Author: Andy Pierce

Learning about planted freshwater aquaria and WordPress.

Marginal plants

Posted on by Andy Pierce

I haven’t had much luck growing plants on the Shrimphaus river.  Mostly they dry out either immediately or eventually, or sometimes they rot away.  This roots and bottom bits wet all the time but leaves out in the air niche is pretty challenging.  Some internet digging revealed plants that thrive in this setting are called marginal plants:  those growing on the margins of bodies of water, and they are popular for people with ponds.  Ok, so that’s the right setting, but outdoor ponds are much larger than the Shrimphaus so only the smallest marginal plants might work.  Some shopping around led me to try Bog Arum (Calla palustris), Golden Buttons (Cotula coronopifolia) and Golden Creeping Jenny (Lysimachia nummularia ‘Aurea’).  All of these are listed as growing to a maximum height of about 6 inches.

The plants arrived well-packed in wet newspaper and the first surprise was how big they all were.  The pond world operates on a much larger scale than the aquarium world!  

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Baby shrimp newly hatched

Posted on by Andy Pierce

It’s been 10 weeks since the tear-down and rebuild of the Shrimphaus.  One of the things that surprised me in that process is there turned out to not be very many shrimp in the Shrimphaus, and mostly not any small ones.  This suggested that things in the previous build were not as they should be environmentally such that the shrimp had stopped breeding.  The big question was whether the new build would turn that around or not.  It takes four or five weeks from mating until eggs hatch so there has been a bit of a calendar-watching excercise going on and…

We have baby shrimp!

I was pretty excited the first time we got baby shrimp in the Shrimphaus as well.

adult shrimp are much larger than hatchlings
proud parent?

Baby shrimp look like tiny adults

Cherry shrimp hatch from eggs and look much like their adult counterparts, except about about 1/30 the size.  Bloody mary shrimp have colouration throughout their body not just in the shell, and sure enough the baby shrimp have a bit of a pinkish hue to them.  I have been feeding the adult shrimp a little bit since the rebuild, but the babies will generally graze on biofilm for the first little while rather than going after ‘solid’ food.  Moss is supposed to be particularly good for them since it has a high surface area to collect biofilm and also lots of hiding opportunities in case they feel shy and the Shrimphaus has a big patch of Christmas(?) moss in the back ready to go for them.

I did the first water change since the hatching and looked very carefully to make sure no small shrimp were inadvertently changed out with the water.  In general this seems not a problem; shrimp mostly stay on surfaces rather than swimming around freely in the water column.  Potentially more of a concern would be shrimp stranded on the river during a water change and even though I did have to relocate a snail I didn’t find any shrimp up there – they much prefer the river after a water change, not before.

There’s another video of the baby shrimp (maybe not the exact same one) chillaxing with the copepods – so far everyone seems to be getting on well with each other.  The thriving copepod population also seems an indicator of a healthy ecosystem.

ChatGPT on bloody mary shrimp

Posted on by Andy Pierce

Filed under “how are we doing with this AI thing” and just for funzies, I asked ChatGPT to help us out with bloody mary shrimp, the main feature of the Shrimphaus.

First attempt:  write me a 500 word blog post about bloody mary shrimp

Bloody Mary Shrimp is a delicious and unique twist on the classic Bloody Mary cocktail. This dish combines the bold flavors of a Bloody Mary with succulent shrimp, making it a perfect appetizer or main course for any occasion.

To make this dish, start by marinating the shrimp in a mixture of tomato juice, Worcestershire sauce, hot sauce, horseradish, and lemon juice. Let the shrimp marinate for at least an hour, or overnight for maximum flavor. Once the shrimp are marinated, skewer them and grill or broil them for about 3-4 minutes per side, or until they are cooked through…

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Planting Microsorum pteropus ‘Windelov’

Posted on by Andy Pierce

Microsorum pteropus ‘Windelov’ also known as Leptochilus pteropus is one of the many varieties of Java fern.  I picked up a pot from Pro Shrimp in an order that also included Alternanthera reineckii ‘Mini’.  Developed by Tropica, the ‘Windelov’ version I received was grown by Aquadip.

