Advice about substrate plant (Glossostigma) & Discus...

[Steve V.]

Just wanted to warn you that my discus are uprooting my Glossostigma Elatinoides from the substrate.

If you were thinking of a nice amano style showtank. GO with riccia or dubyana (java moss) as carpet.

Take care!

[Pamela]

;) I have had glosso before, but haven't tried it in my discus tank for that reason. The stems are too delicate to be picked through for food. Good advice Steve.

Pamela

[Wahter]

For people haven't tried it yet, riccia usually requires a bit of maintenance to keep it looking nice. If you 'trim it' regularly, it will look nice! Amano mixes in hairgrass (Eleocharis sp.) and sometimes bladderwort (utricularia sp.) to keep it held down.

Tropica has a nice article about riccia and it's various forms here:
http://www.tropica.com/article.asp?type=aquaristic&id=471

and an article on using it as a ground cover plant here:
http://www.tropica.com/article.asp?type=aquaristic&id=468

my favorite two ground cover/ foreground plants are pygmy chain swords (echinodorus tenellus) and anubias barteri var nana. (And Amano does use these too).

Hope this helps.


Walter

[Steve V.]

Any1 has suggestion for carpet plants? I have a very fine gravel substrate.

Medium lightning and hot temps.

THanks!

heehee ;D Gloss. will add some nice fiber to a discus diet, that is for sure.

I am with Walter on this one.

Terri

[ChloroPhil]

Hairgrass Eleocharis spp. is another good short carpet plant.

Marsilea quadrofolia (?) and Lobelia cardinalis are good larger foreground plants that are a lot like glosso but aren't as easy to pull up. :)

Oh great so my glosso is doomed. Well we'll see ;)

at 3.5 w/g the Glosso's roots are quite impressive and its really just growing in runners for me, no vertical growth at all so far. Will keep posted about my progress but to be frank im kinda expecting the discus to much their way through about 50% of my plants once i introduce them. Something ive learned in 10 years of fish keeping, keep skeptikally optimistic.

[Ralph]

Give it a try, I didn't have much luck with them, but you may do better. Actually mine never even made it to my discus tank, I tried it in my tetra tank first. The tetra really liked it though, they thought it was delicious.
I don't know how many Amano tanks are actually functioning aquariums. I have the impression that at least some of the tanks are set up just for pictures (or the fish are added just for photos) and then torn down. I could be wrong though. I wouldn't have a problem with it if it is true but it is a litlle misleading for people who want to set up real tanks that look like his.

[ChloroPhil]

Ralph,

Many of the tanks you see in his books and magazines are actual working aquariums. He's just got a horde of worker bees to do the maintenance.

[Wahter]

Phil's correct, many of the Amano tanks are set up permanently and some of the Aqua Design Amano people are trimming/ pruning the plants practically everyday. I believe that at least one of the books mentions how long the tanks have been setup and some of the people who have visited Amano's place in Niigata have seen the 'worker bees' in action. :)

I did speak with Amano's marketing manager about this, he told me that they were only maintaining about 60 aquarium tanks for customers. So I can only guess that some of the tanks may have been taken down (probably by some customers who didn't want to do the maintenance) or are probably being maintained by someone else after the Amano staff set the tanks up. Bear in mind that other Japanese people setup and maintain planted tanks too - Amano's just the best known in the Western countries. I didn't ask how much the ADA people charge to maintain the aquariums (it could be in line with their $100.00 shears).

Hope this helps.


Walter

[Wahter]

Jared Weinberger (another NC plant/ discus person I might add - heh heh!!) has some photos of discus with glossostigma in his tank:


http://www.brainyday.com/jared/aquarium/discus/

(specifically)
http://www.brainyday.com/jared/aquarium/discus/discus12.htm

So it does work for some discus - probably just varies from individual fish to fish on if the discus leave the glossostigma alone or not.


Walter

[Ralph]

That's my problem, I had to lay off all my worker bees.

I think that the intent of my comment still stands, his tanks are definately not set up with practicality in mind. That was what I was getting at. That doesn't take take away from the beauty of his tanks and I admire their look a lot. But for someone trying to put together their own Amano-influenced tank, especially a functioning tank with discus, they may be better off looking for practical alternatives to some of the specific plants that he uses and maybe to some extent, sacrificing a little on the overall look. But I would be the last person to try to discourage someone from trying.

I really like the tank in that second link. Are those Anubias with the roots coming down off of them?

[ChloroPhil]

Yeah, those are Anubias, aren't they crazy? He's got gorgeous growth!

Ralph,

I think that Amano and the other aquascapers around the world who keep aquariums like his tend to be a little on the "unreasonable" side anyway. I don't think daily maintenance is percieved as irrational to people like that....;) Once or twice a week per tank is enough for me.

As Wahter said, most of his tanks are kept in ADA shops to entice the world to finance his world domination schemes. I mean, he's the High Dark Side Master, isn't he, and what use is being on the D.S. if you're not out to take over the world? LOL


Wahter,
I guess NC is just a Planted Discus magnet... It could be a lot worse....we could be keeping Africans. ;D BTW, when are you coming to the Charlotte area next? I'd be interested in swapping plants with you before the RAS auction next month.

[Ralph]

I guess I'll have to move to Charlotte, good thing for me that I like it there. We can launch our own world domination scheme.

[Wahter]

Phil, I want to get over to USDiscus in Monroe, but haven't heard back from Tim (Hey Tim, send me an email and let me know when I am allowed over!).

If you want, I can bring maybe a few extra plants and give them to you before the RAS auction, but I think you might want to wait and see what's planned for the next CAPE meeting first....

Anyone else interested in Amano tanks, I'll see if I can scan in some more discus tank pics from Amano's magazines later and post them. One of the tanks I like has nothing but echinodorus (sword) plants of all shapes and sizes mixed in with some driftwood. I'm going to see if I can get some more issues of his magazine later this year - when I went to an Amano dealer in Taipei, Taiwan, they said the Aquajournals were only available via subscription. I couldn't get any of the AquaJournals at the Amano dealership in Hong Kong either - I was told that they usually order a lot, get sent a few which sell out quickly. And you can forget about finding the Aquajournals at either Tokyo's Narita or Osaka's Kansai airports (much to my dismay - go all the way to Japan for connecting flights and can't even find his magazines at the airport!). I've been told practically all the aquarium shops in Tokyo carry it though.


Walter

Quote:

I think that the intent of my comment still stands, his tanks are definately not set up with practicality in mind.

Erm, did someone mention trying to set up an Amazon Biotope in a jam jar? ::)

I didn't think anything was practical about ornamental fish, full stop. ;D

[Ralph]

Alright....Alright.....
I am definately not the most practical person in the world, in fact, if there is a hard way to do something, I will probably find it.
But......that doesn't mean that I want to set up a tank that requires an hour or two of maintenance every day. For those of you do, you have my admiration, but not envy.

You didn't mention it, are you going ahead with the glosso?

[ChloroPhil]

I'm going to be putting a substantial amount of glosso in my aquarium, we'll see how well it works out. I've got a feeling that it won't be too bad as soon as it gets rooted. The problems will come when it's time to thin the stuff out! :o