David J
10-23-2010, 04:54 PM
Hello Heckel lovers!
A couple things before I start:
1. I am not an expert at anything!
2. I am limited to one planted community aquarium only.
3. I am posting here in case there is something that may be of use to the real experts.
I have had discus for four years. I started with two wild Heckel as a surprise gift from my wife, then added five blue brilliants. The blues spawned on a regular basis, but created havoc in the tank, so I decided last year to sell all the discus but a pair of blues, just to see if they could raise fry. Just before the sale, a male blue spawned with a female Heckel so I decided to keep those two instead. They have spawned a few times since, but they never made it to the wiggler stage. They spawned again today, so I decided to document as much as possible in case it is useful to any of you.
- 75 gallon four foot tank, Eheim Pro II filter, #4 Hydrosponge filter, 220 W of 8000 K light, 16 hours at half power, 3 hours at full during mid-day. (I am thinking of trying a mid-day dark period to discourage algae).
- Cardinal tetras, flame tetras, dwarf frogs, tiger loaches, siamese algae eaters, chinese algae eaters (I want to get rid of these), snails, assassin whelks, cherry shrimp, amano shrimp.
- fully planted with swords, crypts, java fern, anubias, marsilea quadrifolia, duckweed, Flourish excel and Flourish at 10 mL per week, fertilizer tabs, Indian almond leaf twice a month. I am going to start a mild EI routine.
- Black eco-complete gravel (I think), lots of wood, no vacuuming of substrate.
- 15 gallons changed once a week with very soft tap water (Vancouver, B.C.), temperature 28°C, pH 6.4-6.6, nitrates at 5-10 ppm.
Here are some pictures:
http://picasaweb.google.ca/117931735630385563126/Spawn#
David
A couple things before I start:
1. I am not an expert at anything!
2. I am limited to one planted community aquarium only.
3. I am posting here in case there is something that may be of use to the real experts.
I have had discus for four years. I started with two wild Heckel as a surprise gift from my wife, then added five blue brilliants. The blues spawned on a regular basis, but created havoc in the tank, so I decided last year to sell all the discus but a pair of blues, just to see if they could raise fry. Just before the sale, a male blue spawned with a female Heckel so I decided to keep those two instead. They have spawned a few times since, but they never made it to the wiggler stage. They spawned again today, so I decided to document as much as possible in case it is useful to any of you.
- 75 gallon four foot tank, Eheim Pro II filter, #4 Hydrosponge filter, 220 W of 8000 K light, 16 hours at half power, 3 hours at full during mid-day. (I am thinking of trying a mid-day dark period to discourage algae).
- Cardinal tetras, flame tetras, dwarf frogs, tiger loaches, siamese algae eaters, chinese algae eaters (I want to get rid of these), snails, assassin whelks, cherry shrimp, amano shrimp.
- fully planted with swords, crypts, java fern, anubias, marsilea quadrifolia, duckweed, Flourish excel and Flourish at 10 mL per week, fertilizer tabs, Indian almond leaf twice a month. I am going to start a mild EI routine.
- Black eco-complete gravel (I think), lots of wood, no vacuuming of substrate.
- 15 gallons changed once a week with very soft tap water (Vancouver, B.C.), temperature 28°C, pH 6.4-6.6, nitrates at 5-10 ppm.
Here are some pictures:
http://picasaweb.google.ca/117931735630385563126/Spawn#
David