Random Discussion

[WhistlingBadger]

Yesterday, I was kayaking on a shallow, muddy river. I was surrounded by scarlet maple trees, as the leaves have begun to turn. I realized I was into something rare around here - a hardwood habitat with no evergreens. So I started drifting the banks, picking up driftwood pieces for the tanks.
I found a beach on an island covered in maple branches. As water levels have dropped seasonally, a whole pile has been exposed.

Even this late in the season, there were Ludwigia plants all through the red mud shallows. Ludwigia, Elodea, Myrophilium and a couple of others that can't acclimate to tanks. @JackGulley , you don't have to go to the tropics to see common aquarium plants.
In Gabon, I saw maybe 2 or 3 individual Anubias in the water, and a Riccia-like thing, and that was all.

Sounds like it's time for a Newfoundland biotope tank, Gary. We have some interesting aquatic plants here, but most of our fish need very cold water, and chillers are expensive. That's what has kept me from doing a local tank. It's on my ever-growing "someday" list.

 

[GaryE]

If it's legal where you are, native plants (in North America) collected before mid July seem to establish themselves well. After then, as the days begin to shorten, they seem to have one of those 'initiate self destruct' buttons from the movies. They won't grow past September. I have Valls I legally collected many years ago, in June, still going strong.

I fooled 'em.

Being in Newfoundland, home of my ancestors, would be good. Well, home for some of them after other ancestral homes - ancestors get around. I'm around 1000km/500 miles south of where the family were in both Newfoundland and Labrador. I'm in New Brunswick, the drive through on the way to more touristic places province. I'm an hour from Maine. And don't worry. Last year, I had to look up Wyoming on google earth. I knew it was somewhere between Chicago and China, and needed precisions on that!

I don't keep natives because of the cold issue. I can't deliver. The tanks would freeze and split, or cost a fortune to keep ice free in the cold side of the garage. We're in a mild winter zone, only getting to 20 below (celsius) on a few days a winter, but even that wouldn't pay off. You can keep many native fish for years, but they don't "work right". It isn't fair to them.