New tank - Boyu BYG-26

Every tank I used to own has a story, this one is no exception.  It was love at first sight affair, purchased instantly from online store with no budget in mind and that mean it cost me a bomb - 8 red notes to be exact.  In order to cut cost and save on taking cab, I lugged these dozen kgs item onto a bus at lavender, alighted at Bras Basah, walked 300m to another bus-stop, strenously lifted it onto another crowded bus that took hours to arrive. With no seat available, I stood 45 minutes before reaching my home which is another 100m away from where I finally alighted.  As usual, bruises with slight backache when I reached home.

Why I like about this tank is its half-moon shape unlike the traditional squarish or rectangular tank commonly seen in the market.  In fengshui perspective, I believe round symbolise  harmony too. Sometime, you saw such round aquarium in shopping mall albeit a larger version one.  Moreover it doesn't take up too much space, on my dinning table, which is  very importantl criteria when I bought this tank. Having said that, this round tank is not small either, it has the height (47cm) I was looking for and is energy-saving too.

I haven't decided how to aquascape this round tank, but will stare at it everyday like looking at a piece of white paper before I started to draw or built story out of it.

Fire Red Shrimps on the rise (again)

Shrimp feeding and noticed a steady increase in my Fire Red population again.  Patient not only pays off and I strongly believe increase in population is attributed to the blooming flora inside my 2ft tank.

Hope is in the air and I miss those days when I have hundreds of FR that fascinated many people.
Occassionally I still bring out the old photo of yester-years to boast..

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The massive shrimps shown in the last photo are the ancestor of  shrimps in the first two photos. I have not purchased any new batch when they were down to the last 50 pcs after transfering to the 2ft tank. Now they are breeding in more again.

Malayan shrimp again

Guest came to my house and amazed by a "big brown shrimp" among the fire red. I have no word for it but giggled that my MS has fooled my visitors at that moment.

and than, another malayan shrimp came out wearing aquamarine blue.

I broke my Nano tank

My plants have far outgrown my small nano tank and I decided to do a rescape...












While shifting my tank, I accidentally heard a crack sound.

Now my plants and fishes have nowhere to live..

Will release this lot of fishes into river to avoid casualty after considering the non-option:
Option: Flush down the toilet, wait till I get a new tank and start to age the water?

Beginning of a long journey for these fishes

Hygrophila Pinnatifida

A year ago, I came across this Youtube video and wanted the plant to be on my wish list.

When C328 had a pot without any name on it, I was skeptical and gave it a shrug as some kind of non aquatic fern . Today, I still wonder what I saw at C328 was indeed the above plant.

 

However, I have forgotten about it until I saw this plant being sold at SV. It was pricey for a small pot with few "tiny" leaves, which deterred me from buying.  

Today, Green chapter has displayed a "Hygrophila Pinnatifida" themed tank which drew my attention again. Here are couple of photos. My apology  for the blurry background picture due to sunny sky outside the shop.

I observed how the plants grew and screamed silently "I must have this!". The manager quoted me a price (so, so much cheaper than those at SV) and by quantity of 3 stems (not just leaves)!!! I drooled upon it when the manager uprooted the plants for me. OK, I exaggerated but this india's "wild weed"  is not a regular guest in many LFS nor have I seen them in many LFS.  

The leaves texture, is very unlike common straight-cut or oval in shape, will make your aquarium stand out quite differently in terms of flora diversity - shapes and colors.

They are now sitting at the backdrop of  my tank...hmmm, my tank always seemed to have space for every new plants acquired...hahaha..*evil laugh* .  Will keep an update of this india's wild "weeds" as time passes.

Anyway, I found the following blog quite useful when trying to recall this plant's scientific name.
http://botanick.blogspot.sg/2010_12_01_archive.html

My initial purpose to GC today is to get some Fire Red shrimps, but found non except a tank full of "painted red" shrimps which, of course, is beyond my budget.  Without wanting to leave place with plant alone, I bought some Giant Malayan Shrimps and hope they play their color well, as in my previous post on Giant Malayan Shrimp.

A stroll by the reservoir

My recent assignment in work place was extremely stressful, causing a slight high blood pressure.  Doctor advised me to do more exercise and learn to relax.  I thought of a sanctuary not too far from home.  It is one place that I felt very rejuvenating and refreshing because menthol get released gradually from some unknown trees in  the middle of thoes forest...

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Probably it was the after-rain effect, the atmosphere was cool with slight breeze. Nothing beat having a camera on hand and taking a slow walk by the water bank.

Here are some photos of plants that love having wet feet.

This reminds me of an an aqua plants (Proserpinaca Palutris - Mermaid Weed). They look alike and this one has purple flower.

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They are weediing everywhere.

Hornwort at juvenile stage (emersed stage)

Growing longer

 

Finally submersed in water











Can be quite intrusive in the half-shaded area of the forested pond










Pennywort?

Crawling its way into the water

Clover?

Various baby shrubs and ferns

 

Cute fern with orange tone, reminds me of my african Bolbitis in the aquarium.











Baby pilea

Is this fissiden or moss? The leaves resemble those of fissiden.

Eleocharis

At the above spot where I stood, I saw several interesting woodbrush (2 ft long by 1.5feet H), fallen from the trees above,

This place look sad and very unlike it once was 10 years ago when it was still full of different flourishing flora, and natural mini waterfall with fishes swimming beneath the shallow pond. Now the place look broken and dull.

Admiring some of the common shrub flowers along the reservoir

Eco garden to educate public how rain water is collected, filtered through the ground and recycled into the pond naturally. The fishes (mostly cichlid) are happy no less.

Will update more if I venture deeper into the forest...someday.

2 feet Nano tank (Desert to Forest)

Non fuss nano setup under the following specs.

Tank: 60cm x 28cm H x 23cm w
Material:  River gravel, dragon rocks (inert)
Wood: 2 small bogwoods
Flora:
Needle fern,
cryptocoryne
Java fern (main theme)
Windelov (main theme
Mini Nana
Other loose ground plants to experiment

Equipment:  Eden 501, Fan
Light: T5HO 24w x 2 (switiched on 1 tube only)

Transformation within a span of 9 months (since November 2012)

The Java moss has never been so beautiful in natural canopy shape, no trimming is needed at this moment because it  has grown thicker rather than longer..

The above tank is also based on (Diana Walstad) method using natural Fishes' waste as fertilizer for plants.

A simple fantasy