betterthanmarmalade-blog

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Long time, no posting. I've moved out of student accommodation into a house and have set up the tanks. this photo is from a couple of weeks ago before I went rockpooling, and before the bulb on my freshwater tank broke :(

Both native aquarium filled with stuff locally.

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Water hoglouse, Asellus Aquaticus

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"A small step for froglet, a giant leap for frogkind"

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My student room. Just don't tell the accommodation staff...

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Tadpole update! We have legs :)

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Tank number 2. Again on loan from a friend but this time with a filter and inbuilt light. The light is bluer than I would like in terms of aesthetics but will promote plant growth since chlorophyll reflects green light but absorbs red and blue.

My plan is to set this up as a river biotope with a final intention of introducing sticklebacks as my friend found a location where they are abundant.

I've started with mostly de-chlorinated tap water to avoid carrying large volumes of river water around. Then added 'live' water and algae from local pools and stream to introduce a variety of micro-organisms. 

The gravel is from a bag. I plan to introduce some silt and smaller particles from the local stream to provide a greater substrate variation. This will make it more suitable for creatures like freshwater shrimps.

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Much to my surprise a spotted cranefly (Nephrotoma crocata) has emerged. I haven't done anything with this jar recently, the two ferns haven't grown much and there are a couple of invasive land shrimps crawling about in the bottom. Of all the things to happen I didn't expect a cranefly to suddenly appear. It's out of season, another side effect of being at room temperature, but I'll probably set it free anyway so it can live out its short lonely life...

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The new home for my tadpoles! I showed a friend my tadpoles in their rather small jar and mentioned he had a spare tank or three in his room because he used to keep axolotls. Suddenly I had a lot more space to play with and knew my tadpoles deserved better so I (with help from flatmates) set about creating their new kingdom. All materials and plants are locally sourced from around the university campus.

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happy valentines day!

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This fella, to be identified... was bothering the tadpoles along with his 'friend' so I put them in a separate jar. Then one promptly ate the other. Charming!

The jar on the right is a new one I collected for and was so full of silt it took an age to clear and I'll upload a few pictures of that when I've done some more identifying!

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The tadpoles are doing great. Only lost 1 or 2 in the early stages but the rest are speedily converting algae into poop! This clump of algae was all done in about 2 days...

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Woo got the lighting on my shelf up :)

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The tadpoles are doing really well! It's impressive how quickly they develop and most of them are in the process of losing their gills. They are eating the algae growing on the plants, which is good to know, as shown by a little trail of poop! Still concerned about how I've got tadpoles but out there it's still frogspawn, although when I looked yesterday to get clean water they were developing a bit of shape.

Although I've come to the conclusion that these jars are not a very good shape for them, and could do with being bigger. Do not fear, I have plans!

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New jar! This time with water and plants taken from the outskirts of College reservoir. Now I just wait for the water to settle and see what creatures lurk in the waters. Already making an appearance are a few flatworms and Cyclops sp.

I’m fairly sure I saw a Daphnia sp. when I was collecting and just now a Gammerus pulex dashed across the jar.

I love jars :)

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It seems bringing a few eggs of frogspawn into my room, despite them being kept relatively cold, has triggered premature development. Both photos were taken on the same day. The ones on the right are spawn in its natural habitat and the poor quality on the left is the captive ones. I have added algae and plants for feeding when they hatch.

Whether this premature  development will affect them in the long term is yet to be seen...

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Brine shrimp. Probably less than a mm long and nigh impossible to photograph... 

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Frogspawn!

I have taken very few individual eggs from a large clump and will be looking after these few individuals and I do not encourage people to do this unless they do their research. 

The current set up is temporary, the tadpoles will need vegetation to eat after hatching. I'm monitoring the wild frogspawn site to make sure my ex-situ sample are developing at the same rate on the basis that my disturbance might have affected their development. Also I intend to provide a larger container and introduce a form of aeration.

When I got them they were just black spheres and their shape is starting to develop. Too exciting.