Flower pots from DAISO

I ran out of flower pots last Sunday after returning to Singapore from yet another collection trip and to save time, I decided to visit IMM DAISO near to my house to purchase the required flower pot. And guess what I saw when I took a close look today (5 days after using the pots) at the 2 pots I used?

The above photographs were taken 3 days after adding the pots into my emersed tank, there were signs of what were coming, its just that I failed to spot them.....

The above photograph shows the pot after 5 days in use, white fungus / moulds / whatever!!!!!! I am pretty sure this is due to the DAISO flower pot's unsuitability to be used in such moist environment, the entire flower pot's surface felt slimy and soft with small bulges protruding out. Ok, I need to quickly buy some proper plastic pots to replace these before the fungus grow out of hand!!!

Cryptocoryne sp. 'Pahang' (C. affinis?)

During my field trip to Gua Musang with my friend, we went down to Pahang too and there, we managed to collect another species of Cryptocoryne which up till now we are not able to identify the species as we could not find any flowers then. This species is really quite miniature in size and grow flat and spread out along the banks of a fast flowing stream. The pH of the water from the stream is about 7.

This is how they look like in my tank now, some are kept emersed, some kept submersed. The taller Cryptocorynes grown submersed at the back of my tank are the C. affinis 'Gua Musang'. I hope my emersed growth will be rewarded with a spathe soonest for ID purpose. Looking through the "Crypts Pages" website for Cryptocorynes found in Malay Peninsula, I could not identify any current recorded species that looked like what we collected in terms of size of plant and the appearance and structure of the leaves.

C. affinis 'Gua Musang'

I went to Gua Musang in Kelantan in West Malaysia for a field trip with my friend last weekend. We went there to check out the situation of the rivers and streams there. Maybe due to the higher altitude of that locality and the presence of limestone, the types of fishes found in the rivers and streams are very limited as compared to those areas along the east and west coast of Malay Peninsula.

We did not managed to catch any interesting fishes this time round but instead we located a fast flowing stream with C. affinis inside. This is the first time I found cryptocorynes in the wilderness in Malaysia (haha, don't laugh, I have been searching in the wrong places previously). And we were lucky to find a spathe to help in the identification process.

This is a close up of the substrate composition in this stream. Its a pity I forgot to collect some of the stream's water back to test the pH. (Added the substrate to distilled water with pH 6.6 and tested the distilled water after 2 weeks, the pH has rose to 7).

C. schulzei update

This new method (new for me) of growing C. schulzei seems to be suitable, new leaves are growing out for most of the plants.

Re-doing my C. schulzei tank

After testing and discovering that the pH of the 'Garden Soil' (burnt soil) I used for my C. schulzei tank is around 8, I decided to re-do the tank. I replaced the mixed soil with just 'Horti" brand soil which has a pH of about 4.5 based on the experiment I conducted previously.

C. schulzei again

I killed my first C. schulzei 'Kota Tinggi' and was lucky to have a friend who helped me collected some again when he went for his fish collection trip in Kota Tinggi. "A handful" was the quantity he told me over the phone but when I collected the cryptocorynes from him, I could separate the entire bunch into 16 separate plants. Some went into my emersed tank when the remainder were planted in a 1 feet tank.

The 1 feet tank was filled with a layer of "Horti" brand soil followed by a layer of "Garden Soil" (the aunty who sold me the soil told me they were burnt soil from Indonesia). The cryptocorynes were planted inside and distilled water was added until the cryptocorynes were completely submersed in water.

This is how it looked like after the soil particles settled down. The yellowish granules inside the water are Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis (BTI) to kill any potential mosquito larva.

Hopefully the cryptocorynes will grow strong and healthy and reward me with some flowers!!!

One Happy Family

I have set up a simple cube tank (five-plan brand) to rear some fishes that can be found within the same habitat: Parosphromenus rubrimontis, Sphaerichthys osphromenoides (Chocolate Gourami) and Boraras maculatus (Dwarf Rasbora). Housing these few species of fishes together with P. rubrimontis helps to reduce their shyness by a little.