Hygrophila corymbosa "crispa"

Roseafolia (center left), Java Moss (center right), Cryptos (lower), and Christmas Moss (background left)

Thor (SAE) lurking among Cryptos and Pygmy Anubias

Tiger shrimp toddler frolicking in Riccia; Java Moss in foreground

Justin at Ocean Aquarium showed me his new batch of Rasbora maculata. I raced home and looked it up. Doesn't exceed an inch. Good in a community tank with fish small enough to pose no threat. Comfortable in a shrimp habitat. Plays well with Siamensis. I bought two for Asgard.

UPDATE: These little guys are a real hoot. They're very active and like to swim against the filter current. Most interesting about them is their comfort in all levels of water: you're as likely to see them weaving through plant stems at the bottom as you are to see them darting back and forth near the surface. They are unquestionably schooling fish, since the two of them seem most comfortable when they are together. However, they are intrepid on their own, embarking on little explorations that may separate them for several minutes if not longer.

In keeping with the Norse theme, I decided to name the rasboras Huginn and Muninn, after the ravens who scouted the earth and reported their surveys back to Odin each night. Huginn and Muninn join the Norns (Tiger shrimps Urd, Skuld, and Verdanda), Lif and Lifthrasir (Crystal Red shrimps), and Thor (SAE), plus all the little unnamed Asgardians spawned by the Norns.

The point of re-aquascaping my first tank (10G) is to apply all the things I learned from Asgard to an environment meant originally only to prove that I could keep fish alive.

I discarded all of the artificial plants and replaced them with live plants. From Justin at Ocean Aquarium, I bought two twisted new pieces of driftwood and a few lava rocks. To each, I tied bunches of Java Fern and standard Anubias. I repositioned the dwarf Anubias from Vishnu's tank at the tips of the driftwood. I'm happy with the final effect, although we'll see how it grows.

I've no CO2 in this tank, but will fertilize it with iron, potassium, and micronutrients. We'll see how low-light plants in a non-CO2 tank compare with moderate to high-light plants in a CO2-enriched tank.

Les Six and the Justice League seem to enjoy having real plants around.

Asgard is now a little over 5 months old. Many of the hardy stem plants I introduced to combat early algae problems are ready for replacement. The original Rotala, Ludwigia, and Microsword are darkening either from insufficient light at their dense bases or from months of strong fertilization.

So, I decided to radically overhaul the landscape. Today, I dropped by Nippon and Ocean Aquarium and picked up three types of Cryptos, fresh Rotala, and some Pygmy Anubias from Africa. I also bought a star-grass-type plant, although I'm pretty sure it's not Star Grass (I have yet to identify it through books or the web. Research suggests that it may be Hygrophila corymbosa "crispa," but I can't find any pictures of this particular variant.). I've also been cultivating Java Fern in Vishnu's old habitat, which I transfered to Asgard. Finally, I took cuttings from the original Ludwigia, which are quite healthy and dropping root threads, and planted them in place of the original Ludwigia.

Now, the tank looks a little sparse. I've planted the Rotala and Ludwigia less densely than I originally did to help light reach lower leaves. I also want to move away from dramatic stem plants like Rotala and Ludwigia and move more toward grassy plains-style plants, which was the original idea.

With epoxy, I affixed two small lobelias, Tillandsia bulbosa, in the divots of an arch-like piece of driftwood. 24 hours later, I tied the miniature orchid, Dendrobium lindleyi, to the same driftwood and wrapped all three bases with fresh Spanish Moss. Here are pics of the completed terrarium, taken at two different times of day.

Dawn

Midday

Amazingly, I was able to capture this photo of the newly bred Tiger shrimp (and apparently the only survivor of the clutch) while it grazed on Micro Sword in the corner of the tank. Micro Sword has pretty narrow leaves -- maybe 2 millimeters -- so that should give you some perspective on how small the new shrimp is.

I've been researching terraria ("terrariums" seems to have won the common parlance game) over the last couple of weeks. My little Amano tank, Asgard, has given me a serious crash course in biotopes. I wanted to try something soil based. I wanted to work with bright light and a self-reinforcing humidity column.

