Post by arvin555 on May 19, 2009 0:31:49 GMT 7
I consider myself as a Novice Aldro keeper, I am only a bit sucessful with the help for friends like Bactrus (from another forum, who was kind enough to provide me with some Aldros to start me off) and Rich for being patient and answering questions about Aldros and him being very passionate about them.
I'd like to offer a bit of info on how I started my own Aldro pond. It is an easy and simple approach if you think about it, I hope that this might help someone try or even prepare for a future Aldrovanda pond.
The main key is advanced preparation.
1. When I first got a bit of Aldrovanda, I was not ready enough, I had a pond sure, it did not have any algae problem, but I think it was still not ideal for the Aldro. It did not help that the package came 1 week after, so the plant was mush when it got to me.
After reading up about Aldros, mostly from input and replies from Rich (Rsiversten) I prepared a pond even though I didn't really know if I am going to be able to get another crack at Aldros.
2. The preparation: Actually truth is my brother already has a big tub that is a "pond", it had some plants and some fishes (Medaka) and shrimps and lots of pond snails and Ramshorn snails. He was kind enough to give me that as my Aldro pond. However I needed more monocotes, as Rich said they are very beneficial to Aldros.
a. Monocotes
So I bought two Monocotes, one is a horsewhip, the other is a cat tail or something.. not good at those, but they are basically water grass, those that are sold for ponds.
They were potted and setup on the pond so that the potting mix surface is still above the water surface.
b. Get rid of other plants
I got rid of any surface plants like Water spangles and Water lettuces that were on the pond. But kept some ferns, a water lily, java moss and some U. Gibba.
c. I also started to transfer most of the fishes, so that there were only 3 left.
d. The pond has bad case of Hydra infection, but I couldn't do much about that and I didn't want to ruine the nice balance of that pond already by drying it up to kill the hydra.
3. The whole set up was aging for maybe a month or two already (aside from the more than few months when my brother was still taking care of it, yeah the hydra came from him too). So it was quite stable, it was located where there is direct sunlight for a few hours only, maybe 1 hour max, but good light all day. I even injected CO2 sometimes.
4. Then my friend Bactrus posted an offer for Aldro, so I contacted him, he said he'd send them soon, but I told him I wasn't ready yet. Also I wanted to make sure that my trade got to him. Plus the biggest factor is that I learned from my first try that the key is to get the plant to you the quickest way possible.
So what I did was I even sent him one of those sealable containers that has locks. When he did, I asked him to send the package through FEDEX, overnight shipping... yes it was really expensive for a few aldro strands.
5. When the Aldros got to me, I was sad to see that they were only 1/2 inch long tips and only 3 of them. Bactrus did mention that his pond had algae problem and the aldros were being affected.
6. So there I was 3pcs. of 1/2 inch or more accurately 3 whorles each of Aldro. I was not optimistic. But everyday I'd inject CO2 in a bottle, which by night will be empty of gas and filled with water, so I fill up the next day.
Eventually, maybe after a few weeks, i noticed the three had already grown into 5 whorles, then 6, then 7. I had 3 strands surviving!
Then summer came (March) and as soon as I posted a question to Rich about Aldro propagation, which he answered that they will start branching out by themselves, they did, and so the 3 became 5 strands and now about 3 to 4 inches long.
7. Aside from CO2 injection and watching them almost daily, I do feed the fishes and shrimps with some PO2 or just fishfood. I did noticed some time ago that some of the Aldro Traps actually have fishfood in them, so I just continue with the feeding.
I also have a Moina/Daphnia culture, so I do inject some into the pond.
What do Aldros eat? As mentioned, occassionally fish food gets in the trap, Daphnia has been seen in them as well, and I have manually fed them live small bloodworms. Mosquito larvae, I haven't seen them in traps yet, but that is probably because the fish gets at them first. Oh and yes I see them with snails trapped inside them, shell and all.
8. I do see some algae, but they are strand algae that are managed by the shrimps and are also easy to manually take off out of the water, I think Green water is the worse for Aldros, and luckily the pond is still quite clear all these months, even after summer.
Good luck to anyone who would want to try. In conclusion I'd like to advice you to please prepare in advance the Aldro home, even if it's an aquarium, please establish it way way in advance, maybe 1 or better 2 or 3 months before you get your Aldro. and Monocotes like horse whip and cattails. Shrimps (I am not sure if what we have are Amano shrimps) and snails (choose the species of snail though) are great.
