a wide diversity of varieties of wine red and king kong shrimp are featured in the video slideshow above by YouTube user popehome. As of this writing the wine red and king kong shrimp still fetch a minimum of $400-500 dollars a piece for the tiniest little shrimplets and almost double that for a specimen that you can actually see with the naked eye. However, these new varieties are only in the hands of the most dedicated ornamental shrimp hobbyists as the financial and logistical hurdles of importing a breeding group of either strain is still prohibitive to all but the most affluent or dedicated shrimp lovers. Although the high SS+ and higher grades of crystal red and crystal blacks only took a couple of years to become somewhat available for reasonable prices throughout the world, some reports seem to indicate that both the wine red and king kong grades are significantly less prolific than the SS+ and Mosura shrimp before them. Let’s hope that breeders develop new techniques to successfully raise more of these very attractive new strains of Crystal shrimp so that we can all enjoy them in person.
Cliff Hui is one of our all time favorite aquascapers and even at his young age he has managed to scape out quite the reputation for himself in numerous international aquascaping competitions. Cliff is a member of the prestigious Creative Aquascapers Union of Hong Kong and a few of the aquascapes that he has built in the past have had a great influence on the works of others as evident in the aquascaping entries of many competitions since then. We were very delighted to hear that Óscar Pereiro of Acuario Rosa in Spain recently conducted and published an interview with Cliff about his lifestyle as a pro-aquascaper. All readers are encouraged to zip on over to AR’s interview with Cliff Hui and read for yourself what makes this new master tick, and what goes through his head when he is designing and building a new aquascape. Huge thanks to Oscar for allowing us to repost this.
Hypancistrus L173 and L236 are among the most highly sought after of all pleco species. With the ban on these and other Brazilian endemic freshwater and saltwater fish, there is simply no legal way to obtain these fish other than from private breeders who invested in these species when they were legally available. One notable example is the talented German aquarist Heinrich Will who has been exceptionally successful with these varieties of Zebra Plecos, Hypancistrus zebra, which probably represent different species. Heinrich and his wife Annelotte have produced a now classic website L173.de that displays and documents their work with these amazing Hypancistrus. One look at their fishroom shows how much love has gone into providing a very clean and suitable aquarium environment for these gorgeous fancy plecos. Although Heinrich focuses on the L173 Hypancistrus, he also breed Hypancistrus L236 and L46 but he is also working with L98 we wish him success with producing that L-number species as well. Some of their offspring have shipped to Asian aquarium markets but we’d love to see some of these singular pleco species make their way to North American aquariums as well. Follow the link for a few more shots of their amazing L173 plecos but you have to visit the source website if you want to get the full scoop on their fishroom and other details. Read the rest of this entry »
Every year we are floored by the sheer beauty and diversity of aquascapes that are entered into the ADA international aquatic plant layout competition. This year’s entries delivered some truly inspiring layouts and we can see that some types of layouts are bifurcating along different paths. Other years it seems like everyone was emulating the works of Takashi Amano, but this year’s aquariums are going down many different paths. There are some ’scapes that keep trying to recreate the heterogeneous layouts of the Hong Kong style, many of which were built by Cliff Hui. Several of the top contenders appear to be inspired by the mountainscapes which took top place in two categories of the AGA competition. What is most striking about this year is the large number of tanks which are using very dramatic vertical placement of wood and sticks in the layout, many of which are adorned with epiphytic mosses to make them appear as trees. How did so many competitors all get the same idea to use a ton of top to bottom wood in their layouts? Did you get the memo about vertical wood placement? cause we sure didn’t. IN any case, enjoy this video slideshow of the top 27 winnders of the 2009 ADA IAPLC and if you’re like us, you’ll likely play the clip over and over again as it is so much easier than browsing all the winner webpages.
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The image above shows the three ‘larger’ varieties of Tonina fluviatilis, with classis T. fluviatilis in the top of the image and rear of the tank, Tf “lotus blossom” in the left center and Tf “narrow leaf” in the bottom right. The lotus blossom variety is one of the most distinct strains with really stiff upright stems but the classic and narrow leaf varieties of T. fluviatilis appear more similar with more ’slack’ stems, leaves that eventually turn downwards and more vertical growing potential. Although some strains of Tonina, Syngonanthus and Eriocaulons can have really subtle differences that tell them apart, it is easy to see why Tf “Narrow Leaf” is called that, with it’s much more slender leaves that make it look almost reminiscent of Syngonanthus caulescens. This is one of my favorite new varieties of Tonina style plants and it is sure to become a popular plant in the hobby once it spreads beyond just a handful of aquarists that are currently keeping it in the U.S. One more pic after the break.
