My First Co-op Plant Swap

Tonight was interesting and I had a decent time. Met Mikeb. Finally met Pokeserphiroth, who I had trade plants in the mail. Got to see Chad again after he gave me a fine R.A.O.K. Plant It Forward package. ( I can't wait to see what Nick_87 offers.)

It was funny, I was like the second or third person to put my name in and I was next to last to pick. Not that I'm complaining. I chose the package labeled 'Ludwigia?' and the plant was 20 inches long. It fits perfectly in the back of my 7 gallon hex. (The Industry sold these as ten gallons, scuzbags.) It is facing a shaded eastern windo so I imagine its reds will remain bright and makes a great background with the liverwort on the ground and the floating Hygrophila 'Wisteria'.

The real great things that happened were because of the Co-op and WA Fichbox owner himself. Cory had a plastic bag on the counter labeled "Pogostemon stellatus Grab Bag *Rare*" and the price. I almost bought it the second I saw it but I am very low on cash. I waited and watched and said to myself, "Are you out of your mind? Buy that plant at $5.49." There was a bunch of 5 with one straggler branch. I looked this plant up on ebay and it sells for $40! Thank you Cory and Thank you whoever brought it in for Cory!

Later, I ask Cory if he would trade a baggie of Monosolenium tenerum for one of his micro chain swords. He said, "Sure!". I mentioned I had noticed he didn't have any in his tanks but then he pointed it out. I said that I wouldn't have asked if I knew he had it but Cory said, "It's OK. I want to encourage trading." Then he gave me the apogoneton bulbs as a prize for trading. Such a guy!

I just wanted to say thanks and I will probably be back next month with something different. I have some nice crypts. I promise to never bring a Java Fern or Java Moss.

I had a great time! Hope to meet more of you next time. And remember, bring extra to trade!

It was a pleasure finally meeting you! I'm glad you enjoyed at the swap. It's a really great event, and I've met lots of wafishboxers from that event alone. I enjoy being part of our fish community

you would be surprised at how many people want java fern or moss.. both are great for low light and well even though I have way more moss than I need it always makes its way into a dart frog tank when I have to much.. I should note that some of the harder to find mosses are REALY desirable amongst most people I know (Christmas moss, weeping moss, willow moss, etc..) Now if I only new which person you where I met like 5 new people tonight.

Was a pleasure coming up for the swap and look forward to doing it again but todays 2 hour drive north killed me.. stupid I-5

Thanks again cory for hosting such a fun event

The black fedora hat with the monoselenium. I PMed you. I just got some samples of flame mose but it will be a long time before that will be available for trade. I just traded, in a Plant It Forward, half of my willow moss. It grows much slower than java so it make take a while before I have it for trade again. I have a good start on Fissedens fontanus but I want to propagate lots of that before I start trading it. It is a commodity.

today was my first time coming to this event and I totally loved it. I was lucky to be the first one to choose the plant.
thanks everyone and specially aquarium co-op for this event. see you guys next month.

That was fun! You never know what's gong to be offered on that table. I picked up a beautiful deep red luwigia with small leaves. Perfect for a background plant in my small tank. The way it was packaged makes me think it was from hobbyorobsession.

I also picked up a bunch of that 'rare' plant (umbrella) pogosteman stellatus for a background plant. I am rather excitted to see what it looks like as a mature plant.

Yes those were my plants, its poasibly ludwigia rubra but I grow it next to two different ludwiga reds so who knows at this point.

I wish I had enough light to grow Ludwigia it just doesn't like my tank. Someday Ill make it to one of these plant swaps I just need to get driving early so that I miss the traffic

Ludwiga tolerates fairly low light levels

That's what I thought, maybe it wasn't healthy to begin with.

hobbyorobsession wrote:Yes those were my plants, its poasibly ludwigia rubra but  I grow it next to two different ludwiga reds so who knows at this point.

I was wondering about the ? .

hobbyorobsession wrote:Yes those were my plants, its poasibly ludwigia rubra but  I grow it next to two different ludwiga reds so who knows at this point.

A little light reading found in links. Lots of controversy over all the reds in this family of plants. From my understanding currently tropica is calling palustris "sp. Super red" and others are claiming up to 12 subspecies of red ludwigia. And still others say 2 or 3 species, the rest are hybrids. Either way good luck.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

unfortunately i was working, and i didn't really remember that it was already the third saturday anyway, but glad it was a good time for everyone. i wish i could have been there even just to see all the plants, i love seeing all the different species i have never seen before.

i don't know much about the different species of ludwigia, but the one i have grows nice and slender leaves and gets a nice branching structure after its grown to about 10 inches. the hard thing about plants is that they seem to change their appearance much more than fish with different conditions, and then there is the issue of what your definition of a 'species' exactly is... seems like it could be less cut and dry with plants vs. animals, in some ways

LuminousAphid wrote:unfortunately i was working, and i didn't really remember that it was already the third saturday anyway, but glad it was a good time for everyone. i wish i could have been there even just to see all the plants, i love seeing all the different species i have never seen before.

i don't know much about the different species of ludwigia, but the one i have grows nice and slender leaves and gets a nice branching structure after its grown to about 10 inches. the hard thing about plants is that they seem to change their appearance much more than fish with different conditions, and then there is the issue of what your definition of a 'species' exactly is... seems like it could be less cut and dry with plants vs. animals, in some ways

2 things. +1 on changing from one tank to another. It's amazing to see plants go from my high tech to low, to medium. Seeing how it reacts and colors in each one.

The second is on process of identification,  it's easy to ID a plant based off of some simple or even complex characteristics,  but they, like fish have dna, and only with someone doing their da work can it be completely flawless in identifying what is who is which. And from my knowledge, anyone with means in which to do such work is already getting a larger paycheck from other sources as most (endangered being an exception) aquatic plants aren't very high up on the list of "things to do" simply because of funding. The same is true with the many questionable species and subspecies of cichlids from central america, and Africa name worthy brichardi complex, altolamprologus etc. Locality differences and natural hybrids make it ever more difficult as well.

Sorry to the op, not meaning to thread jack.

Most plant species are identified by their flowers rather than their leaves but DNA testing has split a few types into seperate species.

Ah, funding. We have become a species without curiosity. Money is now God instead of Knowledge.