Spawning discus in my planted tank (56K warning!)

[Poe835]

Here's an update on my 120 gal planted tank. It has 3 discus (1 male+2female), 2 of which are spawning. Here's the front side. The two on the left are spawning. This is probably their 5th spawn since I got them.

http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f81/Poe835/front.jpg

[Poe835]

Here's the back view of the tank. It defnitely needs trimming.

http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f81/Poe835/back.jpg

[Poe835]

Detailed views.. This is the other female in the tank. She waits her turn to spawn with the male. The male changes partners almost every 2 weeks.

http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f81/Poe835/view2.jpg

[Poe835]

another view..

http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f81/Poe835/view3.jpg

[Poe835]

Eriocaulon cinereum is doing pretty well. Hemianthus callitrichoides on the other hand, seems to melt at this temperature (86F)..this is my second attempt at growing it.


http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f81/Poe835/ceranum.jpg

[Poe835]

Close up on the spawning pair.. it's funny that they chose to lay their eggs on the narrow leaf of C. Balanse. I bet it took some coordination to land all the eggs on such a small space.

http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f81/Poe835/eggs1.jpg

[Poe835]

last image...

http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f81/Poe835/eggs2.jpg

[Poe835]

well.. another image..
I have cherry shrimps in the tank.. the discus seems to be too slow to hunt them down. I've have them together for more than 4 months and still have never seen them eat the shrimps.

http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f81/Poe835/look.jpg

[architect1]

wow beautiful tank, also loved the fish and the shrimp together. Wow thats amazing.

[poconogal]

Looks beautiful... especially seeing the Shrimp too!

I have been dying to get Cherry Shrimp, or Amano Shrimp, but I don't want them to become shripm cocktail for the Discus. My Discus totally ignore my Cardinal Tetras, so maybe they won't bother the shrimp?

[hexed]

WOW what beautiful pictures! Congrats!
Makes me want to get my planted tank going even faster but mother nature seems to be my enemy ;)

[Dissident]

Eriocaulon cinereum is doing pretty well. Hemianthus callitrichoides on the other hand, seems to melt at this temperature (86F)..this is my second attempt at growing it.


http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f81/Poe835/ceranum.jpg

I love that plant. I have been looking for something similiar here in the US an no one seems to have it.

What are the requirements for it? How fast does it gorw and how does it propegate?

[lhforbes12]

Eriocaulon cinereum is doing pretty well. Hemianthus callitrichoides on the other hand, seems to melt at this temperature (86F)..this is my second attempt at growing it.


Poe,
It seems to be doing OK to me. btw I really like your tank, most of the plants are not common and they all look healthy. Your layout is excellent. (If you check my other posts on planteds you will see that I just gave you EXTREMELY high praise, which you deserve)

Larry

[lhforbes12]

I love that plant. I have been looking for something similiar here in the US an no one seems to have it.

What are the requirements for it? How fast does it gorw and how does it propegate?

Dis,
http://www.aquabotanic.com/

I really shouldn't give you that link, my last order sucked. But he does have it.

Larry

[Dissident]

Dis,
http://www.aquabotanic.com/

I really shouldn't give you that link, my last order sucked. But he does have it.

Larry
Thanks,
That is too bad, Robert over there usually does a good job from what I hear.
I will keep it in mind for when i need to do a new plant order.

[Alight]

I got some HC from Robert. It arrived in great shape, but the stuff has been a PITA so far. I also got some from Simon Lemay from the boards on the Planted Tank.net site. His stuff was even better and less expensive.

Poe, Simon at the planted tank also said he thought it was a PITA initially, and about gave up, but some finally started for him, and he now is selling lots of it. He says that patience is the key. It grow in a wide variety of conditions.

I believe the HC would grow OK in my tank, if it was undisturbed, but either the Discus, or some other fish keep plowing through the gravel where I planted it, ripping it out and spreading it all over the tank. After three replantings, some of it has been crushed too many times and is melting a bit. The bits that have stayed stuck have been doing pretty well and starting to grow, but that's only a few bits. Others have said that once it is established, it can grow pretty fast.

I replaced the front gravel in my tank with flourite and planted it in that. This seems to have the right consistency for the stuff.

Simon suggested floating it for a while before planting it, and that was a good idea, as it grew nice long roots so that small clumps could be planted with the green part of the plant still above the gravel, and yet it would stay down.

If I had to do it again, I would try to buy it from the boards over at the planted tank swap and shop, first. But I'll warn you. You have to check the boards very often, because when it shows up there, it's gone almost instantly.

Robert at aquabotanic runs out of it often, too.

[Dissident]

HC is still hard to come by.
I think a more robust plant for discus is needed, they destroyed a perfect hairgrass lawn in a couple months in my 110 :(

[Poe835]

Thanks for the comments and praises everyone. At first the scape looked better but then collecteritis took over and now it looks more like a jungle.

Dissident, the E. cinereum that I have is native to thailand. The locals call them "fresh-water urchin". It grows in flooded rice fields and swamps. In the wild, you can only find it during the rainy season. Once the fields flood, these plants show up, grow, flower, then die after the water dries up. But if you keep them below water all the time, they will live for years. Sometimes they do flower under water. When this happens, there will be some plantlets but the mother plant will then die. It does fine in 29-30C water. Just needs extra iron or the core will turn white.

As for HC, I tried floating on the surface but my surface current made it tumble around and turned into a ball rather than a nice mat. I'll keep an eye on this batch and see how it does.