Livestock

Aquarium Fish.net- online source for live fish

Clubs

clevelandaquariumsociety.org
Cleveland Aquarium Society. A social group of aquarist that enjoy keeping fresh and saltwater fish.

Blogs

www.tankgeek.com

We are pleased to bring you the great Nano Challenge Aquascaping Contest

Start date: May 1st

Close date:  July 16th, 2012

Submit up to three photos

Three categories:

Freshwater Planted

Freshwater Biotope

Marine Salt or reef

Maximum tank size: ten gallons

Entry fee: $10.00

Awards: 1st, 2nd, and 3rd for each category and one grand champion

Prizes: $100.00 cash

T5 lighting system, LED lighting system, and more prizes to be announced. Details to be announced

Nano Challenge Aquascaping Contest Entry Form

Please describe your aquarium that is any size no larger than ten gallons. Include names of all fish, plants, and other inhabitants, date of set up, and category name. For biotopes include all relevant info in relation to the biotope. Include your name, postal address, phone, email. This contest is only open to residents of the USA and Canada.

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Name:*

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Nano tank description: size, names of fish and plants*

Date tank was set up*

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After submitting the entry form, please click on the paypal button below to pay the entry fee.  Once payment is made and confirmed, your entry will be valid. Contest is open to only residents of the USA and Canada

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Freshwater aquarium blog and internet radio talk show

Learn the latest in the planted aquarium hobby from our extensive list of articles written by some of the best known writers in the hobby and join in on the fun of the Aqua Botanic Radio Talk Show   every Saturday morning 10am pacific time on the blogtalkradio network. Aquarium plants, aquascaping, fish and inverts. Listen live and call in to the show toll free!

Listen to the archive shows on ITunes!

Show sponsors

aquabid radio ad aquariumplantsdotcom commercial

southern oak aquatics radio ad

EcoBio-Planter™   ecobio planter radio ad   aquarliam radio ad

WildPERU-Custom Jungle adventure wildperu radio ad HEALTHY TANKS.COM Healthy Tanks radio ad Green Thumb Aquatics fertilizers with liquid Co2 green thumb aquatics ad Aquarium Fertilizer.com aquarium fertilizer.com ad ZooMed radio ad

Upcoming shows Aqua Botanic Radio Talk Show Listen Live and call in to the show!

Aqua Botanic Radio-Fish Room Automation with Markus Brown
April 14, 2012 10:00AM PST

Learn the tricks of how to set up an automated fish room with Markus Brown

Aqua Botanic Radio-Wild Peru with Brian Perkins
Sat, April 21, 2012 10:00AM PST

Brian Perkins, owner of Wild Peru is our guest and will share with us his adventures in Peru and collecting fish.

Aqua Botanic Radio-Cryptocorynes with the APC Founder
Sat, April 28, 2012 10:00AM PST

Learn about one of the most popular group of aquarium plants with our guest Art G., founder of Aquatic Plant Central. We will discuss various Cryptocoryne species and methods of growing them both emergent and submersed.

Aqua Botanic Radio-Secrets to Planted Nanos with Kiran Ravin
Sat, May 5, 2012 10:00AM PST
Planted nano tanks are all the rage, and Kiran Ravindra shares with us his secrets that anyone can use to create amazing planted aquascapes in very small aquariums

Goals: Generate interest and education for the youth and hobbyist in freshwater aquarium and aquatic plant science, and have FUN! Coming soon Kids Corner education center for students and educators. Help us to grow!

Past shows: For more archived podcasts go: HERE

Archived shows are also on Itunes

Aqua Botanic Radio Show-Going Wild with Stan Sung

Sat, Apr 7, 2012 10:00AM pacific time

Renown TFH magazine writer Stan Sung, who has traveled the world collecting rare fish will join us to share his travels and expertise, including his travels to remote areas of China. Call in to speak to Stan!

March 31

Aqua Botanic-Enriched Humus Substrate with Chris Brown
Sat, Mar 31, 2012 10:00AM Pacific time

Chris Brown returns to tell us more about his own substrate for growing plants in the aquarium: Enriched Humus Substrate. Chris has spent months reseraching and testing this soil based substrate, and for the hour we will…

March 17

Everything about C02 in the planted aquarium with guest Tom Barr.