At Nippon, I bought a 4-gallon aquarium. Standard stuff. I also bought Coralife's 18 watt (Two 9W bulbs) lamp, which produces 6700K lumens for insane amounts of light. It sits tidily on top of the tank's glass cover. Here's some info about the plants I bought. Then, I'll talk about the landscaping process.

Plant	Type or Common Name	Retailer (San Francisco)
Eleocharis acicularis	Hair Grass	Hortica, SF
Tillandsia bulbosa	Anwyl Bromeliad	Paxton Gate, SF
Selaginella	perhaps plana	Hortica, SF
Sagina subulata 'Aurea'	Scotch Moss	Hortica, SF
Ophiopogon japonicus 'Nana'	Dwarf Mondo Grass	Bayshore Garden Center, SF
Dendrobium Lindleyi	Burmese miniature orchid	Hortica, SF

I used this and this as instructional resources.

The tank is 17" wide, 9" inches high, and 7" deep. I placed 2cm of charcoal on the bottom of the tank. Over that, I spread 2cm of large and medium gravel. On top of this I laid a single layer of super fine nylon, allowing water to drain easily, but preventing soil from sinking into the drainage substrate.

I created a soil mix of 1 part coarse sand, 2 parts peat moss, and 2 parts loam soil. This mix I spread in a 2cm to 5cm plain across the nylon. I created a small elevation on the left side of the tank, where a petrified-wood monolith perches in contrast to the driftwood arch that will complement it from the tank's right side.

The driftwood arch is now settling outside of the tank. I had to affix the Tillandsia with adhesive to the wood. It needs 24 hours to harden. After that, I'll affix the miniature orchid with thread. Near or around all three epiphytes, I'll string Spanish Moss. After I add the driftwood, the first version of this terrarium will be complete.

Take a look at day one:

One of the things I took away from the recent SFBAAPS open house at Erik Leung's loft was the idea of aggressive nutrient dosing. You reach a point, as Erik mentioned, where you develop a strong sense of what you can get away with in terms of fertilization. He doses aggresively with iron, and doesn't have (or didn't admit to having) algae problems.

I thought I'd give that strategy a try.

I fertilize regularly with Kent Botanica Micro, K, Fe, and, most recently, Nitro. And, of course, I'm injecting CO2 at a constant 10-12 mg/L 9 hours a day. I heap just under 3WPG into the tank, also for 9 hours. Sometimes, if I smell an algae problem coming, I dial down to 3WPG for about five hours, the remaining four hours at under 2WPG.

Because I'm pretty zealous about water changes with KH-buffered water, and because the environment is so small (6-gallons), I rely often on test-kit readings for chemistry levels. Since the iron has gone up, overall plant growth has improved dramatically...aggressive water changes (plus Thor, the Norns, Lif and Lifthrasir, and snails) keep algae from organizing effectively. The Riccia love strong iron and CO2. Die-off of cryptos has diminished drastically. And we'll see what the introduction of nitrogen fertilizer does.

Taken today. I turned off all of the harsh growth lights for the shoot. I've provided the same pic twice, with and without plant references.

1 - Alternanthera reineckii ''roseafolia'' [new]
2 - Christmas Moss [new]
3 - Cryptocoryne wendtii (red and green) [established]
4 - Ludwigia repens [established]
5 - Riccia fluitans [new]
6 - Rotala rotundifolia [established]
7 - Valisneria spiralis (I think) [new]
8 - Vesicularia dubyana [established]
9 - Lilaeopsis brasiliensis [established]

The female Norn (Tiger shrimp) in Asgard has bred. There is a 3-millimeter shrimplet poking around the short Riccia atop the driftwood. I have seen no other fry, so it may be a sole survivor. However, there could be a dozen fry in there and I wouldn't be able to tell.

S/he is a very cool little critter. Unfortunately, it's way too small for me to photograph. If it survives, I'll post pictures here.

Go little shrimpie!