# San Marcos River biotope trip



## HeyPK (Jan 23, 2004)

For a pictoral record of the trip that Steve and I took, with commentary, go to the following url: http://users.ev1.net/~spituch/a.html

Scroll down to the "Expedition I" link, and click on that. Before looking at all the pictures, click on the map link to the left on the first page.

We found the following species at the put-in:
Hydrilla verticillata, Hygrophila polysperma, Potamogeton sp?, Ceratopteris thalictroides, Ceratophyllum demersum, Hydrocotyle verticillata, Sagittaria sp. (platyphylla?), Ludwigia repens or palustris?, Pista stratiodes, Eichornia crassipes.

After the second railroad crossing, we found a Cambomba sp (caroliniana?). Below the first dam a water cress, Nuphar lutea, and Riccia showed up. Below the third dam (lunch stop), we found Zosterella dubia. Finally, the C. beckettii? showed up just past the point where the sewage treatment plant emptied the treated water into the river. We were careful not to dislodge any crypts when we gathered our sample. In the summer, the river fills up with tubers (people floating down on inner tubes), and they no doubt loosen some crypts and contribute to the spread of the species. Large patches of crypts continued to be seen until the river became too deep due to the back-up from the Cummings dam to see the bottom. On the faces of some of the dams we found Samolus valerandi and what might be Lobelia cardinalis.

So, don't say you can't find aquatic plants in Texas!


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## MiamiAG (Jan 13, 2004)

Excellent work guys! And obviously a lot of fun. We need to do the same thing in Florida.


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## Steve Hampton (Feb 13, 2004)

Spectacular work, thank you for taking the time to photograph and document the trip.


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## cactusdoug (Feb 17, 2004)

Wow, thanx for the pics.

It looks like you guy's had a wonderful experience.

I'm jealous, we don't have any thing like that here in the desert. 

Are any of these plants you collected going to be available for purchase?

If so * PLEASE* put me on your list. :lol:

I'm starting to wonder if there is any place here in So Cal, 
maybe San Diego or Orange Counties, 
where one could gather some plants like you guy's did.

Might be worth a day trip. 

Cheers, Cactusdoug


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## Phil Edwards (Jan 22, 2004)

That's awesome guys! Thank you for taking such careful pictures of everything. You found some really neat looking stuff. I expect you to take 1st place in the AGA biotope div. this year Steve!


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## Bert H (Mar 2, 2004)

Great pics, thanks for sharing. If you decide you have an extra crypt or 2 there, I would love to get one  .


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## Steve Pituch (Jan 25, 2004)

Hey Guys,

How about everyone who wants a plant to send me an email at [email protected], with your address and private email address. Make the Subject of the email "san marcos plants".

All the plants have been bleached and will be growing out for quite a while. Once the plants reach critical mass we can start sending some out, but it will be a whlie. We also need to learn how to grow each of the plants. I want to temporarily use some of the plants in a biotope also.

But we should be able to make all of you happy eventually. Please be patient.

Regards,
Steve Pituch


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## oh-yeah (Feb 7, 2004)

*San Marcos Crypt*

I see but I can hardly believe. All the plant finds are interesting but the crypts are like I say unbelievable. I would love to know how cold it gets in winter and other details of environment. Spectacular!!! Jack


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## Steve Pituch (Jan 25, 2004)

Amazingly, the river is spring fed with warm water. The water just pops out of the ground in the middle of the town. So this area of the river is 72 degF all year long. Sort of like a Sri Lanka in the middle of Texas.

Steve Pituch


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## jread (Feb 28, 2004)

Absolutely amazing! I've been digging around the San Marcos River multiple times and had no idea there were crypts in there!!


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## Sir_BlackhOle (Jan 25, 2004)

Hey another Texan! I was just up in Austin visiting Aquatek a few weeks ago!


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## jread (Feb 28, 2004)

Sir_BlackhOle said:


> Hey another Texan! I was just up in Austin visiting Aquatek a few weeks ago!


LOL! I just got back from Aquatek a little while ago. Great place


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## davemonkey (Mar 29, 2008)

It's alway fun to dredge up an old thread and give an update.

kwc1974 and I went out yesterday on the river (in kayak) and found most all the same wonderful plants. Texas Wild-Rice is growing in full-force, over-coming some of the _H. polysperma _stands, so that is good news. Sadly (sad for us, happy for the State of Texas, I suppose) we were unable to locate ANY crypts in the noted areas. We traveled 7 miles of the river until most of the vegetation puttered out.

On the plus side, I got to bring home a big bag of _Fissidens_, although, I fell in the river collecting it...but it was still worth it.  I noticed this species is coarser in texture (by feel, not appearance) than what I've had before. I once thought this was just due to the river water and that it would soften up after time in the aquarium, but the sample I collected last time stayed the same way for over a year. Only time will tell this time around.

Thanks to Kevin for not photographing me falling in the water. 

-Dave


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## Seattle_Aquarist (Mar 7, 2008)

Hi davemonkey,



> I got to bring home a big bag of Fissidens, although, I fell in the river collecting it...


ROFL! Dave; what on earth will you do next??!!


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## davemonkey (Mar 29, 2008)

I almost wish there was a pic of "the moment"...you'd get quite a laugh. I was expecting cold water because the air temp was in the 50's. So, I was doing the gaspy-breath-holding-freeze-up-your-body-in-ice-cold-water type stuff at first. Then my body realized it was actually quite comfortable and relaxed...and then it was just really funny.

I actually pulled a stomach/rib muscle trying to keep the kayak from tipping over, and my ribs are REALLY sore today. What kind of story would that make? 

Q: "So, how'd you hurt your rib muscles!?"

A: "Well, I'm just an out-of-shape plant nerd that fell over in a kayak while trying to grab up some moss for my aquarium..." :der:


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## HeyPK (Jan 23, 2004)

The original link to the trip photos is long gone, and so, here are some of the photos:

C. beckettii 1









C. beckettii 2









C. beckettii 3 Look at ths size of those plants!









Sagittaria









Samolus on the face of a dam









Hygrophila polysperma at the put-in.


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## mudboots (Jun 24, 2009)

davemonkey said:


> A: "Well, I'm just an out-of-shape plant nerd that fell over in a kayak while trying to grab up some moss for my aquarium..." :der:


Hah! Sounds like you had fun anyway, and now you get to relate over a cold one in the future in an East Texas ******* voice how the whole event unraveled...(PM Sent)...


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## davemonkey (Mar 29, 2008)

HeyPK, thanks for re-postong the pics. I'll see if Kevin will post the ones from yesterday. Man, I'm a bit jealous that you guys saw so much Crypt back then, and now it's all been eradicated. DARN!


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## HeyPK (Jan 23, 2004)

I still have a few plants of that crypt languishing in a soda pop bottle. It is hard to believe they got all of it.


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## davemonkey (Mar 29, 2008)

HeyPK said:


> I still have a few plants of that crypt languishing in a soda pop bottle. It is hard to believe they got all of it.


Soda pop bottle? Now I'm REALLY curious.  Yep, it's probably incorrect for me to say "eradicated". There may still be some there, but we certainly didn't see any, and we looked hard, and even had a sightings map.


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## HeyPK (Jan 23, 2004)

I keep a number of my plants in soda pop bottles on windowsills. They don't grow very much, but they are easy to keep because they require very little maintenance. If I had to keep them all in aquaria, I would probably lose many of them because I am really bad at regular maintenance.

The San Marcos crypts:


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