If you are considering C02 for your planted aquarium, don’t miss this show with plant guru Tom Barr. We will talk about everything from DIY systems to various pressurized gas systems and equipment. Tom will explain how C02 benefits plants and some of the science behind it.

Tom is a recognized expert in plant physiology. He developed the Estimated Index method of fertilizing plants in the aquarium, and has written for numerous magazines. His web site The Barr Report is a discussion forum and newsletter that focuses on the various aspects of the planted aquarium hobby.

Call in your questions live during this extended 90 minute show. You can also email to the show at robert@aquabotanic.com

Show us your fish, plants, and aquariums! We want to see what you got! Send up tp three photos with a description, and we will display it in a new gallery here! Lets see your favorite fish! Send them by using our CONTACT FORM

• Oliver Knott

  http://www.aquabotanic.com/wp-content/uploads/slideshow-gallery/oliverknott.jpg

  Oliver Knott

• The Tree

  http://www.aquabotanic.com/wp-content/uploads/slideshow-gallery/thetree.jpg

  Lone tree

• Red Garden

  http://www.aquabotanic.com/wp-content/uploads/slideshow-gallery/jameshoftiezer.jpg

  James Hoftiezer

• The Field

  http://www.aquabotanic.com/wp-content/uploads/slideshow-gallery/johnmartin.jpg

  John Martin

• Iwagumi

  http://www.aquabotanic.com/wp-content/uploads/slideshow-gallery/stuWorralliwagumi.jpg

  Art

• Anubias Garden

  http://www.aquabotanic.com/wp-content/uploads/slideshow-gallery/anubiasscape.jpg

  Anubias Garden

Aquarium Plants

Fish and Invertebrates

Donald Rosskopf Jr wrote in

I have a 29 gallon biocube tank … I have the fluval flora substrate in the tank… Been trying to keep plants in there but everything just melts away… And my fish r dropping like crazy too… I use flourish excel and trace… Also potassium and nitrogen …

Ammonia is 0 nitrates r 20 nitrites 0 and pH is about 5.8 to 6.2 …
Been in the fish hobby for over 15 yrs never had a problem like this… Is there anything u suggest I should do … The filtration in that tank I feel is horrible … Since it is built in in

When people have a problem growing plants, the first thing to consider is light, and the most common problem is that people are using lights that are far too inadequate to grow plants. For the best success, one should have between 2 and three watts of fluorescent light per gallon of water. The Oceanic 29 gallon Biocube comes with one 36 watt 10,000 kelvin power compact flourescent and one 36 watt Actinic power compact fluorescent. Although the color of the actinic has no value for freshwater plants, the intensity of both bulbs should be plenty bright enough to grow plants, as long as you run them for 10 to 12 hours every day.

The filtration system of this aquarium is actually very good and very effective. It contains bio balls, sponge media, and mechanical filtration pads- giving a large surface area for biological filtration. At 243 gallons per hour, the circulation pump is plenty strong, perhaps too strong!

So, I do not see anything in your set up that would account for you having problems with either plants or fish. Something else must be going on that you have not accounted for.  Plants sometimes just require a bit of patience for them to get started. Make sure you are leaving the lights on long enough each day. Flourish Excel may cause some delicate plants with very thin stems to melt.  Your nitrate level is rather high. If your plants are not growing, they are not using the nitrate, and apparently you do not have a bacteria colony keeping it in check.  I would suggest seeding your filter with a live bacteria culture such as DrTims One and Only

Mary wrote in:

I got a 20 gallon tank with live plants and cherry shrimp and 2 different kinds of snails.my question is besides ottocinclus if i can put pigmy cory cats and kuhli loaches? if not please recommend something else.thank you ,mary

Pygmy Corydoras are very peaceful fish that are best kept in groups and would be a nice addition to your tank. Loaches eat snails, and may eat your shrimp! In fact if your snail are large, they may go after the shrimp first

