Aquatic Phalaenopsis

[cnycharles]

You're daring me to kill yet another beautiful bellina! Glad you have had success


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[troy]

I want to see current pictures please?

 

[John M]

The lack of algae in Larry's tank and my Phal glass is utterly at odds with my experience tending aquaria. I find this very curious.
I did just notice some spots of dark algae on the inside of the jar. So, I put a tiny bit of terry cloth under a small round magnet on the inside and then I used a very large magnet on the outside to move it around (up and down), the glass and clear away the spots. It did clear the spots of course; but, it didn't make any difference to the rest of the glass because there wasn't even a thin layer of algae that would be hard to see. Yes, the mostly absent occurrence of algae is very curious!
The comment about 70 oF water is disheartening... Perhaps modern Phals are tough enough for cooler water? Not belina. I can grow Phals beautifully in my greenhouse; but, not belina. It's a hot grower and not at all tolerant of anything below 70*F. My experience (multiple times), has been that temps cooler than 70*F will cause the foliage of belina to abort and fall off while still green!

..

 

[troy]

I would like to know if this plant is still alive growing in water, I would love to see proof, interesting posting here!!!

 

[abax]

Troy, if John says it is, then it is. John is one fantastic grower of just
about any plant you can name.

 

[Wendy]

I saw it when I was at John's in November. It was beautiful and healthy. Larry was cool too!

Troy, I don't know why you should doubt John.....as Angela says, he's a fantastic grower.

 

[Wendy]

I saw it again today. It's alive and thriving. Lots of beautiful new roots and a new leaf growing. Larry was cool too....didn't know a fish could beg. :rollhappy::rollhappy: It was funny how excited he got when John showed him the food container!

 

[Lanmark]

Now if only he could get the orchid plant to beg. :clap:

 

[John M]

A little while ago Angela asked for more photos. So, here you go! These are from the last few days.

The plant is now finished blooming on it's first spike. It gave me 5 beautiful flowers. Then, the spike stopped making more buds and it began to yellow. Since belina typically does not even produce a single flower from the first spike it makes, I think I did very well to get 5 flowers from this first spike on this plant.

Then, I noticed that there is a lot of new root action; both new roots growing down into the water and old roots already in the water that are side branching. It's also making a nice, new leaf. I am expecting it to grow very large over the next few months. Even the Taiwan Moss is thriving and growing as well as I see now that it's making "fruiting growths". A few weeks ago, I improved the light quality and intensity by changing the bulb in the nearby fixture to a 23 watt CFL daylight type.

I've been melting snow and letting it reach room temperature before using it as replacement water after I siphon out about 500 ml each morning. Each time I siphon out water, I remove any solid "Larry poops" on the bottom along with any other loose debris that has collected since the previous water change.

I used a red digital paintbrush to circle the actively growing root tips to make them easy to see.

 

[troy]

I'm totally speechless, very interesting!! I wander how much your fish and the plant have with the success, pretty cool!!

 

[Lanmark]

Larry's a beauty, and the plant looks great!

 

[abax]

Thank you so much John. You do spoil every critter in your
care! The bellina and Larry are growing so well you might
have to find a larger jar soon. I'd say many tropical fish can learn when it's time to eat. Cichlids in particular are
quite adept at observing human behavior and schedules.
Larry is both beautiful and very smart.

 

[John M]

Thanks very much. The Phal started out in a 500 ml Mason jar. That was quickly replaced with a 1 litre Mason jar and Larry was introduced. The 1 litre jar was soon replaced with the jar you see now, which is a 2 litre pickled Artichoke jar. Of course, I can trim the Taiwan Moss now and then; but, if the Phal gets big and grows much more roots, I'll have to upgrade again to a 4 litre tall glass vase.

I agree. It's amazing how well little fish can tell the time of day! Plus, they can learn visual cues and get all excited when they see certain things. Larry looks right at me and pounds on the glass with his nose when he sees me with his little white food dish in hand. He was a really fun addition to the Aquatic Phal experiment. Prior to adding Larry, I did give the Phal some fertilizer solution every few weeks. However, that would kill Larry; so, since June the plants have only had Larry's waste as food and they've done a good job of thriving.

 

[TyroneGenade]

Wow! My little Phal is pushing out an inflorescence! Given how poorly my Paphs are doing I may well now make the switch to Phals instead. oke:

 

[Linus_Cello]

I like how its mounted to the wall. I just assumed it was on the kitchen window sill.

 

[Don I]

Very neat idea John.
Don

 

[TyroneGenade]

Thanks, John. So far so good!

uploading pictures

Of course now the plant is getting healthy there is a mealybug infestation...

 

[John M]

I can't see the photo yet, Tyrone. I will be moving over to my new computer very soon. I'll get to see it then. My Phal. belina is still doing great, as is Larry. The inside of the jar finally got a coating of algae (after about 10 months); so, I briefly removed the plant, cleaned the glass, put the plant back and put the fish and Taiwan Moss back. However, the moss had grown so much, it was crowding out Larry. So, I only put about 1/4 of the moss back in. The belina has grown a nice new leaf and it continues to grow more roots. I am looking for a new flower spike to show up any time now. Here's a photo taken just after I cleaned the inside glass (earlier this month).

 

[Lanmark]

That's really cool, Tyrone! Your Phal is of a much different type than what John is growing, yet both are doing well in water. I think I might try this as well.

 

[abax]

Larry is obviously so happy with this arrangement. His
color is intense and all his fins are spread nicely. Happy
fish!