The ‘Windelov’ arrived totally overgrown and just a touch ratty on the ends in places as if it had been waiting for a sale for a long time.  I don’t mind actually, and the pot separated out into a nice variety of sizes and forms of plantets.  Java fern is a rhizomatous plant where a thick lateral ‘stem’ sprouts leaves growing upwards and roots growing downwards.  Although there are many terrestrial plants that grow with rhizomes underground, the conventional wisdom in the aquarium trade is that rhizomes must never be buried in substrate or they will rot and kill the plant.  Accordingly, best practice is to attach the rhizome to a component of hardscape, usually rock or driftwood, either by tying it on with thread/line, or more simply by ‘supergluing’ it on using a cyanoacrylate-based adhesive.  It is also possible to wedge the rhizome into a convenient crack in the hardscape where eventually the roots will naturally bind the plant on.

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Planting Alternanthera reineckii ‘Mini’

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After an unsuccessful go with Alternanthera reineckii (didn’t thrive) and another with Alternanthera reineckii ‘Rosanervig’ (eaten by Amano shrimp), I’m giving it try with Alternanthera reineckii ‘Mini’.  This AR ‘Mini’ came from Pro Shrimp, and was grown by Tropica.  I have had mixed results purchasing aquatic plant tissue culture cups before, but this AR ‘Mini’ cup is one of the best I’ve ever seen.  The plants arrived in superb condition, with a huge number of goodly sized, mostly correctly structured plantlets.  Sometimes tissue culture plants can have a confused growth structure where it seems the plant doesn’t really have a good sense of top (leaves) from bottom (roots) and in some quarters tissue culture plants have a reputation for being more fragile than their potted counterparts, but I’m really optimistic about this latest batch.

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Monolinuron does not control black beard algae

Posted on by Andy Pierce

After three weeks of treating the Shrimphaus with Tetra AlguMin in an attempt at chemical control of black beard algae, I can confidently report that monolinuron, the active ingredient in AlguMin, has absolutely no effect whatsoever on black beard algae (BBA, black brush algae).  The algae is as healthy and bushy as ever, does not scrub off even with vigorous rubbing, and may even have grown a little thicker.  I can’t really tell whether monolinuron was effective against green algae, as that wasn’t a major problem and so I wasn’t paying careful attention.  Certainly there was no visible green algae at the end of the treatment but there may not have been much in the first instance.

Monolinuron is safe for shrimp and snails

When used as directed at full strength, there were no adverse effects on either the zebra thorn snails, or on the cherry shrimp.  For a black beard algae reset, sterner measures are needed.

Chemical control of black beard algae

Posted on by Andy Pierce

Black beard algae (BBA, brush algae) used to be a bit of a nuisance in the Fireplace Aquarium, but since switching to a high phosphate, estimative index dosing regimen, BBA and really all forms of algae have been pretty much a non-issue.  Tanks need to sort their own equilibrium, and what works for the high-tech CO2-injected Fireplace Aquarium is not necessarily appropriate for the low tech Shrimphaus.  In general I prefer to ‘live and let live’ within reason for algae in an aquarium but in the Shrimphaus BBA has got to the point where it’s hurting the plants and not looking very pretty either.

What to do about it?

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Alternanthera eaten by shrimp

Posted on by Andy Pierce

It’s been more than four months since the Alternanthera reineckii ‘Rosanervig’ got planted in the Fireplace Aquarium, and whilst it seemed to be doing well initially, after 11 weeks things weren’t looking so great.  I thought lack of light from overgrowing Bucephalandra caterina might have been contributory, so I did a massive epiphyte trim to restore light to most of the tank.  That had very positive effects on the Cryptocoryne wendtii ‘Flamingo’ but didn’t really improve the alternanthera.  There were floating fragments of what looked like otherwise healthy Rosanervig leaves and I have from time to time noticed some suspicious interest in the alternanthera from the amano shrimp.  Some surveys of the interwebs suggests that amano shrimp eating alternanthera species is a known thing which could explain the observed damage.