Nithin Krishnan wrote in with the following question: “ I have these plants….pigmy amazon, glossostigma, dwarf sagitaria, anubias, java fern- narrow leaf, windelov, red ammannia, purple mint, green cabomba, star grass/bambo plant, compacta, giant ambulia, yellow ludwigia, aroma plant, parrot feather, potamogeton, red lilly, leopard lilly, long grass. I’m planning to remove giant ambulia and red ammania. Please let me know some other plants for the background”

Well Nithin, some of the common names you are using I am not familiar with, but any of your stem plant species will grow as tall as you allow them to. There are many plants that grow tall enough and large enough for the background to choose from. It really depends on what you like.  If you want plants that require little maintenance that you do not need to prune and replant- just basically let them grow and forget about them- any of the Sword plants and bulb plants such as Aponogetons and Crinums are good choices.  If your aquarium is not large enough for those plants,  plants such as Giant hairgrass,  or Isoetes both have very narrow leaves that grow straight up without taking up a large amount of space .

Giant hairgrass, (Eleocharis montevidensis).

Isoetes lacustris

Mark Denaro is an importer of rare fish, member of the American Cichlid Association, and contributing writer to Tropical Fish Hobbyist magazine. He has been keeping aquariums since the 1970s.

Joshua Wiegert, also known as the boy wonder, is currently pursuing a PhD and is a former college instructor. His professional background includes several publications, as well as experience in the fields of ecology and limnology, from simple backyard pond and landscape work, to ecological studies of large lakes; he also donates a large portion of his time to the Native Fish Conservancy (NFC). His personal aquarium experience is fairly eclectic, and centers on planted aquaria, North American fishes, killies, and goodeids. When not out collecting fish or native plants, he is playing with his dog and pet rat.

Stan Sung,   grew up reading about adventurous explorations and new fish discoveries in TFH, and as a youngster Stan dreamed of visiting these fabled destinations. He has led expeditions to Argentina, Australia, Belize, Brazil, Burma, Cambodia, Costa Rica, Egypt, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Panama, Peru, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Uruguay, and the South and Southwest of the United States—many of these explorations have been documented in the pages of TFH. Among his discoveries are new species of rivulins from Panama. An avid painter and art lover, his award-winning stylized depictions of tropical fish and their habitats have been used in fundraising events for the American Zoological Association for preservation and education of the endemic aquatic species of Madagascar.

Devin Biggs

(aka: hydrophyte) is a product developer who lives in Madison, Wisconsin. Visits to aquatic habitats and other natural areas in Mexico, Costa Rica and throughout the United States have inspired his fishkeeping hobby. His particular aquarium interests include wild-type livebearers and planted tanks. He also has a growing collection of orchids, aroids and other tropical plants. He pioneered the concept of ‘riparium’ and created the online business – www.ripariumsupply.com

Mo Devlin is the Chairman of the American Cichlid Association and owner of Aquamojo.Com. Mo currently maintains close to five thousand gallons of fresh water tanks. Over his thirty years in the hobby he has successfully bred many of the Central and South American cichlid fishes. His passion for New World cichlids is only rivaled by his love of photography. Over the years, he as posted images of his collection frequently in his “Today in the Fishroom” series on line.

Matt Ford is a biologist, ex-livestock manager for an international fish importer and founder of www.SeriouslyFish.com, an ever-evolving freshwater information resource and forum. He’s been an aquarium hobbyist for over 20 years, is a regular contributor of articles to ‘Practical Fishkeeping’ magazine and an active member of the Sociedad de Estudios Ictiológicos, a Spanish organisation currently overseeing a project to conserve endemic killis and other fish species in the Delta del Llobregat nature reserve, Barcelona. Matt spends his spare time visiting freshwater and coastal habitats where native Spanish fish species are still abundant, consuming indecent quantities of Jamón Ibérico, and being bewildered by tricky Spanish wingers in a local soccer league.

Robert Paul Hudson wrote the Planted Tank column in Freshwaer and Marine Aquarium magazine for three years and since 2001 has contributed feature articles to Aquarium Fish International magazine, Tropical Fish Hobbyist magazine, and Freshwater and Marine Aquarium magazine. He founded the Aqua Botanic web site in 1999, operating as a business selling aquatic plants until 2010. Robert now enjoys keeping a variety of fish and plants.

Hobby News

Gone Wild

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