-Elliot
Yuppers David, the one in the middle is one of my eruption leopards.
If you look at the pictures in the very first post on this thread all of the blue fish are the eruptions too.
They've grown quite a bit since then but the colors and patterns have remained the same. Blue with spots, but when they turn just right in the light they have a yellow glow to them. They're very very pretty fish!
I only wish mine had redder eyes. The eyes ARE red, but with the black barring on the head they appear a lot darker than my other discus... more like a deep dark red and from a distance they just look black eyed.
Toni
120g - 10 discus, 4 cory's, 50+ Cardinals for now... give it a month and it'll change!
do you know the size of the parents?
Wow Toni!!! They are big and beautiful. You have done awesome job.
Thank you for sharing.
Tony
Toni
120g - 10 discus, 4 cory's, 50+ Cardinals for now... give it a month and it'll change!
beautiful fish, u put my maintenance routine to shame! def gotta up my game.
u mentioned a soft-sided plant pot... i havent head of these. what r they made of? is it like a baggie? do they disintegrate over time? where did u get them?
Hi Kyla,
I make my little pots that I call "squishy pots".
I buy cheap pantyhose in a color to closely match the color of the sand in my tank. Then I start by cutting the feet off of them for the first 2 planters.
Just fill them with a mix of sand and fine gravel, or just gravel, or just sand. You can add a plant tab if your plant requires more nutrients at the roots (swords in particular get their nutrients through their roots). Pull up the piece of pantyhose to settle the gravel mix at the bottom and then roll down the top till you get to the gravel. Then stuff the plant roots into the gravel mix, than use a rubberband to loosely wrap around the base of the plant, just above the roots. You can squish the pot around a bit once the rubberband is in place in order to get it nice and tight around the root system.
The last thing to do is to pull all that rolled up part of the pantyhose down over the pot you made, then tie a tight knot in it at the bottom of the pot. It creates a nice tight ball and gives it a double thickness of material so that the pot won't split open when you move it around.
As the plant grows, the roots will grow right out of the sides and bottom of the pot. Once the pot is nearly invisible because of roots everywhere, repeat the procedure with a new piece of pantyhose. Just add more gravel mix and nestle the roots, along with the first plant pot, right inside the second one you've created. There's no need to pull the plant out of the first pot. =)
Ohhhh, to make more pots, cut an 8" length of pantyhose and knot the bottom, then proceed as above for the footed sections of the pantyhose.
Toni
120g - 10 discus, 4 cory's, 50+ Cardinals for now... give it a month and it'll change!
Very, very nice Toni :-) I am still learning from you. Appreciate all your help in the beginning. I enjoy planted, low light plants. Thanks again, Boyd.
Sorry to go a bit offtopic in your growout thread Toni , but im interested in this potting method you explained , but i didnt quite understand it .
I get quite frustrated when i spill the pots and gravel during my siphoning and it just happens often, so maybe your method can help me .
Do you pot the plant entirely in a sock or you just use the sock to cap the pots and prevent spilling gravel?
if you just cap and close the pots , please explain how you do it?
And what if i pot the plant entirely in just a sock and use a rubber band , have you tried this ?
Hi Filip,
I've never tried using a sock, simply because I'm cheap and they are expensive if you can only use one per pot. With pantyhose I can make up to 8 pots per leg of the pantyhose, so 16 total pots of varying sizes. (Did I mention that I'm Scottish? Yup, we're cheap and proud of it! lol)
I don't cap pots, I create the pot out of the piece of pantyhose. I just cut off a length of about 5 inches for small pots and 8" for big pots. Put a knot at the bottom of the length of hose, then fill it with a mix of sand and gravel. Add a plant tab if you need one, then nestle the roots of the plant into the mix. It helps if you use a damp sand/gravel mixture. Once that's done, place the rubberband around the pantyhose piece right at the base of the plant. Then pull the extra bit of pantyhose (it will be bunched up around the plant by now) down and over the pot you just made. That covers up the rubberband. Tie another knot in that piece you just pulled all the way down to the bottom of the pot. Now it's extra thick so it won't split open.
You can pick them up, shove them around and they move very easily.
If you look at some of the pics of my plants in this journal you can see the vals and a couple of other plants in the little squishy pots. My other plants are sitting in actual pots, but inside the pots are the squishy pots. And I agree, I tip over my ceramic pots ALL the time - drives me nuts! LOL
Toni
120g - 10 discus, 4 cory's, 50+ Cardinals for now... give it a month and it'll change!
that is a very cool idea!! thanks for the detailed response next time im potting plants im going to try this out for sure
Thanks for your time and patience Toni.
I've got it this time.
Next potting I'll try the pantyhose method.
Enough frustration with spilled pots and uprooted plants.
I see a video in your future Toni! The pantyhose planter!
That's what your video title should be. Bet you no one else has it!
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