Tank rescape Part II

[strawberryblonde]

I don't know if I've mentioned that when I ordered my plants last spring I had several arrive DOA and a couple that were barely alive and had been consumed by snails.

The company I purchased from finally sent me replacement plants and they arrived today. And OH... MY... GOSH!!!

I received 2 amazon swords. One is normal size, full and gorgeous. The other is freaking HUGE!!! My tank is 32" tall and this thing is only 4" from the top of the tank. It's so wide that it takes up a full 1/3 of the tank. LOL

And yep, it's gorgeous. I've never seen so many leaves on just one plant. I also received a half dozen jungle vals to replace the ones that were DOA. These are slightly shorter than the first batch but nice and healthy.

I sighed when the package arrived, rolled up my sleeves and started a 95% water change. Dipped the plants while the tank was draining, then removed all of the current pots, moved plants around, added new gravel, washed everything and made it shiny again and decided to put the old swords in my squishy pots as well as the jungle val.

Now mind you, my tank is deep and I have long arms, but no way that they reach to the bottom of the tank, so for the pots that are too big for my grip stick I just had to reach down as far as I could and then let them drop the rest of the way onto the sand.

My discus are traumatized now. They thought that either A) the sky was falling or B) they were being plant bombed.

They huddled in one corner all smushed together for over an hour! Eventually they came out for food and then started checking out the new decor. The cardinals are thrilled with that huge sword plant. They've moved in and are setting up housekeeping. LOL

I'll get some pics of the new plants and my traumatized discus in the morning.

[MKD]

Pics please, i want see the beauty of amazon sword which is 1 of favorite plants. It can be a great center piece of discus tank.

[strawberryblonde]

Mine isn't a centerpiece, it's a side piece. =)

I woke up my discus a little earlier than usual this morning so that I could grab some pics before the sun came streaming in on the tank.

Here you go!

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[Eddie]

Dang, that IS a huge sword!

[strawberryblonde]

Yup yup, it's about 26" - 28" tall and so wide that it takes up a third of the tank - and the leaves haven't relaxed yet Eddie! They're still clumped together because of the tight packaging they came in.

But oh gosh my cards are loving that plant. They came out of it when I turned the lights on, looking for food most likely. It was pretty cool to see them emerging. =)

[pastry]

What's the one third from the right?

[MKD]

PPerfect for yout tall tank. Beautiful.
Thank you for pics

[strawberryblonde]

What's the one third from the right?

I think you mean the anubias? It's a giant anubias, anubias barteri from what I can gather from intel on the internet. I purchased a "batch" of low light plants and all it said was that I'd be getting a mixed variety. That thing started out small and grew like a weed!

And when I got up this morning I saw that one of my discus has dislodged it from it's pot, so during my water change I'll have to reseat it and maybe find a way to anchor it so that they can't do it again. =)

[DiscusRob]

Incredible sword, that is beautiful

[jmf3460]

beautiful sword, I recently got rid of two swords that had split from one and were over 4 years old and huge. they just out grew my tank, any tank for that matter. your tank and fish are beautiful!

[Rudustin]

Thanks for sharing the pictures. Lovely! Rufus

[pastry]

How many tanks do you have going right now, Toni? Love that anubias

[strawberryblonde]

Only one tank at the moment Elliot. I'm busy growing out all those discus you see in the pics. Well, growing out all but one of them. The big pale one is a 5 year old male that I grew out ages ago.

The rest were bought in 2 batches. The first batch were about 3.5" - 4" sub-adults that I bought back in June. The second batch were 2.5" - 3" juvies that I bought in late July. The amazing thing is that the juvies have caught right up to the sub-adults already! They're all around the 6+" mark. A couple are gunning for 7". And I still have a year of growing them out...yikes!!

Actually, I just looked the pics up there and the only ones you can see are the older guy, the four that were juvies (2 red snakeskins, 1 yellow checkerboard and 1 golden lollipop) and my sub-adult Red Cover female. Hmmm, and there's one of the eruption leopards sorta hanging out, but he's all dark and hard to see - they take forever to adjust to waking up and I roused them 2 hours early this morning. LOL

[Disgirl]

Wow, what a sword! Lovely tank Toni, can you explain again what a squishy pot is? I remember you told us before but I can't find it. And, good luck with the cones!
Barb

[strawberryblonde]

Hi Barb,

A squishy pot is my own little DIY pot. I buy cheap pantyhose, then cut off a section (for most plants about 5 - 6 inches is plenty. Just knot one end, then fill the section with gravel or coarse sand and add a plant tab if you need one.

Wet the gravel a bit, then add the plant roots. The easiest way to hold onto the whole thing (it can wriggle away while you're trying to put a rubberband at the top!) is to set it on a flat surface, add the plant and push down on the plant as you pull up on the pantyhose. Once the pantyhose have formed a fairly tight ball, hang onto it and use a rubberband around the base of the plant, just above the gravel part. There will be extra hose sticking out the top - you want that!

Once the rubberband is fairly tight so that the gravel won't spill out and the plant won't come loose, pull the bunched up part of the pantyhose at the top back down and over the gravel ball you made. Then knot it at the bottom and cut off any extra pantyhose.

And that's it! You now have a ball that's soft and squishy and that allows plenty of circulation to the roots - and it's easy to move around, take out of the tank to clean, etc. I repot them in a bigger squishy pot when the roots get really long and are sticking out of every inch of the ball. =)

You can see one of my squishy pots in the pics on this page - it's the one on the far right with the jungle vals in it.

P.S. My discus LOVE your breeding cones! I've raised 2 batches of fry who started out as eggs on those cones.