Richard Torrens Aquatic life

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Fish, plants, animals etc available

I can source - or have excess stocks of - many pond plants and animals as well as aquarium species.
If you live within travelling range of Burwell and want a pond or aquarium stocked - please contact me.

Available species

This is a list of a few of the plants and other water life I can usually supply. If there is a link - it gives more information.

• The arrow symbol indicates that the species is thriving in my pond or aquarium! Burwell is a hard water area!
• The dot indicates specties which have flourished for a while and then succumbed: mostly they need soft water!
• indicates species which should be treated with some care as they can be rampant!
• Invasive plants, non-native to Britsh Isles.

• Crustacea
  • Daphnia: the favourite live food for most aquarium fish. I can supply most of the year round!
  • Water Hog or Water Louse - Assellus
  • Gammarus Pulex - Freshwater Shrimp
• Plants
  • Alisma plantago-aquatica - Water Plantain
  • Apium nodiflorum - Fool's watercress
  • Baldellia ranunculoides - Lesser water plantain
  • Berula erecta - Lesser water parsnip
  • Caltha palustris - Marsh marigold or king cup.
  • Cardamine pratensis - Cuckoo flower.
  • Ceratophylum demersum - Common Hornwort
  • Ceratophyllum Submersum - Spineless Hornwort
  • Chara Globularis - Stonewort
    Often used in aquaria as a spawning medium!
  • Fontinalis antipyretica - Willow Moss
  • Glyceria maxima - Reed sweet-grass
    I have a cultivar which is variegated in stripes: it's particularly pretty in spring when the stripes are distinctly pink!
  • Gymnocoronis spilanthoides -Senegal Tea
    Not known as a pond plant! I aquired some for my aquarium and tried it in the pond. It has now survived three winters (2008) and is quite robust. This plant is not on any UK list of undesirable alien plants - but I think it should be.
  • Hydrocharis morsus-ranae - Frog bit.
    May 2005 four babies have surfaced from over-wintering turions.
  • Hydrocotyle ranunculoides - Floating pennywort.
    A dangerous alien invader, albeit a nice pond plant if you are prepared to keep it under control
  • Hydrocotyle vulgaris - Marsh pennywort
  • Lemna trisulca - Ivy leaf duckweed
    Good in a pond or tropical aquarium where it makes an excellent floating plant.
  • Lythrum salicara - Purple loosestrife
  • Mentha aquatica - water mint
  • Mimulus guttatus - Monkey flower
  • Myriophyllum spicatum - spiked water-milfoil
  • Myriophyllum aquaticum (Myriophyllum brasiliensis) - Parrot feather
    Here in Burwell, this is not getting out of control. However it is listed as a invasive alien, and in the warmer microclimate of most cities, it can easily get out of control.
  • Myosotis scorpiodes - Water Forget-me-not
  • Nymphoides peltata - Fringed water lily
  • Oenanthe fistulosa - Tubular water dropwort
  • Potamogeton crispus - Curled pondweed
  • Ranunculus flammula - Lesser spearwort
  • Ranunculus lingua - Great spearwort
  • Ranunculus hederaceus - Ivy leafed Crowfoot
  • Nasturtium officinale - Watercress
  • Stratiotes Alloides - Water Soldier
  • Veronica Beccabunga - Brooklime
• Molluscs
  • Golden Apple snail
    These are breeding happily in my aquarium so are usually available.
  • Acute Bladder snail - Physa Acuta
    A cute little snail and quite pretty, but it breeds far too easily! Lots written on the Internet about this one: search Google for "Physa Acuta"
  • Planorbella scalaris(?)
  • Great pond snail - Lymnaea stagnalis
• Fish
  • Rhodeus Sericeus - Bitterling. This beautiful cold water fish is in the Controls on Non Native Fish Species. However it abounds freely in the wild near my house. If you are interested (and you should be - it's probably the prettiest and most interesting of ALL European fish) you will need a (free) license to keep it.

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