TTFN
Arvin
I'd like to offer a bit of info on how I started my own Aldro pond. It is an easy and simple approach if you think about it, I hope that this might help someone try or even prepare for a future Aldrovanda pond.
The main key is advanced preparation.
1. When I first got a bit of Aldrovanda, I was not ready enough, I had a pond sure, it did not have any algae problem, but I think it was still not ideal for the Aldro. It did not help that the package came 1 week after, so the plant was mush when it got to me.
After reading up about Aldros, mostly from input and replies from Rich (Rsiversten) I prepared a pond even though I didn't really know if I am going to be able to get another crack at Aldros.
2. The preparation: Actually truth is my brother already has a big tub that is a "pond", it had some plants and some fishes (Medaka) and shrimps and lots of pond snails and Ramshorn snails. He was kind enough to give me that as my Aldro pond. However I needed more monocotes, as Rich said they are very beneficial to Aldros.
a. Monocotes
So I bought two Monocotes, one is a horsewhip, the other is a cat tail or something.. not good at those, but they are basically water grass, those that are sold for ponds.
They were potted and setup on the pond so that the potting mix surface is still above the water surface.
b. Get rid of other plants
I got rid of any surface plants like Water spangles and Water lettuces that were on the pond. But kept some ferns, a water lily, java moss and some U. Gibba.
c. I also started to transfer most of the fishes, so that there were only 3 left.
d. The pond has bad case of Hydra infection, but I couldn't do much about that and I didn't want to ruine the nice balance of that pond already by drying it up to kill the hydra.
3. The whole set up was aging for maybe a month or two already (aside from the more than few months when my brother was still taking care of it, yeah the hydra came from him too). So it was quite stable, it was located where there is direct sunlight for a few hours only, maybe 1 hour max, but good light all day. I even injected CO2 sometimes.
4. Then my friend Bactrus posted an offer for Aldro, so I contacted him, he said he'd send them soon, but I told him I wasn't ready yet. Also I wanted to make sure that my trade got to him. Plus the biggest factor is that I learned from my first try that the key is to get the plant to you the quickest way possible.
So what I did was I even sent him one of those sealable containers that has locks. When he did, I asked him to send the package through FEDEX, overnight shipping... yes it was really expensive for a few aldro strands.
5. When the Aldros got to me, I was sad to see that they were only 1/2 inch long tips and only 3 of them. Bactrus did mention that his pond had algae problem and the aldros were being affected.
6. So there I was 3pcs. of 1/2 inch or more accurately 3 whorles each of Aldro. I was not optimistic. But everyday I'd inject CO2 in a bottle, which by night will be empty of gas and filled with water, so I fill up the next day.
Eventually, maybe after a few weeks, i noticed the three had already grown into 5 whorles, then 6, then 7. I had 3 strands surviving!
Then summer came (March) and as soon as I posted a question to Rich about Aldro propagation, which he answered that they will start branching out by themselves, they did, and so the 3 became 5 strands and now about 3 to 4 inches long.
7. Aside from CO2 injection and watching them almost daily, I do feed the fishes and shrimps with some PO2 or just fishfood. I did noticed some time ago that some of the Aldro Traps actually have fishfood in them, so I just continue with the feeding.
I also have a Moina/Daphnia culture, so I do inject some into the pond.
What do Aldros eat? As mentioned, occassionally fish food gets in the trap, Daphnia has been seen in them as well, and I have manually fed them live small bloodworms. Mosquito larvae, I haven't seen them in traps yet, but that is probably because the fish gets at them first. Oh and yes I see them with snails trapped inside them, shell and all.
8. I do see some algae, but they are strand algae that are managed by the shrimps and are also easy to manually take off out of the water, I think Green water is the worse for Aldros, and luckily the pond is still quite clear all these months, even after summer.
Good luck to anyone who would want to try. In conclusion I'd like to advice you to please prepare in advance the Aldro home, even if it's an aquarium, please establish it way way in advance, maybe 1 or better 2 or 3 months before you get your Aldro. and Monocotes like horse whip and cattails. Shrimps (I am not sure if what we have are Amano shrimps) and snails (choose the species of snail though) are great.
TTFN
Arvin
