Plant pics and Info...

[brewmaster15]

Hi all you green thumbers!

I had an Idea last night , and thought I'd ask for your help on it. I'd like to start a Plant Directory in this section. I thought it be a real useful tool for people if you all could post Pics of you the plants in your Tank. Include the names(common and scientific if you know it) and a short description of what it needs to grow or tank conditions. Its a lot of work but it would help people figure out what to plant in the tank.

Take care,
al

[Pamela]

Excellent idea Al,

Wish I could help, but I don't have a digital camera :(


Pamela

[scottwheels]

Good idea brew. It'll give me someting to do when I go home for a week on sept 7. Just disregard the algae!!! Watch this space...

Cheers, Scott

[Don_Lee]

Great idea Al! When my photography/computer skills get better, will contribute, lol.

Don ;D

[Wahter]

Tropica's and Dennerle have good websites with the scientific names and photos/ water color paintings:

Tropica:
http://www.tropica.com/

Dennerle
http://www.dennerle.de/



Walter

[RAWesolowski]

Wahter has a very nice listing of plants that work well or not so well for him at:
http://www.aquariumhobbyist.com/discus/mytank/

Other good sites to borrow from may be:
http://www.aquaplant.org/
http://www.vectrapoint.com/
http://www.brainyday.com/jared/aquarium/info.htm

[Rikk]

You ant pictures of plants or alges

Alges would be the most simple to get for everyone and there a lot of different species !! LOL

No, great idea
START IT

Echinodorus 'Rubin' is a decorative hybrid between Echinodorus horemanii ''rot'' and Echinodorus x barthii. I just call it a rubin sword.
Its potted with 1/2 peat and 1/2 fluorite..no additional fertilizer or CO2.

Anubias barteri var. nana

Echinodorus 'Ozelot' or ozelot sword

[Ralph]

Nice pictures, how did you get your Red Rubin to be so red? The new leaves on mine are red but turn green too quickly.

The information that for me, is missing from the aquatic plant web sites is which plants do well in the high temperatures of a discus tank. I certainly have killed my share of plants, maybe we could save some people some trouble and expence by listing those plants that can make it in the heat (and those that can't). We could have a permanent thread at the start of the plant section naming the plants that have flourished in our tanks (we would probably have to do a couple different temps, say 82 degrees and 90 degrees).

What do you think?

Sounds good to me Ralph..the ruben sword is in my angelfish side of the fishroom in a 20 gal tank with a 75 watt halogen bulb right above it. its' done well...that fluorite/peat mix has been a miracle mix for me with plants. I bought some over the counter iron pills and stuck one down in the mix about a month ago..but other than that..nothing extra. The temp on my angelfish circuit stays at about 80 degrees..in my experience..crypts, swords, except the rubins, and anubias do well at temps up to about 85.

PS..I like photographing plants..they hold nice and still..

[Discusbuff]

The redness in the rubin swords is directly related to the amount of light it's recieving (as with many red plants ie Ludwigia (broadleaf) Purple cabomba etc. If you whack the tank with a lot of light (Halides) The red will stay nice and bright. without tons of light they will survive but will not maintain the Bright reds.

Michael Laursen
Laursen Photography

[Ivan]

Ok these plants where in my Discus tank, now they aren't.

[Ivan]

Tank looks ok, pic is rubish! >:(
Will post another pic later.

[Ralph]

I really like that tank. I like that your driftwood is prominent, too often the driftwood is buried in plants, probably unintentionally (that's what happened to me). I also like the small variety of plants. It looks more like nature, real streambeds usually have large areas of one kind of plant. The open spaces are good too, for the look and for the discus.
Where did you get the driftwood, I never see the long stem kind at any LFSs?
I see some cardinals I think but no discus?

[Ivan]

No Discus. That tank is too small at only 26 british galls.
Those plants where in my Discus tank, but the fish where young and I wasn't as clued up about Discus as I am now.
If I'd have put my babies in a BB from the word go they could belarger fish than they are. >:(. But hey I like my fish, and the ones I have are the first nes I have ever grown out (Or tried to). Here are some

[Ivan]

THe drift wood you can see is called Twisted French vine. I'd heard of it long before I had ever seen any.
Ivan

[ZaPPPa]

http://home.planet.nl/~floor960/Aquarium/Overview1.jpg
http://home.planet.nl/~floor960/Aquarium/Overview2.jpg

From left to right:

Hydrocotyle Leucocephala - Took a while to settle, but is growing fast now
Echinodorus Parviflorus 'Tropica' - Slow grower
Echinodorus x Barthii - Fast, faster, fastest.. Amazing growth even without CO2 and in the shade.
Echinodorus Ozelot - Needs lots of light to grow
Echinodorus Bleheri - Grows very well
Echinodorus Shlueteri - Gives me new plants once every two weeks or so.
Ceratopteris thalictroides - drift plant. Grows very fast when drifting. Dies in the sand for some reason ???

