New 4th Edition of 'Ecology of the Planted Aquarium'!

dwalstad said:

I wanted to condense my book and that chapter did not have the importance/relevance of the others in the total picture. Allelopathy between plants is just so hard to prove and sort out from nutrition and lighting factors. For example, hobbyists often say that Vallisneria and Sagittaria can't be kept together and this could be due to allelopathy. But now I have evidence that Val can use bicarbonates and Sag cannot (my new edition, Table V-4, p. 87).

BUT just after I had the book printed, I found a fantastic 2022 paper* about Neocaridina shrimp (RCS) kept with 4 substrates--either Hornwort, Java Moss, Cabomba, or plastic netting. Growth of juvenile shrimp was about 40% better with Java Moss than the other substrates. And hornwort significantly inhibited the % of berried females as compared to the other 3 substrates.

This reference supports scientific evidence that I presented in my book's earlier editions (p.44) about certain plants (Elodea, etc) inhibiting invertebrates (daphnia, etc).

*Vazquez ND, Sganga DE and LS Lopez Greco. 2022. Effect of different substrates on growth and biochemical composition of the ornamental “red cherry” caridean shrimp, Neocaridina davidi (Atyidae). Aquac Res 53: 3001-09.

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