Aquarium update

Just before we left for Panama I decided to take an older aquarium and see what I could do to update it on a budget.  I had in mind doing a South American hardscape design for some tetras (H. bleheri, 9) and pencilfish (N. marginatus 14) with a pair of Apistogramma (A. panduro).  The pencils are at the top and hiding in most of the video, but overall the dynamic between the fish has been really fun to watch.  It's only been a few days that I've had the fish in, but they've been a welcome addition.

Plant clippings

Due to several months of unrestrained growth, I'll be doing some clipping of plants from my terraria.  I'll be making some small plant packages that will be available.  Contact me if you're interested in getting some clippings.

Panama Update #3

Things here in Panama have been going very well, the rains returned a few weeks ago and things are lush. Work has been steady and we're wrapping things up now.  I haven't had much time to photograph for fun at all but let me share a few things with you.

Near the village of Gloria we've been working in our most remote field site.  It's a bit of a hike to get there, but once you're in pristine forest it's hard to think of anything but how nice it is there.

Near the stream, pictured above, I caught a glimpse of a species of Anolis lizard I hadn't previously seen in Panama, though I was well familiar with it from Costa Rica.  Norops aquaticus is a species of anole that you find around small streams climbing amongst rocks.  I've always thought it was a treat to see and it was exciting to reunite with it.

A fine looking dewlap for the ladies.

One thing I've been looking at this year is how habitat disturbance, linked to anthropogenic land use, can affect species.  Conveying what I mean by disturbance is more difficult with words than with photos.  The photo above and below both have frogs in high densities...

Next week some dear friends are coming down to visit, Drew and Cadyn have a great homesteading blog that I highly recommend called the Immortal Mountain and we're going to do some traveling for a few days and maybe even try some relaxing in the ocean.

I've been told I have no photos of myself on here, which if frankly fine with me, but since this photo highlights the new spectrophotometer (Ocean Optics Jaz unit) which I've been giving quite the workout this year, I'll use it to help promote Ocean Optics.  They've been very generous helping me finance the unit and the portability it gives me is fantastic.  This photo, as you may have guessed, is totally staged.

The 'Micro Mega Terrarium' Part 2

If you look back a number of posts you'll realize, as I just did, that I posted photos of the start of this project but never updated it.

For full details check out the original post (Micro Mega Terrarium part 1).

To briefly recap, this terrarium is 3' x 2' x 3', just one foot shorter than the 'Mega Terrarium' but with the same footprint.  It has 2 closed fan systems and one 96 watt compact fluorescent light.  The misting system operates with the same pump and 3 x double misting heads.  The background is expanding spray foam covered with a mix of coconut peat (coir) mixed with crushed tree fern panels.

The initial planting was fairly sparse with the idea of having moss cover the walls and have various textured leaved plants around.  Almost every plant is green with the exception of some Begonias on the ground.

Over time the terrarium has filled in with moss and settled in nicely.  The faux rocks poke out from the moss and are great accents.  Trailing plants will fill in the bottom and I'll propagate more plants to fill it in lightly with time.

There's a great quantity of very small Pleurothallid alliance orchids sprawled throughout the plantable epiphytic space.  Blooms are frequent (albeit tiny) and it's fun to look for new flowering plants.

Well now I should admit that all these photos are now a few months old, they were taken a little while before I left.

Panama Update #2

Yesterday I spent some time on an island where I haven't been working much recently, Isla Solarte.  The island is small and very charming.  There's a number of houses of varying sizes surrounding the coast, and the interior still has some nice forest.  

The name of this location is hospital point, a reminder of the past use of the land.  

The forest here is very wet with a small stream and some marshy area.  Large trees still remain and bright orange frogs are abundant.  

As I've mentioned before, I'm very fond of Marcgravia species.  I really love how they grow flat, hugging the tree.  They also have a nice textured leaf, and look great combined with moss.  Here's a fantastic example of how they look in the wild when grown in thick.

I also saw some very interesting beetles that I haven't seen in some time.  These are giant harlequin beetles, Acrocinus longimanus, that I saw on a tree.  

Enjoy.

Native plants of Panama and why terraria 'aren't natural'

Greetings from Panama.  We've been busy setting up new projects and finding new field sites.  Long days and early morning of work have kept us busy, but along with this comes new places and new sights.  It's refreshing to be back working in the forests as it constantly provides new inspiration for future designs.  I have very little time, so this will have to be a quick update. 

One thing I mention often is that my terrarium designs are not 'natural' but rather a stylized representation of what nature looks like.  In nature, plants do not grow as clumped and diverse as how we make terraria.  The dimensions are different and the scope is much larger.  We also typically only grow juvenile growth of many plants such as aroids.  

This is not to say there's anything wrong with scaping and designing these planted glass boxes, it's just a point I wanted to make and illustrate with some images of forests.

For the past year I've also been developing an affinity for Calathea, and this summer I've found two types that I really like so far.

These images are all from lowland forests, in the coming months I'll also take a trip to higher elevations and photograph the impressive diversity there as well, in places where mosses dominate.

From time to time, we also run into some wildlife.

And for any marine lovers, my affinity for zoanthids continues to grow year after year.  These two images were taken just off the dock at the Smithsonian.

Aquarium projects: planted and bare

The majority of the projects I have done over the past year and a half have been terrestrially-focused planted terraria.  Some years ago, back when I was living in North Carolina, I became interested in keeping some wild type guppies in a planted aquarium.  I enjoyed them for some time and then began playing more with growing plants in aquariums.  The previous post has some images of those first aquariums.

I had a 20 gallon long aquarium sitting around the 'man cave' that deserved to serve a higher purpose.  After watching a short clip from the Aquarium Design Group of their hardscape-only aquarium, I got motivated to work on this new project. 

I thought about what may be fun to put in this aquarium and as I often do, I started thinking about Apistogramma.  The inspiration for this aquarium came from the natural habitat of these South American dwarf cichlids.

Because of the flooding of the Mississippi River, all my normal driftwood locations were covered by 10 feet of water or more.  I always maintain a small supply in my back yard though, just for a rainy day occasion such as this.  What I wanted to create was the look of a heavily oxidized clay river bank with a sandy bottom.  I sprayed the back of the aquarium with spray foam and placed the driftwood pieces together to create some depth and dimension. 

It was a bit of a struggle as the positioning the wood in a non resting position but I liked the way it sat after several permutations.  The background I made out of a concrete patch kit and some concrete dye.  I sculpted the foam to make some overhangs and texture to it and smoothed on the concrete. 

 The background is much more dynamic in person than in the photographs and I'm happy with the result.  It was a quick, cheap and fun project to work on for the weekend.  I didn't anticipate the concrete raising the pH quite as much as it did, but after several water changes (including just before these photos...) it is back to neutral.

I then added a few Magnolia leaves from the yard and a few stones.  When the water lowers more I'll collect a few more stones and maybe some more leaves, but overall the layout is complete.  

I didn't think with all my planted projects I'd keep an aquarium so bare, but I think it's an interesting and fun concept and take on an aquarium.

Just to keep with my theme and the name of the blog, I've also been developing this 'high tech' planted aquarium for the past month or so.  I had some severe battles with diatoms, and some brushes with algae, but it's coming along.  I just gave the plants a haircut in an attempt to last and not be too leggy while I'm gone, so it's a little less lush than normal.

I also lost many of the ground cover plants with the diatom issue, but I'll keep plugging away at it and get this baby sorted out.  As I mentioned in a previous post, I'll be back in Panama next week doing research. 

I'll leave you with an in situ photo of Dendrobates pumilio that I took last summer.