# Plants native to Trinidad/Tobago



## junebug (Aug 5, 2013)

And loosely, the rest of the caribbean 

I'm planning out my next biotope, a somewhat tight caribbean biotope encompassing Trinidad, Puerto Rico, and Costa Rica. I'm assuming the plants from the area will be found on each island.

It's going to be a mild brackish tank with the following fish: wild type guppies, girardinus metallicus, and if I'm lucky, some kind of bottom-dweller, possibly catfish if I can find the right species (suggestions welcome as long as they're true to the biotope)

Plants I have so far: 
Azolla caroliniana
Duckweed (don't especially want it, though) 
Hornwort
Green Myrio

I would love to know what other plants are common on the islands. Particularly anything with red/pink tones. 

Any advice on this is much appreciated.

Also if it matters, the tank will have HOB filtration (so pretty low flow), a creek-like substrate with fine playsand, river rocks, driftwood, and light leaf litter. I'll probably do a layer of soil beneath the sand.


----------



## StrungOut (Nov 8, 2004)

google helps, have you thought of google?


----------



## Michael (Jul 20, 2010)

The freshwater aquatic plant flora on islands is often pretty limited because of isolation. Costa Rica, on the other hand, is part of Central America and my guess is that it has a diverse aquatic flora. You might concentrate your research there.

At one time I was researching plants for a Lake Tanganyika biotope. It was very difficult to find good information, with many Google results giving directly contradictory information. So read critically!


----------



## StrungOut (Nov 8, 2004)

Read
Analyze
Teach


----------



## Seattle_Aquarist (Mar 7, 2008)

Hi junebug,

I believe Tonina fluviatilis might be one species, Hemianthus callitrichoides / Hemianthus callitrichoides 'Cuba' I believe is native to the Caribbean.


----------



## junebug (Aug 5, 2013)

StrungOut, seriously? Of course I googled it. Like Michael, I had issues confirming and there is a lot of contradictory information out there, so I thought I'd ask around.

BTW Michael, http://forums.tfhmagazine.com/viewtopic.php?f=83&t=23710 I found this to be a really good article on plants for a Lake Tanganyika Biotope.

Thanks for those, Seattle Roy. I'll check them out


----------



## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

When I lived in Trinidad & Tobago I spent a lot of time searching the streams and rivers for native plants.

I found very few species of aquatic plants and virtually no native species. There was a native moss that lived in some of the highland streams.

I found duckweed, some floating plants that were introduced and hydrilla.

If you want you can look through my old thread where I wrote about what I found: http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/...plants-discussions/46739-trinidad-tobago.html


----------



## AteItOffTheFloor (Oct 8, 2014)

Thanks Zapins. 

A well spent hour on my part reading that LMAO!


----------



## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

Glad you enjoyed it!

T&T didn't have too many native plants where I looked, but it certainly had a lot of interesting fish species.

From what I've seen North America has the most species of aquatic plants out of the many different continents and countries I've been to. For example, one small stream in Connecticut must have had at least a dozen species all growing side by side in one place with more species to be found at each new stream and pond. If you happen to live in America you would do very well to search the local water ways!


----------



## junebug (Aug 5, 2013)

Haha Zapins! I had no idea you were still around  That thread was actually where I got the few plants I found that are native. I looked them up in various databases and found whoever had posted early on with a short list, they were right. Now it's just a matter of locating at least some of the plants.

BTW, like everyone who replied in your thread, I hate you -.- I want to go fish collecting so badly. I can't even do it with native fish, as I live in California where it's not legal 

What floating plants did you find that were introduced species? Lilies of some kind, I would guess. I did find that duckweed, hornwort, azolla, and possibly some ludwigia species were often found on the various islands of the caribbean. 

I am getting tempted to just scrap the biotope idea all together  Much as I love biotopes, it seems there are just not enough plant species on the islands to fill a 20 gallon tank. And since one of the fish in it will be Costa Rican (Girardinus metallicus) I was stretching the 'tope to include that.

I might just build a mini river tank instead -.- I hate it. lol. I hate not being able to make it be what I want!


----------



## illustrator (Jul 18, 2010)

Many fish habitats are without plants or with very few species of plants. If you google on "biotope aquarium" you'll see that those aquaria tend to include far fewer plant species ompared to the typical "planted tanks" of plant enthousiasts.