As an experiment, I have shielded the top of one of the Alternanthera stems inside a mesh bag.  The aquarium denisens haven’t particularly noticed, although I did see a cheeky amano shrimp sitting on the bag – it scampered when I tried to take its picture.  We’ll do an updated report after a while to see how the bagged plant compares to its non-bagged counterparts.

Two week update:  shrimp-proof bag fail

Well… it seemed like a good idea anyway.  Whilst the shrimp-proof bag did keep the shrimp away from the alternanthera, the bag became a major breeding substrate for black beard algae and the plant inside the bag with no meaningful flow and no access to a cleaning crew did not thrive.  Not only that, but I couldn’t get the bag off and wound up tearing the head off the plant in the process!  Looking at it after the fact showed a few new leaves had sprouted so the plant was giving it a try.

That being said, in the ensuing carnage I did notice there was an alternanthera plant not in the bag that seems to be doing reasonably well, so I moved that over to the front of the aquarium and we’ll see how that does.

Massive epiphyte trim

Posted on by Andy Pierce

It’s been around 18 months since the Bucephalandra caterina and Anubias nana ‘Pinto’ were planted in the Fireplace Aquarium so time for a massive trim!

Ephiphytes on the mountain before and after trimming

The bucephalandra and anubias have both done really well, overachieved in a some ways in fact.  The caterina at the top of the mountain in particular is close to the light and grew across to make an impressive sombrero hat that did a nice job of shading most of the aquarium below.  This shading has been a challenge in particular for the new cryptocorynes on the right, nevelli at the back and wendtii ‘Flamingo’ in the front, but also I suspect for the Alternanthera reineckii ‘Rosanervig’ over on the left side. 

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Anubias hydroponics

Posted on by Andy Pierce

After repeated struggles to grow emersed plants on the Shrimphaus river using a variety of substrate set-ups, I’ve switched over to actual LECA – lightweight expanded clay aggregate.  For this experiment, I’m going with two reputedly robust to low(er) humidity emersed growth anubias:  Anubias coffeefolia, and Anubias gracilis.  This is the second attempt with Anubias coffeefolia, but the previous go seemed encouraging, with some new leaves forming before ultimately the plant was done in by rhizome rot.

Adapting plants to grow in LECA

Although aquarium plants are generally grown in emersed form in the nursery, they are typically potted in rockwool in a near 100% humidity hydroponic ebb and flow environment.  Transitioning terrestrial plants to LECA can be challenging and there are a lot of helpful resources with great tips available including to make sure every last bit of non-LECA substrate has been removed from the roots before planting in LECA.  The process seemed straightforward but the plants started wilting almost immediately.  It’s pretty well established that misting plants directly doesn’t meaningfully raise humidity so I did an improvisation with the conical plastic sleaves the plants shipped in.  Cutting off the bottom of the cone to fit snugly halfway up the pot gave a large surface area on top that could be misted to both keep a lot of water droplets around for a reasonable length of time close to the leaves and to provide a locally semi-isolated environment.  I kept the plants in the enriched humidity setup for three weeks, misting a couple times a day.  That seemed to mostly do the trick to give the plants enough time to adapt to being rooted in LECA; the gracilis didn’t really lose any leaves to wilting, and although the new coffeefolia did lose half its leaves it seems to have stabilised (hopefully).

Repotting to get rhizomes out of substrate

Five weeks after planting, it was time to take the plants out of the LECA to see how the roots were doing and repot if necessary.  Pretty much things were looking good, with healthy looking whitish roots with good structure.  There were however some brown rotted aspects in places, in particular where the rhizomes had been embedded in the substrate.  I used pinsettes to trim off those portions and gave the root systems a good rinse.  Then I replanted taking care to have the entirety of the rhizomes out of the LECA.  This meant essentially having the plants growing on the side relative to how they arrived in rockwool.  Possibly an ebb and flow hydroponics system in the nursery is more permissive since plants can dry out during the ebb phase, compared to the steady-state semi-hydroponics method of sitting LECA embedded plants in the Shrimphaus river.  The repotting process was easy and the repotted plants look good so far, but the real test will be whether the rotting stops and we start to get some new growth.