Phalaenopsis cornu-cervi [Breda] Blume & Rchb.f. 1860, a red colored peloric form

Phalaenopsis stuartiana var. nobilis

The real color of the flower of this orchid is the color of the flower in the top photo.  The other photos were taken with flash and the flowers took a yellow color that is not true to life.

Myrmecophyla tibicinis, cultural notes

In a basket, under the shade of a large avocado tree

Growing on a palm trunk in full sun

St. Croix Botanical Gardens

In areas with warm weather Myrmecophyla tibicinis does very well when grown in a basket or mounted on a tree.   This orchid can grow in full sun, in fact it needs a certain amount of full sun exposure or it will not bloom.  Keeping this plant in too much shade is a common error among beginners.  However, this plant seem to grow better when is given a slight bit of shade from the sun when it is at its most intense, which locally is between the hours of 11 am and 4 pm.

This orchid can produce a huge specimen plant if well cared for.  In one of the photos above you can see a truly humongous specimen in a Ceiba pentandra tree in the St. Croix botanical gardens.   To me the key to have a large and floriferous plant, aside from the right level of sun exposure, is giving it the proper fertilizing when it is producing new pseudobulbs.  This plant should be given a high nitrogen fertilizer when it is growing to help it produce full sized pseudobulbs.  Small, undersized pseudobulbs will not bloom.

The plant growing mounted in a palm trunk, in full sun all day long, produces relatively short inflorescences.  The plant in the basket, which is growing under an avocado tree with a comparatively open canopy, produces the typical long inflorescences.  The inflorescences grow until they emerge from the canopy of the avocado tree, then they produce the flowers.

Blue Moorii cichlid, also known as Blue Dolphin cichlid and Malawi Blue Dolphin cichlid, Cyrtocara moorii

Lake Tebera Rainbowfish Melanotaenia herbertaxelrodi in the Dallas World Aquarium

This rainbowfish is native of the Lake Tebera basin in Papua New Guinea.  I have never seen rainbowfish of this species anywhere that approach the size and beauty of this group which I photographed at the Dallas World Aquarium in 2010.

Melanotaenia lacustris, Turquoise rainbowfish in the Dallas World Aquarium

When given good nutrition, a spacious aquarium and excellent care, the Turquoise rainbowfish can grow into a size and shape that is rarely seen in fish kept in the average aquarium.  I saw this stunning specimen during a visit to the Dallas World Aquarium in 2010.  This fish was just a tiny part of the many interesting things I saw there, nevertheless is small size, it is very impressive in its own right.