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Re:crypt and snail questions: Cloudy day
>Date: Wed, 06 Jun 2001 08:57:01 EDT
>From: Harneloot at aol_com
>Subject: crypt and snail questions
>
>hello all...
>
>Two questions - i recetly purchased about 15 cypts for my 92 gal corner
>tank (192 watts cf) i believe they were walkeri and wenditti (sp?). Now,
>when i first put them in (about a month ago) the leaves were all nice and
>green and light red but they have since turned a very dark reddish brown
>and i'm not sure why. i kinda liked the other color better. i also stuck
>some of them in a little ten gallon that i have in my classroom with
>nothing but a plain old 15watt hood and they are growing fine while
>remaining the same original green & pink/red. any ideas?
>
>next question - i have a bunch of sanils in my tank. it started inocently
>enough about 6 months ago with one or two that got in on plants. seemed
>fine, they are small (size of a large pea at the biggest) and grey and i
>have never seen them eat any plants what so ever - though they do do a
>great job at cleaning dark algae from the leaves of my slow growing
>anubias nana. so i've let them live and multiply until now there are SO
>many of them that they are really the dominant feature of the tank. i feel
>i need to now rid myself of some of them, but i can't bring myself to
>squish them or throw them away into the garbage. i was thinking about
>gettig a clown loach, so the question is - will one clown loach kill ALL
>the snails (i would like some to stay) AND will one clown loach be okay by
>himself or do they need companions?
>
>thanks much!
>- -john guild
The crypts were probably grown emersed. Generally Crpts grown emersed are
much greener than they are when grown sumbersed, unless light is really
low. The reddish brown colors are normal and are also a sign of health.
There are varieties of Crypts that do stay green or mostly green when grown
sumbersed, such as the so-called green wendtii. Generally, the C. x
willisii varieties are green also. C. x willisii used to be called
nevillii or luciens, and these varieties are the the results of crosses
between C. parva (always green) and members of the
beckettii-wendtii-walkeri group.
From what I've heard about clown loaches, even one of them will get all the
snails. If you have a really large number of snails, it might be an
indication that you are overfeeding, and the snails are thriving on the
uneaten food. If your snails are red or brown ramshorns, they almost never
damage plants. Neither do the little pond snails or the Madagascar trumpet
snail. Many of the apple snails are plant-eaters, and so is the Columbian
Ramshorn, which is much bigger than the regular ramshorn.
>Date: Wed, 6 Jun 2001 08:39:06 -0700
>From: "David Berryman" <dberryman7479 at mediaone_net>
>Subject: Cloudy day
>
>I bout some SAE's yesterday and followed the directions given by
>http://www.aquariumfish.net/. They stated to turn off your lights the first
>day you put in new fish because they have been kept in a dark environment
>and this will help reduce the stress.....so I did and this morning I saw a
>nice improvement with my plants!
>
>So then it dawned on me that during spring all plants look green and during
>summer all plants look burned up. During spring there are a lot of cloudy
>days and not a lot of clouds during summer. I then started to wonder if it
>would be a good idea to every once and a while turn out the lights, (kind of
>like a cloudy day) and help the plants recover from the bright light?
>
>Has anyone done a study regarding this?
>
An imporvement in your plants that can be seen after one day without light
must be only a darker green color. Over a longer period of reduced light
there may be an increase in length as the plants use their food reserves to
try to lengthen to get nearer the light source. Most plants will grow long
and thin in poor light in an attempt to get above other plants or dead
leaves that are shading them. This stretching out is sometimes
misinterpreted as increased growth. If you keep the lights out, however,
the plants will start to deteriorate. You could experiment with fewer
watts par gallon, but with no watts per gallon the plants will eventually
die unless they are getting pretty good light from a window.
In the spring, many plants grow rapidly because they are putting on a burst
of growth using food stored up over the previous summer and fall. Usually,
there is more rain in the spring, and the plants also may be benefiting
from higher levels of nutrients in the soil that have built up during the
winter. In the summer the soil is usually drier and nutrient levels are
lower. It is a lot hotter in the summer, and some species of plants are
unable to photosynthesize efficiently at high temperatures. In the
aquarium, higher light means higher demends for nutrients, and higher
levels of nutrients will be required to keep deficiency symptoms from
developing.
Paul Krombholz, in central Mississippi, with a tropical storm promising to
give us some rain in the next few days.