Onefish2fish's 40 Breeder Theater

onefish2fish

thanks for the compliments guys. i hope this one comes out as pretty as i can picture it in my head.

kitten_penang

thats a sword baby =)

onefish2fish

lol, i know the sword and the "sword baby" are swords. im just not sure if the other one is a type of sword but im pretty sure it is.

kitten_penang

=)

Aqua Jon

wow that driftwood is huge! i love the hardscape so far! especially that arching piece of malaysian! Your tank is going to be excellent.

Inga

Looks Wonderful!!! I love it when I stumble onto these threads and can fly through and see all the progress.

I am going to be adding some live plants to my tank too, they look so much nicer then the plastic/silk plants. When you get one with a runner like that, do you just snip it off and plant the roots of the runner? I mean, it seems obvious but I don't want to just assume.

onefish2fish

@aqua jon - thanks buddy just wait until its jammed full of different plants

@ inga - yes you can snip it and plant it and it will grow into another plant just like its mother. i personally am letting it go alittle longer. in the wild they will de-attach themselves, float and have the current pull them down stream and root somewhere else. i will actually plant it soon so it survives but its kind of like how a tree has the spinners that float down and land somewhere ( that kids like to stick on their nose ) which are seeds. whats good about having plants in a tank though, not every one needs to reproduce as they would in the wild. for example, anachris can be simply cut in half to achieve 2 anachris stalks, or even larger swords can be too but with alittle more care as they need a root mass on BOTH pieces. if you google whichever plant you plan on keeping im sure its propogation will be explained better there.

aunt kymmie

That sword looks like a Kleiner Bar Sword to me. Byron will have to weigh in as he usually knows at first glance which sword is which. This tank is going to look awesome, heck, partially planted and it already looks that way. Where in the cycle are you currently? I'm looking forward to seeing fish in there!

Byron

The top photo of the sword with the inflorescence is Echinodorus bleherae [sometimes still seen as E. bleheri though Rataj corrected the name]. The larger (outer) leaves are more likely the emersed form, submersed (new) leaves will be larger as the plant establishes itself and easily reach to the surface. This plant's leaves grow to 60cm (20+ inches); Rataj says the blades are half the leaf length but on my larger plants it is more, not quite 2/3. Once settled, very hardy and will send out 1 or 2 inflorescences sometimes twice a year, with many daughter plants. Will not flower grown submersed. This species prefers being submersed [not sure how they know that, but ...).

The lower smaller plant could be the same, or it may be E. parviflorus, the original native species as opposed to the "Tropica" form that seems to be more common. Both forms are pictured in our profile of this species, listed under Dwarf Sword [I had to make up the common name]. I believe I have this plant in my 90g, I had assumed previously that it was E. amazonicus which is very similar, near identical, to E. bleherae but smaller and the leaves are narrower. I'm inclined to think now it may be E. parviflorus.

Byron.

onefish2fish

not much for an update. this is a picture of the smaller "sword baby" that i clipped from its mother yesterday. i kept it attached to her until i saw good root growth which compared to earlier pictures, happened. heres a shot before pushing it into the substrate.