Ishar's Native Tank

[ishar]

I went to pick up some peppermint and found a whole bunch- so now there is a hint of mint in the air in my house - but I also found some random pink flower. I snapped a bunch of pics of the tank- things are growing well and it is looking good IMO.

FTS


Unknown #1- notice growth
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Peppermint


Water Forget-Me-Nots (I believe. When I gathered the three plants of it, one of them had blue flowers exactly like Forget-Me-Nots, so I think it is a safe guess :P). This has already grown about an inch since I first gathered it.


Unknown #2- not sure, but I think this stuff has also all grown about an inch!


Unknown #3- star competitor hahaha. One of the stalks has grown over an inch and has a good dark red stem (two different stems shown here)


Unknown #4- this stuff is also growing, but it is really hard to guess at how much

[ishar]

Unknown #5- this is the new flower I grabbed. See how only one flower is only sort of open? Well after today there are two flowers open and one is working on it!! So cool! They are little pink things with four pedals.


Grass- I think this is just typical grass. Nothing special, but I figured no native biotope tank is complete without it right?


Anachris (I think)- this stuff had really brittle stems when I collected it...


And for the final word, I have notice tons of little brown worms dancing in my substrate. Half of them is borrowed in the mud, and the other half is constantly wriggling in the water. I am not too worried. If they are parasitic they will die off before I ever put any inhabitants in there. If they are benign then I will leave them, and the first group of inhabitants will have some good food to eat when they get there .

[ishar]

I am going to add soil to the substrate this weekend I think. I will likely keep about an inch of the natural clay substrate, then a layer of about two inches of soil, then top it off with a good sprinkling of river rock.

[GeraldTheMouse]

Since it seems like it's less cloudy, do you think you plan on trying minnows or something again?

[ishar]

yeah- I am going to let the plants grow a bit taller first before I raise the water level. Once I raise the water level I am going to try putting one small minnow in there. If it doesn't jump out for a week or so I will add 2-3 more, and keep adding until I feel the stocking level is reaching its limits- and I get the feeling that that will be at about 4-5 small minnows.

[ishar]

Well I added top soil to my substrate. I left about an inch of clay/rock on the bottom, then added an inch or so of soil. However there was a bit of water in the tank, and there was enough pressed out of the clay apparently to turn my wet soil into total muck. Man what a mess :S. Once I put the river rock on top like before I replanted the tank, this time with a it of organization . This was a sort of trial run for when I add soil to my 20G... and I learned to keep the soil dry when placing!

[Sticky Fish]

you can grow peppermint underwater? your tank will smell awesome.

[ishar]

aha even better than that, you grow most of it above water- making my whole house smell awesome!

[ishar]

So it seems I forgot to update this! lol. I will update quickly, then accompany with some pics on the weekend.

I added soil to the substrate... man did I ever go abotu it wrong. I let it get wet and mucky, so it wouldn't place, and it mixed with the clay bottom a bit, and the gravel and stones for on top just sunk :/. Oh well. I am glad to learn now then on my 20G.

My arrowheads had all the old leaves die off (some faster than otehrs) but most are sending up new ones which is exciting. Most of the plantd are growing uncontrolably, and I have trimmed many of the grasses. I am afraid to cut the stem plants at the top fearing they won't propogate like tropical stem plants do.

But anyways, that is the quick update. Still no inhabitants. Soon though.

PS: Sorry for the typos- I did say a quiclk update

[Sticky Fish]

what happened with the parasites?