More pictures at:
http://home.planet.nl/~floor960

I know about the algea, but the tank was recovering from medication. It looks a lot better now.

[Ralph]

Very realistic look! I really like those tanks that make you feel like you are snorkeling in the Amazon. There are actually a few fans of algae on the forum, it sure adds to the realism.
What did you use for your backdrop?
What temp is your tank, I couldn't get my pennywort to last two days, I thought it was because of the heat.
My water sprite looks real spindly planted in the gravel. I quit fighting it and just use it as a floating plant. I like the dangling roots anyways, gives it a pond look.
I still don't like the placement of my driftwood, I'm going to steal your ideas, if that's OK.

[ZaPPPa]

Thanks,

A few weeks ago the wood would have beautiful patches of algea on them. Kind of like a grass lawn. Very clean and short, but since the medication long hair algea have taken over unfortunately.

The backdrop is just a standard backdrop from the LFS. I don't remember the brand name, but it is nothing special. Kind of like the Juwel backdrops but less expensive.. :).

The temperature is around 90F and all plants are doing very well. I use home-made dosing drops I bought from someone for $3 and that's enough for 10 liters when water is added to the powder!!! Maybe the air temperature in the hood is of influence. I don't use any mechanical ventilation so the temperature rises to >90 during the day and falls to around 88 during the night I think.

The Thalic died when I put it in the sand, but as a drift plant it thrives and I can trim it once a week. With CO2 it grows like crazy, but my old CO2 set is broken and a new one is on the way. The tank in the pictures was without added CO2 (for at least a month). Parameters: PH: 7,4, KH: 5-6, GH: 10, NO2: 0, NO3 10

You can steal my idea's as long as you post pics on the web... ;D

[ChloroPhil]

http://www.aquabotanic.com/boards/viewforum.php?f=7

This is a forum on a board dedicated to aquatic plants with some very good information and amazing pictures.

[chavez720]

http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view?p=999&gid=1392327&uid=722870&members=1

Phil - How's it going? Thought I would learn about discus now that I got the plants going.

Jumped boards and found this one about discus. Well thought I would post some pics of discus in planted tanks. Been growing every kind of plant for the last few years - started with discus about 6-8 months ago. List of plants too long to type here. Have not found too many plants that will not survive with discus (one that comes to mind is Java Moss). Of course I am keeping my tanks at around 78-80°F - Not your typical discus temps. The discus do not seem to mind, but I am not in the process of breeding them yet!! Will see, have to read some more post on how to do it!

Forgive the poor quality pics! Enjoy reading the board THANKS!

Paul

[Ralph]

Nice tanks! What's with the Tank of Death? I used to have one of those, I never did figure out what the problem was.

Some of your plants are definately in the high end of their temperature range. I lost all my hairgrass, and anything japonica probably won't make 84 degrees. The one you called micro tenellus, is that lilaeopsis (sold as micro swords)? I don't know of anyone that has got that to grow. I think it needs real high lighting, like an emergent plant, and low temps (it's native to New Zealand).
Some people have been able to keep their discus in the 80-82 degree range. Just watch them for skin fungus or digestive problems (bloating, white solid wastes, lack of appetite).
Glad to have another plant person posting (you're the second one from Char. in two days).
I like your wilds, where did you get them? Are they greens?

[chavez720]

Member at Aquabotanic.com board (Planted Tanks) just dabbling in discus for the last 6-8 months. Someone posted on the board that this was the premier discus board and thought that I would find out and learn more about their care.

Tank of Death - It is killing me to get rid of the Green Water! Very persistent most likely ammonia biuld-up and excess nutrients. Lost two broods of Apistogramma Vietjas in there also.

No that is Micro Tenellus - it is a red form identical to the one that the planted tank guru Amano uses in most of his aquascape. Are you familiar with Takashi Amano's books? This is the plant he uses in many of his foregrounds. I am still trying to crack the secret to this plant.

Dwarf Hairgrass (E. parvula) has done well for me up to 86°F. It does have a tendency to accumalte lots of detritus. Grows like a weed!

Wilds I got from a breeder in Ga. He sells on aquabid as Fishfarmusa and his name is Ken Davis. By far the best discus if have ever recieved. He is knows his discus! I believe he has Heckels. I asked if the discus were wild greens but he said they were browns?? Awfully green are they not?

[EthanCote.com]

Hey Zappa,

Nice looking tanks. So that is what healthy Swords looked like eh?

*sigh* mine is just pathetic...


Cheers,

Chi.

