Driftwood Collecting...

Went to collect some driftwood/bogwood today.

Actually the idea I went to collect driftwood is because my friend wanted me to scape his tank.

I have been searching the LFS, but none carries the shape that suits the layout I gonna scape. So I decided to pay a visit to the nearby seashore to collect driftwood.

Here's what I've collected so far...

Still fresh from the shore, most of them are covered with muck

And here's the JACKPOT! Kinda like the shape :D

This is a huge one, I'm gonna use this one for my self.....hehe :D

It's already dark when I got home, so I will clean them tomorrow, and have a better look at them :D

Pressurized CO2...

Lately I've been thinkin to try to get my hands on pressurized CO2...

I've been looking around all the LFS available here that carries CO2 equipments, surveying on the pressurized CO2 kits, especially the price....BuMmer! Very, very expensive :(

The cheapest price combination, just for the CO2 tank (RM400) and a solenoid regulator (RM350) alone, can cost up to RM750!....oh boy!.......there is even a store sellin the kits for about RM1k.........wooo, that's way out of my reach :(

I started to wonder now, if the Planted Tank Layout hobby is really that expensive? Yes, although that high price is a one time investment for this hobby, but that is still a lot of money :(

Phew....long story short, lucky me, maybe because of my nature, I was able to outsource, and I came across CO2 tank sellin for 2 to 3 times cheaper from the LFS. I can't wait to get it for my plants.

The only thing left for me now is to outsource for the regulator. So let's see how it goes :)

Young Red Cherry Shrimps

Baby Red Cherry Shrimp trying to climb the aquarium wall....

Hehey!....Young Red Cherry Shrimps spotted in my glosso tank :D

Very busy little fellas......haha.....they are hiding in within my thick bunch of glosso carpet, feeding on what ever they are able to nibble.

Here's another pic...

there...hiding in the mass of glossos

The adults never bother the young ones...

There's more young shrimps to come.....having 3 females now carrying eggs :D

Can't wait for more shrimps to emerge......Wish me luck, hehehe :D

Java Ferns for Sale?

My bunch of Java Ferns, Microsorium pteropus, growing on bogwood

Java Ferns, Microsorium pteropus for Sale?
Where?
Where?

Hahaha...ok, actually I just wanted to try growing Java ferns emersed. So...today I trim out some plantlets that grows from the mother plants. I guess I was having a good time trimming the plantlets and I end up obtaining quite a number of them.

Imagine 2 times of this ammount!

So consider I have extras, I would like to sell them. Obviously most of my readers as for now are from overseas, and probably it would be impossible to sell to them, but what the heck, I'll just post in here.

Anyway, if there's anyone interested, please feel free to leave a comment or simply email me for infos.

Following picture is roughly how big some of the plantlets relative to the size of my hand (an average adult hand...lol)....of course there's some plantlets that are much smaller (babies) than this ones.

One of the reason I wanted to grow them emersed is to propagate more of this ferns to prepare for my new scape. I hope I can try my luck in IAPLC (International Aquatic Plants Layout Contest) next year, if there's one to be held :)

So wish me luck and if you want some of this ferns, contact me.....Cheers :D

My Red Cherry Shrimp Carrying Eggs...

About a week plus after I bought my new batch of Red Cherry Shrimp, I have now 2 female shrimp carrying eggs.......man I'm happy!

Looks like it's proven that my earlier batch of Red Cherries didn't have any males, so they were not breeding.

Now I can start breeding my other Red Cherries.....time to start thinking of a breeding setup for them :)

But before that, I might visit the LFS again to get more male shrimp, coz, out of the 5 shirmp I bought earlier, 1 died, leaving me 4 shrimp, but turn out that 2 was a young female. So the reason to get more male shrimps.

Okay...here's the pic of them....not very clear shot, but good enough to present to you, enjoy :D

A candid shot before a pose...


Posing for some shot on my chopstick :)


hurried into the Java moss for hiding after photoshot :)

What! Anubias barteri 'petite' in my tank?

Hahaha...what a title........yeah, coz I supposed that this plant, Anubias barteri 'petite' is an expensive plant.....and I have it right there in My Little Underwater Eden......lolz

I have check briefly that this plant can fetch RM30 per pot. Now that's expensive, considering that this plant is a slow grower.....and that's probably the reason why I just notice this plant in my 3 month old tank :)

Check out the pic...

Anubias barteri 'petite' growing among the Java ferns

Well that's the only plant I have.....that little :)

And the next pic is the whole bogwood where those plants are growing on.....java fern, Anubias barteri 'petite', and java moss....

the Anubias barteri 'petite' such tiny among the other plants

So my plan now is try to propagate the Anubias barteri 'petite'. I'm thinkin how to reach the limited space of the plant to at least cut out a rhizome of it......and that's a real problem, coz I'm affraid I will destroy the whole plant :)

So stay tune to my next Anubias barteri 'petite' journey :D

Cardinal tetras....

Today is the first time in my life I acquire the cardinal tetras, Paracheirodon axelrodi. I've been wanting to keep this fish for many, many years, but never seen them being sold here, until earlier this week that I saw the cardinals selling in one of the LFS here in Sabah.

I know that in Peninsular Malaysia, this fish is much easier to obtain, coz the fish keeping hobby over there is much mature compared to Sabah.

After I found out earlier this week there's cardinals here.....this really got my hands itchy....lolz. And so, today I decided to get the fish.

I bought only 6 pcs just for the start at RM4 each.....I didn't want to buy too manny yet, coz I affraid I will overstock my tank, as I currently have 11 neons in it......in my glosso tank :)

So here's the pics of the lovely Cardinals....their colour is not yet optimum...hopefully after they acclimatized, they will display much intense coloration......just cant wait for that to happen :)

the cardinal tetras...


Cardinal and Neon tetras mix...

Bought some Red Cherry Shrimp...

My current Red Cherry Shrimp are having saddles for quite sometimes now.....but none of them are carrying any eggs......

I was really wondering, if my tank is missing the male shrimps...

This problem have been bugging me for so long, I'm surprise to see that hobbyist are breeding the Red Cherry Shrimp easily.....so why mine are not?

With that problem in mind......today I went to the LFS to get some Red Cherry Shrimp. I hand pick them myself those less red colour shrimp.....and slightly slim bodied ones......

So totally I bought 5 of them, which I suspect as males.......I hope they will do their job.

I wanted to make sure that they are males, so I planned to pair each male with a female shrimp and keep them in saparate tanks, for easy tracking.......I hope this will be a success.....

Growing Moss on Bogwood

Okay...I'm supposed to be busy with my work, and for that reason, I've not been blogging since....and in fact I'm still busy, but things didn't turn out the way I want it to be so...I decided to update my blog...just to release off that emotional feeling......hahaha

The motivating force for me to blog at a busy time like this came after some query from fellow hobbyist on growing moss. So I made a simple video on "Growing Moss on Bogwood"

Well besides bogwood, you can grow moss on any other substrate such as rock. It's pretty much the same method. And you don't need any sophisticated materials...all you need is:

• substrate you want to grow moss on (e.g. bogwood or rock)
• sewing thread
• and some good ammount of moss of course

That's all you need....Check out the video, and let me know what you think....Cheers :)

Newly setup moss on 8th August 2009....Spiky moss on bogwood


Same Spiky moss on bogwood, pic taken on 1st September 2009....they grow within less than a month!