My discus & their Plants

[MLP]

Hi Everyone,

I've been lurking for a while so I thought I'd share a few pictures of my tank.

Enjoy!

[MLP]

Another

[MLP]

Another

[MLP]

One more

[Danse]

VERY NICE! ;D

[jules]

Lovely looking tank. The Pigeons are such a nice contrast against the greenery. That's one big well fed Clown- anymore in there?

[YellowClaw]

Wow!

That's really nice. Wished I had one like that too! Here is my 1 & 1/2 month old planted tank. It's still waiting for discus :(.

[etr63]

beautiful

I would love to have a planted discus tank. I have only had discus for about 6 weeks now and am concentrating my efforts on keeping them healthy and happy in a BB tank. I feel like a father with my first new born. I had one that ate too muck dry food and got bloated, I treated with epson salt before I went to bed and could hardly sleep worrying about the little guy. Not ready to add the worry of plants into the equasion. My wife has a little planted tank with a few tropicals in it ( keeps her out of the discus tank )and her plants are turning brown ??? The plants in both these tanks look great. Whats the secret? We use a product called Flourish Comprehensive Plant Supplement by seachem. Oh and now we have snails and as soon as I pluck one out 5 more come to the funeral.

The tanks look great I envy you.

Earl

[Discus_Newbie19]

Love the planted tanks!
Im thinking of try planted tank once my discus are all grown up.
How do you keep your plants so green?

[United21Soccer]

I love both tanks! I think that your clown loach needs some loach buddies :P Otherwise, he will try to make up his own fun... Good tank though (again)

[krandrus]

Etr 63 -

I don't know much about discus, but I have had good luck with plants so far in a fairly low light aquarium. Just over 1 watt per gallon and indirect sunlight. I believe the 3 secrets were laying down a 2 inch thick layer of laterite over the base of the soil, using flourish excel as well as the comprehensive, and using hardier plants (val, amazon swords, dwarf sageteria, bacopa monierri, Hydrocotyle leucocephala) are all thriving for me under these conditions and I am already having to pinch off growth. This is the second aquarium that I have used this combination and it has worked well. I have never used CO2 and with my low light it appears that the flourish excel provides adequate carbon. As I am reading over and over here, the secret is balance. Any feedback from more experienced aquarist on my plant techniques would be appreciated as well.

For the snail I would recomend getting a loach of some sort... if I were you I would go for 3-4 khuli loachs. Low maintenance and they love snails.

Best of luck.

Kevin

[YellowClaw]

I set up the aquarium by laying down a small bag of laterite that had been rinsed, then some pebbles to cover it. Plants were add to the tank 2 weeks later along with a DIY CO2 difusser attached to the out of my 350 Magnum filter. Plants grew like crazy. I just finished a ODNO light last night and the light is now much brighter, the plants seems happier also. Let me know if you need help with anything, I'll help as much as I can.

[MLP]

Hi Guys,

Just to throw my two cents in (that's Canadian so... ;D)...I guess for me the "secret" to keeping a planted discus tank is keeping both my discus and plants happy. I make an effort not to "overplant" things; by this I mean I like to have lots of open spaces to feed them and also to make maintenance easier. I try to get plant species that are bigger and hardier which is why I stick mostly with swords (I have 4 different kinds of swords in there). I don't really have more light than 1 watt per gallon and use algae growth as my guide to adding plants/fertilizer. I got to a point where algae growth stopped so I basically stopped planting and kept my fertilizer constant (seachem). I don't use carbon, and I do 50% changes with R.O. every 3 days. I keep my bioload pretty reasonable- 5 discus in 100gallons so basically I try to keep both plants and discus happy by not overdoing either one- seems like everybody wins.

Also, my other clowns (2 more) usually disappear from sight until the lights go out. The big one likes to hang around with the discus so he's easier to take pictures of!!

Matt

[ChloroPhil]

That's a beautiful tank and some veerrry nice fish MLP. I think you've hit on a nice balance between space, plants, and fish, excellent work.

Best,
Phil

[YellowClaw]

Matt,

I agree with you. Discus need lots of room to swim around in and room for feeding. I got my first Discus from a lfs last Saturday. They are not in the greatest of health, but I bought them anyways hope that I could raise them better. I'm still not sure what type of Discus they are. But for now, I'm just happy that I have discus. As for the plants, they are growing so fast that weekly triming is required. I don't want to throw them out, so I ended up replanting them and giving some away. If anyone is looking to start a planted tank and needs some plants to start with. Stop by, they are free of charge. Here's an updated picture of the tank after trimming. If I post the pictures of my new discus, will you guys help me identify them please?

[Nick_Schembri]

I think I can see a small cobalt blue in the right hand side of the first pic you posted, near the bottom.
Or maybe you need to post more pics. ;)

[YellowClaw]

Wow Nick!

You have very good eyes! That is the blue one. I can't get it to pose properly for me, so for now I only have pictures of the other two. This might have been posted before, can anyone give me a few tips on taking pictures of a moving fish or getting them to stay still for you while taking pictures? I’m using my wife’s Cannon S400 digital camera. Here are the 1st and 2nd bullies of the tank. I would like to know what type they are. They’re not the prettiest, but they are unique in their own ways. J

Thanks guys!

[YellowClaw]

Here's the 2nd bully!

[YellowClaw]

This is the 3rd bully! For some reason I thought I didn't have one of him. Taking too many pictures... ;D

[susankay1]

Food will usually entice them to stay in one place long enough to get a few pictures. HTH

[Nick_Schembri]

As you can see in this pic the discus are eating. The fry came to the food so the mother follows. In your case without fry, discus will usually come up to the front of the glass when they become more confident about their surroundings. My fish used to be shy and hide until they were in the tank for more than a month and a half.
Also, when you take pictures of fish I like to use a flash to make sure there's enough light. You also need a macro setting on the camera to get good close shots of under a foot away from the fish or the picture won't be focused.

The blue fish is a cobalt, the first is a type of pigeon blood and the second one is a red turquoise.

HTH
Nicky. ;)

[YellowClaw]

Thanks Nicky and sorry MLP for taking over your post. ;)

[YellowClaw]

Awsome pictures of frys too btw Nicky!

[YellowClaw]

Here are the newest members of my tank.

[YellowClaw]

Nicky,

I notice that you are breeding yours in a planted tank with gravel! How did that go? How many babies made it? That is very cool. Give me the whole story!

[susankay1]

Those Gold Diamonds are beautiful!!!!