Collecting in Nagano pt.2

Hello everyone!
I know it’s been an eternity since my last post. I know I’m not the best at keeping to a regular posting schedule, and that’s usually because real life gets in the way. In this case it is no different, I have started a new job a few months back and have been constantly swamped and so the blog had to take a backseat temporarily. I will do my best to put out a post when work doesn’t keep me down!

Today’s post will be about a collecting trip I took to Nagano, Japan. My last post went over a few other plants I collected from the area, and this post’s plants are from the same prefecture, but a different area.

3 friends of mine wanted to show me a special spot of theirs that they found a long time ago. This collecting spot was basically a small scenic lake surrounded by some houses, in a small town.

I wasn’t sure what to expect, but my assumption was that we would just be collecting plants near the waterline. Upon first inspection around the waterline I didn’t really see much of anything except a lot of tall grass. Though when I got closer to the water’s edge, I looked into the water and saw this.

I thought to myself, “alright now we’re in business! Ok so we need a net or something.” Then immediately one of my friends came up from behind me and threw a relatively large 3-pronged hook out into the lake.

He then slowly began “reeling” the hook back in. To my amazement, when he had gotten the hook back, he had “fished” up a good amount of 3 different types of aquatic plants.

From what I was told, there were: Najas marina, Najas japonica, and an Elodea species.

Najas marina

Elodea species

Najas japonica

This collection “method” was new to me, but nonetheless it was quite an interesting experience. Maybe some of you can apply this method to collecting some aquatic plants in the future?

We threw the hook out a few more times to collect a good amount of each of the 2 Najas species, and packed up our things to head to the next collection point.

In terms of my experiences with these plants in an aquarium setting. Both of the Najas species were relatively easy to grow in a planted tank setup with CO2 (2-3bubbles per sec), fertilizers, and strong lighting (4watts/gal).

Najas marina was quite hardy, easy-to-grow, but a little “weedy” if you know what I mean. Najas japonica was a little more difficult it was the more fragile of the 2 species. Logic suggests that, because these plants were collected from an area that is usually cooler in temperature throughout the year, these Najas would do better if the water temperature were a bit more on the cooler side. Though when I tried my hand at these plants I kept them at typical room temperature, and they tolerated it well enough.

I hope you all enjoyed this post on collecting in Nagano, Japan!
If you enjoy what you see, please feel free to leave a comment!
Thank you very much!
Inspire91