WaterNotes

20: Five months

So, some rearrangements were in order over the last few weeks. You will notice first, I imagine, that a good bit of the stargrass is missing. I did a LOT of thinning of the various plant colonies and lines to try to keep things at a more manageable level. The rhizomes on some of the colonies were so thick I needed scissors to break them! Five, six, in one spot, eight rhizomes had criss crossed into a thick mat of roots. I’m glad to have things more in an orderly fashion now. Just as I imagine those who received colonies out of the tank cleaning are happy with their new foray into seagrass.

I removed the dead rock in favor of finding it a new placement in the tank and haven’t decided on how to proceed. The turtlegrass is still in stasis - neither growing nor dying, but slowly adding a few centimeters of leaf length each month. Its quite upsetting to me quite honestly. I give it light, love, the finest gourmet nutrients, orchestral background music to entertain it.. sigh.

The good news is that I disturbed a few plants to check for root growth, and they did indeed have some considerable root growth. At least two three to four inch roots on each plant surrounded by soil and sand. The bad part about this is that the plants I disturbed will likely go back through a bit of shock and stabilizing. Arghhh.. lesson learned my friends: let fallow turtle grass lie!

I fully believe it may be an entire six months before the turtle-brats decide to really start throwing up big beautiful leaves. I dont know if I can stand the wait but I just have to see if it’ll work under the light and current conditions I have for it. And since there is some root growth, I’m encouraged to keep it in the tank, as finicky as it is, and coax it into the lush field I’ve been dreaming about. Till that time, I’m going to need to sub Caulerpa prolifera, shoal grass and manatee grass to do my bidding in making this aquascape come together into something beautiful.

Otherwise, things seem to be progressing nicely. I’ll be attempting for the next few months to make this tank more of an artistic peice instead of a mishmash of green. Now that I know how to to get the ‘grass and macros growing I should be able to start to cultivate a really pleasing aquascape. I’ve also been considering adding in rockwork that doesnt leach phosphates, as I suspect my current rocks to be doing. And, to attach to those rocks, most likely the gorgeous purply-blue Ochtodes sp. macro. I think a few accented tufts of it here and there in the tank would be a delightful contrast against all the bright green. A bit of texture change as well.

I do have some behavioral observations about the seahorses as they have been in the big apartment roaming free for about a month now. Considering the flow in this tank, which is probably twice the amount the average SH keeper would advise, they do an awful lot of current swaying. They seem to love the current. And I’ve seen all of them greedily snick and hunt down BBS floating by in the current. Because of the spraybar in the tank the flow is greatly dispersed over a wider area, making for less velocity, but equal turnover rate. So diffusion of gases is good, as is biofiltration, plus the grasses really enjoy the flow.

When the SH arent current surfing they spend the other half of their time hanging out in the lowest possible spots in the tank, especially in the super thick Caulerpa stands and the Halophila stands at the back of the tank. I’ve noticed that BBS tend to congregate in these areas where the water is more still and the horses quickly gobble them up off the leaf surfaces. The pod population seems steady, though I have witnessed at least half the herd go glass hunting as well.

While its hard to be sure everyone is eating enough I have noticed that my juveniles have put on quite a bit of size since the release and no one ever looks like they are losing weight, so I would consider the feeding strategy a success.

The change in season has meant a change in the tank temperature as well since I’ve left it to move along with ambient room temperature. It now goes through a 67-69F movement through the day with the lights adding about one degree to that total. The horses dont seem to have noticed, but the grass shrimp certainly have. The whole colony, which now has their own 5gallon for breeding purposes, has gone spawning crazy! It seems that lower temperatures are a spawning trigger for grass shrimp. In hotter weather I would have perhaps two clutches of eggs a month. I now have nearly a clutch of eggs every other day! This has meant a lot of shrimp larvae for the SH to enjoy and might also be apart of the success of the tank in the first month. I have frozen some of the larvae in hopes that one month, with another glut of larvae, I could possibly convince a few of the dwarfs that frozen food is delectable! (Big dream, but I like them big!)

A quick web link for grass shrimp biology.

Last thought I have on the tank for now is a very big positive development this month.. the return of green glass algae! Yes! I know, you’re rolling your eyes, but remember I consider this the one algae to be an indicator of a healthy tank. The Astreas do a nice job of keeping it in check, thought I do have to do the occassional magnet swipe to hit the areas inbetween their rostrum circles. I have never seen it grow on the grass blades, which is pretty interesting.

Thats it for month five - I’m off to my birthday celebration - happy underwater gardening!

Some pictures of the SH:

Pics of the tank: