Cool. You’re cramming in so much into such a relatively small space it looks so great. I’m going to try to find a big fat one. Here near Palm Beach we have an auction house and estate liquidator. They always have cool ceramic wear available for pretty good prices. Here with the retirees in Florida I am in a vast sea of Chinese fishbowls and other Asian goods. I’m just waiting for grandma to have a garage sale! 😂
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Update: I mentioned in another thread that I was thinking of moving the red tiger lotus pot to another tank in order to make room for more fast-growing, rooted plants. It was a tough decision, but I decided not to. It's the bull apisto's favorite hiding place in a bowl dominated by schooling zebra danios and I figure he deserves this one spot of territory to call his own. I had to balance the rooted plant situation against the fact that it's been several months since the last fatality and the fish don't seem to be in any distress:
![Plant Water Botany Terrestrial plant Groundcover]()
I like what's happening with the red tiger lotus. It seems to be growing new leaves without them becoming coated with hair algae:
![Plant Botany Organism Terrestrial plant Water]()
Here's the bull apisto.borelli, peeking from under one leaf:
![Water Flower Plant Leaf Petal]()
But, what I don't understand is what's happening with the dwarf sag. How can the leaves appear so green and healthy looking while coated with hair algae? They are usually the first things to melt under any sign of stress and yet they remain zombie like for what seems forever. Are they photosynthesizing, or is it an optical illusion?
![Water Automotive tire Organism Grass Tints and shades]()
Here's the bull apisto.borelli, peeking from under one leaf:
But, what I don't understand is what's happening with the dwarf sag. How can the leaves appear so green and healthy looking while coated with hair algae? They are usually the first things to melt under any sign of stress and yet they remain zombie like for what seems forever. Are they photosynthesizing, or is it an optical illusion?
Sometimes I think I have more pictures of the plants in this bowl than I do of my own relatives! It's been over a year since I planted of couple of red tiger lotus bulbs in used keurig coffee cups and let them root in the mostly gravel substrate. They did moderately well for a while then got lost in the constant shuffle between raising fry in a new tank and finding a place to shelter the adult parents.
This morning, I realized at least one of the k-cups still held a live plant and decided to salvage it:
![Twig Wood Soil Recipe Art]()
The bulb had all but disappeared and an enormous root was just spilling over the rim of the k-cup. Hopefully, it will come into its own in the breeder tank where it will have a proper dirt substrate, but I don't have a good track record at transplanting these bulb-less babies.
OTOH, in the space that has opened up, I discovered something I hadn't seen since I jump-started a grove of dwarf sag in the vicinity. We have a runner!
![Plant Terrestrial plant Wood Grass Road surface]()
This morning, I realized at least one of the k-cups still held a live plant and decided to salvage it:
The bulb had all but disappeared and an enormous root was just spilling over the rim of the k-cup. Hopefully, it will come into its own in the breeder tank where it will have a proper dirt substrate, but I don't have a good track record at transplanting these bulb-less babies.
OTOH, in the space that has opened up, I discovered something I hadn't seen since I jump-started a grove of dwarf sag in the vicinity. We have a runner!
Alas, I am batting zero with transplanting these second-generation tiger lotus offspring once their bulbs have been exhausted. One would think they would prefer the actual soil of the breeding tank to the mulm/STS muck at the bottom of my porcelain bowl - but no. The above attempt resulted in the plant just vanishing over the space of 10 days amidst a jungle of dwarf sag. Meanwhile, its close cousin, the result of an actual runner from the only lotus to survive since the beginning of the breeding tank, is thriving - at the bottom of the porcelain bowl:
![Water Organism Terrestrial plant Liquid Wood]()
Go figure.
Go figure.
Coming along. I think the dwarf sag is slowly winning:
![Water Plant Fluid Liquid Terrestrial plant]()
And the red tiger lotus has a couple of new emergent leaves. I think it is slowly coming back from the brink:
![Plant Terrestrial plant Food Reptile Vegetable]()
The dwarf sag is not exactly growing like a weed, but they're not collecting hair grass either. Also, a little carpet of salvinia can conceal a multitude of sins LOL:
![Plant Flowerpot Houseplant Terrestrial plant Grass]()
A tale of two pots, the RTL seems to be making a comeback after struggling a lot during the summer:
![Plant Botany Leaf Organism Terrestrial plant]()
Another key difference is that the RTL has been in potting soil since the day it was bought nearly 18 months ago while the dwarf sag has had to make do with a weak tea of STS and mulm:
![Plant Houseplant Terrestrial plant Aquatic plant Grass]()
I may have to bite the bullet and mineralize the sag separately in a pot of soil by itself. That would go for any new rooted plants I introduce to the bowl.
Another key difference is that the RTL has been in potting soil since the day it was bought nearly 18 months ago while the dwarf sag has had to make do with a weak tea of STS and mulm:
I may have to bite the bullet and mineralize the sag separately in a pot of soil by itself. That would go for any new rooted plants I introduce to the bowl.
Compliments like that keep me trying to make this setup work even though I had no idea in the beginning whether it would ever make an ideal walstad tank. Things were much simpler when it was just six fish, a clump of anubias and no artificial lighting whatsoever. But not nearly as interesting.
With all the life and death struggles going on in the apistogramma tank, the porcelain bowl has had to play second fiddle in "the conservatory". I took a few helpful hints from @dwalstad's posts and lowered the intensity of my lighting and it seemed to help somewhat:
![Dishware Plant Terrestrial plant Recipe Leaf vegetable]()
I've learned to live with hair algae at the bottom of the bowl (it's a plant and it converts CO2 to oxygen during the day.) It has all but overwhelmed the dwarf sag which seems to exist in a kind of zombie state in relation to it. The red tiger lotus is no longer dormant but seems content to remain submersed; haven't seen a lily pad in months.
I've learned to live with hair algae at the bottom of the bowl (it's a plant and it converts CO2 to oxygen during the day.) It has all but overwhelmed the dwarf sag which seems to exist in a kind of zombie state in relation to it. The red tiger lotus is no longer dormant but seems content to remain submersed; haven't seen a lily pad in months.
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