Wild Blue/Brown/Red Discus Biotope

[Swedgin]

That’s a good name. She’s a beauty! I hope all goes well with the test leak and cabinet. I’m getting excited to see it. I can’t imagine your own excitement (and worry). These fish are a great distraction though.
Patty

If the leak test goes well we’re halfway there. Not much that can go wrong after that, unless we drop the tank whilst trying to get it on the cabinet.

My wife flew to Germany for the weekend, and as soon as I knew I bombarded her with online orders to bring back. Liquids are a pain to have shipped due to cost and leakage potential. So I stocked up on some things, mostly minerals, vitamins, bit of food and some other health boosters. I think most of these are pretty much “endemic” to Germany or Europe. Got some Catappa bark tubes as well, using them as pleco caves. They’ve got a great natural look.

All of these, except the minerals of course, are added to the food, so the supply should last a good while.

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[Swedgin]

This is what they look like with some daylight in the room. More reflection, but also better colors.

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If you look at the bottom right, by the air stone, you can see blondie’s psycho yellow eye.

The tube light in the tank is just a cheap generic one from the hardware store, just wanted light in there, didn’t care about color temperature etc just for a holding tank.

And also, we have reached the hand feeding stage. Thank you, freeze dried Blackworms...

[thomaswal]

I love your tanks and your fish!
If possible, I'd be interested in knowing how you prepare your food with all these ingredients and if there's a specific reason for each of them ;)

:)

[Swedgin]

I love your tanks and your fish!
If possible, I'd be interested in knowing how you prepare your food with all these ingredients and if there's a specific reason for each of them

Thank you Thomas ��

Out of the supplements shown I have so far only been using the Aquakraut and the JBL vitamins. The reason I started using these 2 was that the diet I was feeding at the time basically only consisted of FDBW.
Once they were hooked it was almost impossible to get them to eat pellets, flakes and even frozen foods. So to avoid deficiencies I started adding those.
The Aquakraut is a mixture of a load of natural herbs with different synergistic properties, I’ll pop the German text into a translator in a bit to show what’s in it as I don’t know half the English names for most of the plants.
I use it once a day usually on the second or third feed, letting whatever food I use at the time pickle in it for 10 mins. Subjectively it has helped the fish accepting non blackworm foods, especially granules.
The vitamins go on the first feed daily, just a couple drops on the blackworm cubes, and as soon as it’s soaked up they go in the tank.

The other stuff I bought is also new to me, but all can be used as food additives as well as into the water. Same goes for the vitamins and kraut, but with the water volume in my tanks it wouldn’t make sense economically.

The small orange bottle is Preis V-Power, less of a vitamin supplement but contains omega 3, ginger, propolis, gingko, ginseng and garlic.

Another one new to me is the lacto vital which contains several grain extracts, trace elements and vitamins and is supposed to aid in digestion.

The main reason for putting it on the food rather than in the water though is the fact that wild discus in their natural habitats get virtually all their macro and micro nutrients through their food and very little if any at all through the water, which has basically no or little solids dissolved.

However I am not planning to use every product every day, too much is probably just as bad as too little. they have started taking the granules better now so the lobsided nutrition is coming to an end and since I’m mixing about 10 different types of granules they will be able to get more out of those than just plain blackworms.

[Swedgin]

Another pic, just because

Love his pearl spots

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[Swedgin]

Here’s the translation for the Aquakraut, too much to type, used google translate, so some funny grammar in there probably


Aqua Herb

A natural care product for ornamental fish, suitable for freshwater aquariums and ponds

1. ingredients

Aqua-herb consists of specially selected and gently won essences of herbs, leaves and fruits (including almond leaves, yarrow, marigold, ginkgo, garlic, aloe vera, raspberry leaves, basil, lady's mantle, St. John's wort, dandelion, oranges, onions, rose hips, hawthorn, Parsley, stinging nettle leaves, walnut leaves, lemon balm leaves, grapevine, chamomile flowers, plantain, elderberry, borage, lime blossom, peppermint, verbena, rosemary, thyme, hyssop, lovage), which are mixed and filtered in a special process

2nd mode of action

Some components of Aqua herb (e.g., garlic, aloe vera, or almond leaves) have been known for some time for their antibacterial and mucosal protective effects (see publications in the Discus Brief, DWR Publishing, or Discus Annuals).
So we find the garlic now almost in every feed mixture, aloe vera in water conditioners and almond leaves in their purest form and as granules similar to teabags in antifungal agents.
Other ingredients such as sheep, onions or dandelions are new in the aquarium area, but have been used successfully in other species for some time and help the immune system.
So Lovage, yarrow, dandelion, rose hips, oranges, thyme, rosemary soothes digestive problems, inflammation of the digestive tract and stimulate the appetite. The role played by ingredients such as flavonoids and coumarins has long been known in human medicine and is also used successfully there. Just think of the "famous" chamomile tea!
The anti-inflammatory effects of nettle leaves, marigolds or St. John's wort are also known, as are the beneficial effects of tannins in lady's mantle, walnut leaf or peppermint.
All of these properties have been combined in aqua-weed and have a positive effect on the fish organism, the immune system and thus also on the well-being of the fish, irrespective of whether those components are consumed by water or food, with ingestion via the diet in most cases probably the more effective option.

3. Applications

Aqua-cabbage can be fed to the fish both via water and via food. The applications should be preventive weekly. For water application, add 20 ml per week to 100 liters of aquarium water. Are the animals very stressed z.b. by turf fights or brood care you give 30 ml to 100 liters, as well as you should choose this dosage in adolescent juveniles. When feeding through the diet, the impregnation of dry food, especially Tubifex FD and Artemia FD, but also of flake food, with two drops of Aqua herb twice a week has been proven. Fish that already show faeces in the gastrointestinal tract due to their white faeces should be treated daily with a processed feed until the faeces have a normal color and consistency again.
Applications via the water and via the feed can be easily combined.
In the test phase, which lasted over a year, it was shown that, in addition to the above-mentioned effects, there was another positive effect that was not explicitly intended: feed, which had previously been taken rather hesitantly or not at all, was eaten without problems after adding a few drops of aqua herb.

[Swedgin]

If you don’t hear from me tomorrow I’ll be busy wiping up 650 gallons of water.

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[Swedgin]

Meanwhile..... 5th feed today

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[Pices]

Well that’s a cliff hanger! Sleep well tonight. Ha ha
Patty

[thomaswal]

Thank you Thomas ��

Out of the supplements shown I have so far only been using the Aquakraut and the JBL vitamins. [...Some interesting information...] just plain blackworms.

Thanks for the info!

[Swedgin]

Rock solid. Thank god, no drama as with the last one. A

[Swedgin]

Meh, celebrated too early. Got some moisture enclosed between front and bottom panel. So tomorrow front panel is coming off and gets redone. Same thing happened with my 325, in the end it took 5 months from order to setting it up. Hope this time round it won’t take as long.

On a positive note, it seems there is already a pair forming in the qt, one of the Iripixi and one Nhamunda red are hitting it off, defending a whole third of the tank. Not so fun for the others, but hey, gotta find a silver lining somewhere.

[Swedgin]

I don’t think I have given this one a proper feature yet, Iripixi solid. Very nice shape

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And just for fun: I can only imagine the colours photographed with a decent camera
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[Swedgin]

The elusive Ica, really hard to get a proper picture of this one, always in the wrong place at the wrong time
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And more blue:
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[Swedgin]

Sorry about the reflection, but here is one of the Panaquolus albomaculatus (LDA31)
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Unfortunately all the other plecos are still in hiding during the day. But they’ll get there eventually