Month: October 2010

All-Aquarium Catfish Convention

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Coming up next weekend is the All-Aquarium Catfish Convention sponsored by one of my local aquarium clubs, the Potomac Valley Aquarium Society. I, unfortunately, cannot attend the whole conference, but I am planning to be there for the auction on Sunday. Not going to buy a lot (hopefully!) but I’ve a couple of cichlids to rehome and I’m in need of some plants now that I’m finally starting to get some growth in my amazon tank. I do Walstad-type soil planted tanks and they usually do really well for me, except after I had to redo one of my 125s after it got broken by tile installers. My adult Geophagus steindachneri kept disturbing the soil so much that the water was too murky for the plants to get much light. Between that and the initial tank break, I lost a lot of plants and what survived just weren’t growing. Since I’ve removed the cichlids from that tank, the plants finally started to recover and I really want to put some more in there. I have a school of keyhole cichlids that would really like some more cover so I’m hoping to get some large-leafed sword plants. I also just this weekend added a really fantastic, large piece of wood that needs a number of java ferns tied to it. These auctions usually have a lot of java fern for sale so I’ll actually be thrilled for once when the 100th lot of the stuff comes up. :D

In keeping with the convention theme, my husband is looking for some catfish for his uaru tank. Some bug got in there and took out a bunch of his corydoras so he needs to replace them. I’m trying to talk him into some porthole cats, but it will depend on what people bring.

Are you going to the All-Aquarium Catfish Convention? What are you looking for? What are you bringing?

Path to the Sky

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Path to the Sky print
Path to the Sky at The Octopus Gallery

I recently got married and my husband and I took our honeymoon in Nova Scotia. We had been there about four years ago and really were excited about going back. On place that we definitely needed to revisit was the Kejimkujik National Park of Canada Seaside Adjunct. It’s a beautiful, but little known park in Nova Scotia.

The coastal elements of the natural region are represented by the 22 square kilometre Kejimkujik Seaside Adjunct, added to the park in 1988. Located about 25 kilometres southwest of Liverpool and 100 kilometres from the inland portion of the park, it is one of the least disturbed shoreline areas on the south coast of Nova Scotia. The Port Mouton peninsula features extensive brackish ponds and broad tidal flats, two spectacular white sandy beaches, salt lagoons, secluded coves and a nutrient productive salt marsh. Dense scrub alder and sheep laurel dominate the coastal tundra-like vegetation. The inland terrain is rugged – a wilderness of century-old spruce and fir, granite boulders and exposed bedrock carved by glaciation. On the barren uplands, boardwalks have been built over the marshy areas. The endangered piping plover, which nests on the beaches between late April and early August, is one of the many protected species that make up the wealth of birdlife. Waterfowl can be sighted in the lagoons, seaducks just offshore, and shorebirds on the tidal flats.

–Great Canadian Parks / Nova Scotia

This picture is one of the boardwalks through the barrens on the trail that leads around the peninsula shore. Lots of gorgeous purple pitcher plants along the way and there are supposed to be tones of orchids that bloom in the summer.