----------



## Michael (Jul 20, 2010)

Junebug, thanks for reminding me of that TFH link, it was the best source I found. I was looking because I wanted to do a biotope for my ocellated shell dwellers. But I gave up on the idea because the plant species where either impossible to find, or unattractive, or illegal (!). And shellies don't live in habitats with plants anyway. I did set up a planted tank for them, but used common species.

Better luck with yours! I really admire a well designed biotope.


----------



## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

Haha, course I'm still around  you'd have to pry me off the forum with a crow bar to keep me away!

I had no idea you couldn't collect fish in California. They don't sell hunting and fishing licenses?? In CT you just need a cheap $20-30 yearly license and you can take whatever you like pretty much. Besides that there are some nice aquatic plants in California. I collected some from the American river in Sacramento a few years ago when I lived there. 

The other floating plant I saw was water hyacinth, which is originally from Africa if I remember right.


----------



## junebug (Aug 5, 2013)

Yeah I looked it up, and of course you can get a license, but fish have to either be DOS or catch and release. I'm pretty sure you can't even fish with a net, which is ridiculous in my opinion. I don't know if you can legally take plants. I do, I have lol. There's some kind of ceratophyllum species that grows in mass amounts in a stream near me. I totally took some samples to see how they grow in low light, as the stream is in full sun. They didn't do well 

Meh. My "native" tanks are going to have fish from OH east and south in them haha. Big sunfish tank with tons of native plants, and then a nano tank with bluenose shiners, pygmy killies (they are seriously the cutest things ever) heterandia formosa and micropoecilia picta, encompassing a huge portion of the SE US and central america. Should be a really nice tank, awesome colors in most of the fish.

Oh well, I will continue the search for caribbean plants. I really do want true natives, so it looks like my plant selection may just be very limited, or I'll have to veer more into Costa Rica for plant diversity. I have that pesky problem though, the fish in the tank found in Costa Rica are also found in Cuba -.- so I don't *have* to have Costa Rican plants for the biotope. LOL.


----------



## junebug (Aug 5, 2013)

Ahh, the plant list evolves! So now it includes HC (assuming I don't murder it - is it as hard to grow as they say? I was hoping for a low tech tank) and bacopa monnieri IF I can get it. It's one of those plants you can't bring into California from out of state, but there are a few in-state who sell it. I found some references stating it is found all over the caribbean, in cuba, puerto rico, Trinidad and Tobago, possibly even Haiti.

Cabomba furcata looks promising, again if I can find it. Several references state it's found on the islands as far north as southern florida. And it's at the very least a SA native. Diplidis Diandra might be a good alternative (and after some googling, it's almost certainly going into my US native tanks haha)

Ludwigia inclinata var cuba (I can't believe I didn't think of this before. I used to have some, wasn't getting enough light and it melted. really nice plant)

Mayaca Fluviatalis (also can't believe I didn't think of it. it's found all over cuba, sub-tropical southern US, and central america. Also looks common in Puerto Rico.

Sagittaria Latifolia - native to the west indies

That may be it for now. I realize not all of these plants will have been growing submersed in these environments. 

My method for finding native plants when aquatic plants are not common is insane lol. I find plants I know are native to nearby large continents, countries, etc, then google them with the name of the country I'm trying to plant for. A lot of times (not always, not even usually, but enough lol) I'll find they're a natural weed in the area I'm looking for.

I had to do this for weeks when I was building a peat swamp/rice paddy biotope for b. splendens. Ended up with a really nice selection and I was comfortable knowing every one of the plants in the tank was a common weed in thailand rice paddies. LOL.


----------



## HDBenson (Sep 24, 2014)

Junebug, do you have the P. wellaka shiners yet? I only ask bc 1) they are (in my opinion) one of the more striking native fish and, 2) very threatened, if you purchased them did you find out if they were wild caught or, captive bred? I know from our correspondences that you talk to NANFA folks pretty regularly. Just curious.


----------



## junebug (Aug 5, 2013)

They are actually going in a different tank, Hank. But I don't have them yet. Zimmerman's sells them. I probably should check again, but I believe all of Brian's fish are tank bred. 

He's a really great guy and amazingly helpful when it comes to native fish care. I have a feeling my native tanks would have ended up a mess without him LOL.


----------