[ZaPPPa]

Yup... Swords have always done well in my tanks for some reason. Maybe it's because nitrates in tap water are pretty high here. And I don't even have a lot of light over my tank 1.3 W/G and the plants grow like crazy... and at this moment my CO2 isn't even working..

I would like to see more color on my fish though... They are now 7 months old, but when I see all the deeply colored fish in the pictures on this forum, I wonder what is 'wrong' with mine....

[Wahter]

I had written this post on foreground/ lawn plants with some pics here:

http://forum.simplydiscus.com//index.php?board=7;action=display;threadid=3071

(including the red micro tenellus).

Walter

[chavez720]

Walter,

Funny thing...that micro tenellus Chavez has is from me which you orginally gave me. :)

[Ralph]

Hi Zapppa,
I don't know what kind of fish that you have but there are several possibilities to lack of color in the fish.
Red and blue colors can be enhanced by different foods. Some fish only show certain colors because of the foods they eat. There are several posts in the Biology of Discus section that discuss this.
Most fish don't show their full colors until they are one year old or even older. I've heard it tied into their sexual maturity.
Backround and floor colors can affect the appearance of your fish, and possibly the actual color of them.
Lighting has a definate affect on the appearance depending on the color bands that your particular light source gives off.
Some pictures are photo enhanced and also you may be seeing the very best example chosen from many, many fish.
I probably left out a couple possibilities. If I didn't answer your question, you could post it in the biology section.

[Fons_van_der_Hart]

Some very nice planted tanks were placed at the Belgium Discus Show which was held recently.
An overview of this show included a description of all the tanks can be found at the "5th Belgium Discus Show" section of the Discus as Hobby (DaH) website.

Fons
www.discusashobby.com
www.discus.pagina.nl
www.discus.info

[Ralph]

Did you show any tanks or fish?

[tjudy]

:)
Bolbitus heudelotii... African Water Fern

Fronds grow from a rhizome that grows best attached to wood or rock. They prefer soft water and pH below 7.0. Subdued light is a must.. bright light usually means algae on the fronds. The long, spindly fronds that are often found in LFS are hard to get started. Look for thick rhizomes with only a few small fronds, and you will get the growth like the one in het picture... bushy.

[tjudy]

:)
Anubias barterii var. 'moliwe'

This anubias has proven to be a good grower in pH levels between 5.8 and 6.4. It is a tall variety of barterii, and I like it better than some of the other tall species because it grows faster. It can be rooted in substrate ot tied to wood. The plants in this picture started with three leaves, and what you see is two months' growth, and the original leaves are trimmed (they had hair algae).

[Ralph]

Hi Ted,
That is a great planting job on the driftwood. Did you drill out holes on the wood?
What temp do you keep your water at? I've heard that the Anubias don't do well in bright light, what kind of watts per gal do you use?
I'm working on a driftwood only tank right now, I'm trying to make a BB tank that doesn't look like a BB tank and it is even harder than it sounds.
I've never seen the water fern in stores here but I'm planning to do a mail order.

[tjudy]

:)
All the driftwood I use comes from Driftwood Africa (www.driftwoodafrica.com). They do not sell retail, but if you need any I distribute it to stores locally and will ship out of town. I do not drill holes. Many pieces have nooks, crannies or holes already in them. I use a 3/0 black nylon thread that lies flat to tie plants on. It is actually pretty hard to see, and does not cut into the plant like thinner, harder thread or monofilament. I get it from fly-tying stores (I also tie), and you can get the thread in shades of brown too.

My tanks are not discus tanks, and stay around 78F. I use diffuse light. If to 40 watt bulbs over the tank is too bright, I will lay a piece of news paper on top of the tank to diffuse the intensity. Other tanks have two 40 watt bulbs, but they are suspended 4 feet over the tank.

Your idea of a wood only bare bottom tank is a good one. A friend of mine and are doing it in 135. We used about 25 pieces in the small range (6 - 12") that did not have a lot of vertical. Those cover the bottom. Then we used some LARGE pieces to stick up into the tank. All the wood is soaking now to release some of th tannins. This driftwood does not have nearly the tannin load as 'malaysia' wood, and the tannins that are released are brown, unlike the yellow tannins od 'swahala' or 'wellaby' wood. With the amount of wood we are using, however, we thought it best to leach a bit out first.

We are going to plant the small pieces on the bottom with about 100 A. nana and the large pieces with about 20 Bolbitus. It should be a heck of a display in a few months. I will try to get few picks as we set it up. I invision a craggy mass of Anubias on the bottom with these islands of Bolbitus with wood sticking out.. problably a year away from that.

Her tank is all dwarf cichlids and rainbows. Nice fish... now we are trying to make it a nice tank!

Check out this large piece of wood....

[Ralph]

Hey Ted,
I live in Phoenix, maybe I can stop by and buy some wood from you? What else do you sell? Send me an IM if you'd like.