glosso...?

Hi there,
I recently came across glosso plants/carpeting and was absolutely blown away by the look of it. From websites I have seen, this should be attempted in a fresh tank, but can this be done later? The lights also probably have to be massive, right? Just wondering whether anyone here had some experience with this...

WELCOME! i have never heard of them i will have to look them up but i dont think it will matter the age of the tank and i have only gotten low light plants so i dont know much about the lighting

or riccia fluitans (Crystalwort); seems similar to me when grounded...

When I looked up glosso on Google, it said something about stringing together meaningless sounds to make meaningless words, but there was nothing about plants. Some rare plants, although sold for aquarium use, cannot spend their entire life cycle under water. If you want a bushy plant that will carpet the aquarium with green, try java moss growing on a net. It's not very fussy, and the plants and nets are available on Aquabid.com as well as Ebay. Java fern is also an easy plant; it has broad leaves and will grow on driftwood or other aquarium decorations. Both plants grow slowly, and that's probably why you don't often see them in aquarium shops.

If you really want to try some exotic aquarium plants, you will need special lighting and a carbon dioxide system. It's a lot of trouble, but the results can be awesome. Is that still a good word?

Great, thanks for the tips. I will definitely try attaching Java ferns to the wood. The correct term is Glossostigma elatinoides.

Came up when I randomly ran into "Nature aquariums", sems like an extreme plant-focused aquascaping style of aquariums.
http://naturalaquariums.com/ http://www.adana-usa.com/

I found these extremely intriguing - didn't know something like this even existed!

At any rate, it should probably be done in a new tank, maybe I'll try with a small one and no fish ...

Natural aquariums are fascinating. In fact, the first aquarium I ever saw was a natural one. Fancy equipment was not available at the time, so my neighbor's dad had a tank with guppies, live plants, a sand substrate, and nothing electric. The low technology approach worked, because he managed to achieve a perfect balance between the biological load and the beneficial bacteria. He was not a chemist, so it was all intuitive. He just let natural processes occur and didn't try to make improvements.

well i have a native tank with native fish from around my state(ohio) with soil, sand, and lots of plants and 2 bettas (ran out of room for them) if thats close to a natural tank. i couldnt read the website so i gave up and am guessing what it is

Some fish native to North America are every bit as colorful as tropical fish. However, there are laws about collecting them. In some places, you can catch them and eat them, but you can't keep them as "pets." So called natural aquariums are another thing. It just means the fish and plants do well without much help. It would be nice right now if the same thing were true of old humus beans like me.

I just got some glossostigma plants and will try. Worst cases, they will not grow as a carpet in the bottom, but upwards. Or my pleco will eat them all . I'll see how far I get...

if you have a licenese you can catch them and keep them but they cant be rare or anything and i was given them by somebody that had too many

The aquarium in the website you posted is a real work of art. It's easy to see why you want one like that.

Yes... Plant demands of course now make me wonder about Co2. Although I should probably be looking into a proper Co2 system - are those liquid Co2 additives any good (like Flourish Excel)?

Lots of those additives work, but you need to watch water chemistry. One important thing you can do is add some clay based substrate material like Laterite or Flourite. The high quality carbon dioxide systems have a pressure tank and a bunch of gauges and valves so they shut down at night. If you're good at tinkering, you can buy most of the components at a welding supply house. The carbon dioxide systems designed and sold specifically for aquarium use can run a couple hundred bucks. At the low end there are fermentation systems, some DIY and some commercially made. They work because sugar and yeast ferment to make alcohol and carbon dioxide. Fermentation systems are not so easy to turn off at night. I keep threatening to build a fermentation system and run it 24 hours a day into an aquarium with plants but no fish. They do make quite a difference.

Thanks for the info! I'll keep an eye out for the water quality using additives. Btw, water has been excellent ever since your advice with the water changes! I started looking into DIY CO2, but I don't think I can trust my tinkering abilities and risk the mix all over my house. Just experimenting at the moment, but if I keep getting more excited about all these options, I will need that second tank very soon. Who would have thought, haha!

Once you start tinkering with aquariums, you acquire the dreaded MTS affliction. That's multi tank syndrome.

For about 30 dollars you can buy a fermentation system from drsfostersmith.com. Megan has one and says it works well without smelling bad, although the alcohol byproduct is not much good mixed with aquarium bottom water cooties.

In a previous post I noticed you have a pleco. If it's the most common aquarium species, you should know they get very large and can really tear up a planted tank. On top of that, they feed at night and if they're hungry will sometimes suck the slime coat off the resting fish. This is not an old husband's tale like a cat sucking the breath out of a baby; the potential for slime sucking is actually there. The solution to all that is the bristle nose pleco. They're much smaller and are no danger to the aquarium. Angela wrote an informative blog about them, and nowhere does she mention slime sucking.

Ha, MTS!!

I actually do have a bristlenose pleco, very cute and tiny. I am assuming he/she is still a baby, no bristles yet. Hope the store sold me the right fish. Amazing animal - love the overnight cleaning sessions !

From what Angela said, only the males grow bristles. They're also fairly easy to spawn. Maybe they would do well in my red wag aquarium.

Oh I see, thought the females also have them, just shorter (?). At any rate, mine is growing (and eating) like mad, so s/he will soon be no baby . Getting along quite nicely with everyone (cheery barbs and black neon tetras) and doesn't seem unhappy alone, from what I can tell.

John speaking of plecos, where can you give them away? Like you said they can tear things up and kill fish. Well help to kill fish, lets not get exicted. But mine is about 7 inches and powerful, tearing up the substrate and if I want to succes with what I wish to accomplish with my aquarium I need to get rid of him, said to say it but I really do. Any help?

Most people try their local fish store. The independently owned ones are usually more willing to accept unwanted fish than are the big franchise places. You might also check the local aquarium clubs in your area. As a last resort, you could euthanize the fish, but never, never release it into the wild.

It's sad that some aquarium shops are more than willing to sell fish that are unsuitable for home aquariums. The best thing a hobbyist can do is research before you buy. Some of the internet search engines are very good at describing aquarium fish.

Hi guys!

My Local Fish Store accepts fish for store credit or trade for more desirable fish.

Now that being said, when the plecos get big, they are harder to get rid of. I have 2 over 12" in my show tank, then I have 2 sailfins that I was hoping would stay little until I got my big tank... Well... They haven't. They're growing rapidly. They're gorgeous, just a nuisance with my angels. They're horrible tank mates... I have to do something about it.

I thought about trading them back in, and there's a waiting list... for oscars and plecos... They have to sell the big ones they have before they'll take anymore.

My recommendation, if your LFS isn't interested is to go on Craigslist or Local Sales Network, or whatever free classifieds you have in your area, and list it for sale. Perhaps someone has a big tank and is needing one... Even if you give it away, it's better than euthanizing it...

I received one of my big ones with a tank I purchased so it's in the homeless tank.

The Bristlenose are the best. They'll stay small and they're very active and work hard!

The males get big noticable bristles, the females ususally don't really have bristles... ALL of them have little snarls on the .... Well... like if you think about a human mouth... at the crack, where the bottom lip meets the top lip... That's where they'd be on the fish... There's probably a name for that... but this is the best I can do! LOL!

Also... Bristlenose aren't bad to eat plants, at least from my personal experience they're not...

You raise an interesting question. What are the lip bristles on a bristlenose catfish called? Maybe beardus minimus au fisho. Or masybe brin chissles.

Both good names! I think the actual pointy things are just called barbs...

Which is very boring! I think that if you were hired to make up scientific names, they'd be more interesting!