Planted Discus "Successes"; tell us yours

[pastry]

I have written enough on my failures and I thought I would start a thread for me & others to add their planted discus tank SUCCESSES.

NOTE: even if subjective, then please add your successes. Please those who strictly keep bare bottom, just allow all who want to contribute, do so. In the best interests of the hobby, I definitely don't want to censor anybody's disagreements but please do so tactfully.

My "successes":
1. I have had three pairs of discus in a planted Community tank successfully raised little ones to over the age of a month old. A few made it their whole lifetime. ( their development was not great though).
2. until about six or seven years ago, I never had biscuits that I bought at the size of 2 or 3 and 1/2 in make it over 6 inches. I have had several almost reach 7 in but most average 5.75-6. Brownbase Reds and red turquoise Piwows tend to grow bigger in my tank than any other strain.
3. red cherry shrimp were able to reproduce rapidly in my thing since there is a ton of Driftwood and plants. The problem is that I wanted to The discus to eat them as they reproduce. Unfortunately my group of discus right now are too nice and do not eat shrimp. So now I have to scoop out anywhere from several dozen to 50-60 each time I change the water and either give them away or flush them
4. Pretty much only have one fish tank. 150 gallons. I have had multiple types of tetras, plecos, & Apistos multiply in tank without me interfering.
5. Low-tech plants growing like weeds. No ferts or anything

[danotaylor]

Nice to hear about your successes Elliot. Do you make you own food? If so you could grind your excess shrimp into the mix :)

[pastry]

Dan, I probably could but the problem is I'm too lazy! :P

Their diet is only Frozen bloodworms or freeze dried blackworms with spinach. A few will eat quality flakes but I wish all of them would eat the flakes so they got more of a variety of food in their system. John N. ( I haven't seen him on in a long time but was a really good hobbyist who disagreed a lot with keeping discus in anything but bare bottoms tanks but he was still awesome to me and mentor at times to me) had a good thread on how he did his own beef heart. Actually a number of people on here have shared their recipes. The problem is, it's just too messy for my tank since I have a ton of plants and driftwood. Eventually when we move to our next house I am totally having the same show tank but also having a grow out tank Somewhere Out of Sight that will be bare bottom and I will do my own beef heart recipe!

[pastry]

Well, I guess this topic was a bust.:cry:

[danotaylor]

I'm watching it mate as I am definitely interested...I will be adding some sand and plants to my tank in the near future but prolly won't have much to report success wise for a while yet...

[Rick S]

Well, I guess this topic was a bust.:cry:

I don't think so I'm also watching.

[houstonreef]

It may be early to tell that it is a success for me at this time since the tank is about 9 months old. I have 6 adult discus in the tank for 6 months and there is 1 who is shy and not aggressive for food. the tank is full of plants with co2 injection.

124363

[discuspaul]

I've successfully grown out 3"-3.5" juvies in planted tanks several times in recent years, but not without these 2 'compromises', for lack of a better word:

1. In my view, none of the discus ever grew out to the size they would have achieved in a bb set-up - as expected.

2. This wasn't accomplished without having done large daily wcs, at least for the first couple of months, and an inordinate amount of 'heavy'duty' tank & substrate cleansing with each wc.

I have to add that each time I set up another planted tank for growing out young discus, I made sure I arranged the plantings in such a way as to readily allow for a tank vacuum tool to get between the plants & the side and back glass walls, between the plants themselves, as well as around the driftwood, in order to facilitate the tank cleanings as much as possible.

[slicksta]

Most bb grow outs are aggressively fed to achieve the absolute largest potential fish.

I don't think a large size is equal to a healthy happy fish.

A 5 - 6" discus can have beautiful shape and color and is less likely to pick off the Tetras....this works perfectly fine for me.

[JamesW]

I don't have current pictures but I took a batch of 10 2"-2.5" discus from Hans and grew them out in a planted display tank with once or twice weekly 30% WC's. Lost one to a jump out and another hex after overzealous vacation feeding from a friend and a lack of WC's for that period, when I came home he didn't have a chance.

As Paul said none grew out to their potential. I think five of them are nice, the others are OK, none are worth breeding or would be considered show quality.
I rescaped a month or so before this picture so the plants are settling in. I'll send a more recent pic when I can. When I get the time I hope to redo the hardscape with some more interesting and taller driftwood with the buce and java fern attached, keep the carpet that has continued to develop and find something that grows high. I've got Val and hair grass but none get over a couple inches.
124364

[Sturiosoma]

when will the winners be announced

jeanne124365

[Sturiosoma]

I don't have current pictures but I took a batch of 10 2"-2.5" discus from Hans and grew them out in a planted display tank with once or twice weekly 30% WC's. Lost one to a jump out and another hex after overzealous vacation feeding from a friend and a lack of WC's for that period, when I came home he didn't have a chance.

As Paul said none grew out to their potential. I think five of them are nice, the others are OK, none are worth breeding or would be considered show quality.
I rescaped a month or so before this picture so the plants are settling in. I'll send a more recent pic when I can. When I get the time I hope to redo the hardscape with some more interesting and taller driftwood with the buce and java fern attached, keep the carpet that has continued to develop and find something that grows high. I've got Val and hair grass but none get over a couple inches.
124364

You might want to try anubias, either lanceoleta which is as tall as my 75gal or anubias congensis which does not grow qite as tall as Lance both are very tough plants and very easy to grow.

Jeanne

[Sturiosoma]

You might want to try anubias, either lanceoleta which is as tall as my 75gal or anubias congensis which does not grow qite as tall as Lance both are very tough plants and very easy to grow.

Jeanne

Or even better yet if you have discus you could go with amazon sword "grandulosa" grows tall but has softer foliage ,anubias will have dark green leathery foliage, swords will have light green soft foliage.

[pastry]

YES! Thanks all!
Anyone else with successful broods?
Or broods from other tankmates?
What about 6.5" to 7" discus raised from 2.5 to 4"?