Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Indeed. I got my complimentary copy from David Armitage of the AAGB a couple of weeks ago. Very nicely produced and a good research, thanks for all the hard work!
I have had a bit of a change with this tank now… the water parameters simply were not right for Paros, so I am moving them to a new tank. Inhabitants are now 5 Yunnanilus sp. ‘rosy’, 8 Danio erythromicron and 3 Dario hysginon (and the otos are still in there from before).
So not really relevant to the paro project any more, but I thought one last update would be OK!
How things look after tearing down and moving the tank, and replanting:
Hehe, it would appear I have the great Peter Finke stumped 🙂
I’ve found that Paros can be surprisingly speedy when they need to be, but will keep trying… just finding them is the most difficult thing at the moment, I haven’t seen any for days.
I think perhaps you or Peter should be owner, Helene. I don’t think it is possible to pass ownership over to you from me.
However, if you were to create a new map – My places > Maps > Create – you can then import the details from the map I have created by pressing the ‘Import’ button and entering the URL of my map – http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=203176248104282074125.0004b71d5b1ea074f7a6a&msa=0
I would then delete the old one
PS, am going out for a little while now, will check back later if any problems!
No need for separate maps for the other continents Peter, you can add a marker to anywgere in the world. I like the idea of a single global map. Up to you of course though!
I don’t think it is too difficult to work out, and it is only something that each member would need to do once. It would also be entirely user driven (other than perhaps pointing people towards it – you could add a link to the navigation bar at the top of the site), so wouldn’t require maintenance on the part of the admins.
Also, people can choose exactly what information about themselves they put up. And anyone worried about revealing what street they live on can just place their marker at a city center location, or whatever distance from their home they feel comfortable with!
Finally, it could also be made a private map, so that only people who have been given the URL can find it (ie it won’t show up in search results, etc).
Was just an idea anyway, as people were requesting some way of finding other members 🙂
You have to be signed in to your google/gmail account first (sign in/sign up button should be top-right of the screen).
Then click the ‘Edit’ button in the left hand column. You should then be able to right-click where you live on the map and select ‘Add a placemark’. This then opens up a little box for title and description. I would suggest your name as the title, and what species you keep in the description.
OK, so I have just created the great Parosphromenus Project Members Map!
It is open access, so anyone with a google account can add themselves to it. Also, if you click the ‘collaborate’ button, then you can invite people to join by adding their email addresses. So Peter or Helene could email a link to it to everyone signed up to the forum, if they feel it is appropriate.
One of the other forums I frequent has a ‘Members Map’ using Google maps which people add themselves too. I’m sure it would be very easy to set one up for PP as well, and once created perhaps add a link to it in the automated ‘Welcome’ email/message to encourage new members to add themselves. It does require people to sign up for a google account though (quick and free).
Here is the map for the other forum, as an example – http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=214046924149280268662.0004a029b2cb533998cf8&ll=52.295042,-2.120361&spn=3.541123,14.501953&z=7
Tricky one. As uncommon as Paros are in fish shops in the UK, they are always labelled as either licorice gourami or P. deissneri, I think it would be hard to turn back the clock on this, unless you got suppliers to rename their stock lists. A commendable idea though!
As for comming up with a better name, I’m afraid I’m not very inventive… my girlfriend just calls them ‘secret fish’ because of the way they move, but not sure that would make a good trade name!
Yeah that looks good. I would still test a little bit in a bucket or cup for a couple of days to check how it affects the water. Basically you want whichever soil you can find that has the least amount of limestone, nitrate and phosphate and preferably without many bark chips and other large organic particles. Pond soils tend to be a good bet too.
I forgot to mention that I also mixed my compost about 50/50 with sand to keep the system quite lean, then capped with pure sand.
Hi Mike,
Yes, the tank is essentially a Walstad type setup with added riparian plants. The substrate was very cheap, about £10 in total for the soil and sand (compared to at least £100 for the same coverage of one of the branded aquarium plant soils). I actually use ADA Amazonia in my smaller tanks where the cost is not prohibitive… it has the advantage of good aesthetics, being easy to work and having a good particle size to prevent anaerobic spots. However, normal soil is just as good for growing plants really.
Many soils will lower pH, however you need to check this before planting… for example I have recently learned that John Innes number 3 contains added lime, which can raise pH and hardness dramatically. So worth testing some before hand – I have heard that Miracle Grow aquatic compost is good (I think Walstad uses this often). But not too expensive to buy a couple of different types to test, if you have a garden then you can always use unsuitable ones somewhere else!
As always, unless you mineralise it first you should also expect ammonia to leach from any soil for up to a month after it is submerged.
A few thoughts a year in… For starters the transition between underwater and immersed growth is a bit weak, they do still look like plants in pots stuck to the side… I’m planning a major rescape sometime in the next month in order to build a proper island for the plants to grow on, and to remove a rock that I think is adding to the water hardness.
I am also taking the risk of gradually lowering the water hardness through water changes. This might upset the plants a bit and reduce the stability of the water parameters, but I do feel the need to bring the conditions closer in line to what the fish in the tank prefer. I think as long as I do things gradually (as with everything in this tank!) then it should be OK.
The alternative would be to move the Paros and Boraras across to the new nano cubes, but there’s no way I could keep them in a self-sustaining fashion by doing that. I really hope to be able to get the Paros breeding one way or another, as otherwise all I’m doing is contributing to the consumption of an endangered species.
I think the other important thing to highlight is how slow the development of this tank has been… it’s taken a year to get to the point that a high tech solution would reach in a matter of weeks (plant growth wise). However, the upside of this is that things in the tank really are starting to look properly wild… I’ve got mosses that I never even knew were in the tank creeping across wood and stone, and the mulm has just reached the point where my hydrocotyles are throwing out roots for the first time, instead of just spreading with runners. The whole ecosystem is still not in balance after a year – the last 2 weeks have seen an explosion in the Hyella azteca population that I thought had died out completely when I added them way back in the summer.
It’s not a style of tank for the impatient, and even I sometimes struggle to resist the urge to mess around with it or (hardest of all), not chuck an extra hundred fish in!
