Mangrove Swamp

[ben2703]

hey everybody, I'm new to this site and forums so hopefully u can help.
I'm in the process of setting up a brackish paludarium for mudskippers and fidler crabs. However i am really struggling to find dead mangrove roots/branches to use as part of the decor and in the build. Can anyone suggest where i can get these please??
I don't want fake or resin stuff, the real roots/branches please.

Thanks very much

ben

 

[jacko32]

hey everybody, I'm new to this site and forums so hopefully u can help.
I'm in the process of setting up a brackish paludarium for mudskippers and fidler crabs. However i am really struggling to find dead mangrove roots/branches to use as part of the decor and in the build. Can anyone suggest where i can get these please??
I don't want fake or resin stuff, the real roots/branches please.

Thanks very much

ben

are you in the uk or usa ?
ebay uk has redmoor wood which are roots but i dont know about mangrove roots never seen them before

 

[ben2703]

im in the uk. look up mangrove roots on google images to see the sort of thing i need

 

[nmonks]

As has been said already, will depend on where you are. I will observe that while I have purchased bogwood via eBay at good prices, the quality is variable, and some bits were very soft and quickly rotted away. So unless money is really tight, there's a good argument for spending a little more to guarantee quality. Mopani wood is the hardest, and most likely to do well in brackish water (there's some argument over whether bogwood rots faster in brackish water or not).

I've never seen genuine mangrove wood on sale in pet shops. It would surely be pretty unsustainable in terms of an industry, so I can't say the ethics of harvesting mangrove roots for fish tanks appeals to me. It would be comparable to the bleached coral trade. Hagen make some very good replica mangrove roots that will last much longer, and also have the benefit of not acidifying the water between water changes. Once covered with algae, they'd be identical to the real thing, especially if siliconed some oyster shells on!

Cheers, Neale

 

[jacko32]

im in the uk. look up mangrove roots on google images to see the sort of thing i need

yeah type redmoor into ebay and have a look at those roots on there also have you tried aquarist classifieds

 

[ben2703]

thanks for that, but i all that kind of wood wouldnt look right for the effect im trying to create. ive been told that some manzantia branches can resemble mangrove roots but im yet to find any that do. as for hagen stuff, i really dont want artificial decor in any form. plus the tank i have is quite tall and need the roots/braches to be around 50cm.

 

[nmonks]

Try using regular bogwood, carefully selected for shape, and silicone it to the top of the tank so the branches hang downwards, like roots. Can work pretty well, and leaves the bottom of the tank clear, so you have more space for flounders and gobies.

All I can say is I've never seen genuine mangrove roots on sale in the UK, and given how threatened mangrove habitats are, I'm pleased that's the case. You could of course buy your own mangrove plants and grow them into the right shape. See for example mangrove.at, one of the best sites on mangroves I know about.

Cheers, Neale

 

[ben2703]

redmoor wood isnt gonna work im afraid.

the above pic is what im trying to do.
These are the kind of roots/branches i need...http/images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http/www.marietta.edu/~biol/biomes/images/mangroves/red_mangrove_roots_0838.jpg&imgrefurl=http/www.marietta.edu/~biol/biomes/predation.htm&usg=__c9FeMrgTpTSrcC9al_uYZ95FOAQ=&h=600&w=800&sz=267&hl=en&start=18&sig2=2QwcvpYglbxry-XWxpLrBw&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=FTqpGx8F6_NJ1M:&tbnh=107&tbnw=143&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmangrove%2Broots%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DX%26rlz%3D1T4GZEZ_en-GBGB285GB286%26tbs%3Disch:1&ei=SE6JS5KjEo_QjAfnn8nqCQ

 

[K-Holed]

I'm going to agree with Neale on this one. You'll be hard pushed to find what you're looking for. Ironically, I think the most natural magrove roots would come in the form of artifical ones (although I know you've already said you wouldn't consider artifical decor.)

Mangrove Roots (Real and Artificial)

Kind regards

Jimi

 

[ben2703]

thanks but i think im gonna have to give up on that idea and re-think what im gonna do

 

[pebran]

I can whole heartedly recommend that you buy real live plants. The red mangrove in particular is very suitable for your purpose. They grow equally well in all kinds of water, they produce the kind of roots you are looking for and they can be trimmed.

Two sources for purchasing mangrove plants legally:

http/toptropicals.com/cgi-bin/garden_catalog/cat.cgi?uid=rhizophora_mangle

http/www.mangroven.at/mangrove/english/index.php?id=shop_pflanzen&submenu=shop&le=1&re=0

If possible try to get seeds that are NOT straight! My experience is that curved seedlings will produce a larger amount of supporting roots when the plant tries to stabilize it self.

Regards,
Peter

 

[maurizio]

Hello Ben,
I'm planning exactly the same, and frankly I decided that real mangroves are too much trouble, so I'm only considering artificial.

Rather than Hagen, which look ugly to me (I've been spending hours in Brazil among them, so I know how they look like...), try these:
http/www.zooplus.co.uk/ask?query=mangrove&num=20&form=search

Cheers

Maurizio

 

[TheHolding]

I have redmoor roots in my tank, they look the part, you should consider it.

 

[frothhelmet]

Ok, I have some experience with mangrove roots. I am from Hawaii and they have been introduced there. I went out and collected some live mangroves (Rhizophora mangle) from brackish/full seawater environments, and here is what I found.

First of all, it is impossible to use the roots submerged unless you have a huge tree connected to them on top. This is because the roots are actually very buoyant on their own (something you can't see in pictures is that the whole tree would float if you ripped it out of the deep sediment because of their roots), so even if you could get a hold of them they would be impractical to use. Also, since they are not a hardwood but rather a very spongy softwood they rot immediately. A further problem is that big mangrove trees cannot adjust to freshwater from salt/brack. I took several rather large trees and none of them grew any new roots or leaves, and after a period of about a month all their leaves dropped off and the plants just died. Seedlings however do great.

Also, growing the seedlings into the 'shape you want' is totally impractical. First of all I was growing mangrove seedlings in ideal conditions. Full Hawaiian sun, running freshwater with lots of nutrients (out of the back of my tank and in HOB filters). I can say that in these conditions my plants took about a year to grow 18inches tall and develop ~12" long roots. They also had zero branches, they just grew straight up (you have to bonsai cut them to get branchy-ness, which I didn't have the heart to do since they grow so painfully slow). Let me reiterate are a VERY slow grower. The other problem is that they get infested with pests (aphids) that are impossible to eradicate.

Also the roots which came out of the seedling DO NOT look anything like the great aerial roots you see from trees. They are thin (like a pencil), are full of feather like hairs, and for the most part point straight down. If you try to prune them, bit just come up from the sides of the prune and go straight down again. So there is no way to control what these roots do.

So in summary, the only way to get real mangrove roots in your tank (Rhizophora Mangle at least) is if you had maybe 5+ years plus to grow the thing under halides and after that the roots will still look nothing like you planned.

The best you can do is get other woods that look like mangroves, or use artificial stuff.

Cheers

 

[maurizio]

For those of you still interested in the topic (and with a lot of money!), I found this danish producer selling very good replicas:
http/www.unimati.biz/group.asp?group=345

IMO, they still don'ty look like the real thing (for some reason, manufacturers just don't get the fact that mangrove roots are smooth and tubular, unlike any other tree branch/root. For my tank, I eventually went for the ones sold by Zooplus.

They also have the most amazing backgrounds I've ever seen:
http/www.unimati.biz/group.asp?group=178

Cheers!