Aquascaping and fish

by Angelika Stendker & Jörg Stendker

e professional discus fish breeders give our foremost attention to efficient, space-saving husbandry of our fish in a sequence of tanks satisfying their requirements and housed in W our large facilities kept at tropical temperatures, yet hardly concern ourselves with aquatic aesthetics. Good hygiene and consistent water quality factors, simple feeding and cleaning and steady growth of the discus offspring are, for instance, preconditions for successful breeding. Our well-established breeds which have remained healthy over many years thrive under the conditions of your breeding facility continued to thrive now as before. Yet, in our private sphere, i.e. our living room, we wanted to look after our own magnificent discus fish in a well-planted fish tank. We had focussed above all on the well-being of our discus fish and their best possible living conditions, i.e. on their surroundings which combine

66 AF 233 Our freshly set up fish tank during the initial phase. The fish come later.

Alluring colour mix in front of the luscious green of the plants: discus and neons combine possibilities for the fish to withdraw with aesthetics – a living picture, an underwater garden in our living room offering relaxation. As we travel a lot in our job, we wanted to keep the maintenance effort as low as possible. It had been our intention to achieve this aim by making use of simple technology. At Interzoo 2012, we saw many enchanting fish tanks designed and arranged by aquascapers, though none with discus fish. Most of these underwater gardens would have been much too small for caring for Symphysodon discus. Luckily, contact was established at that exhibition with Adrie BAUMANN, who privately was installing a scaped fish tank with out discus fish (also known as Project River Side with our Leopard Snake Skin, a new breed variant which is not yet available via the retail trade). Fortunately, we were able to interest Adrie BAUMANN, who had won the Hanover Championship in Live Aquascaping 2013, in aquascaping our own private fish tank (as we are more conversant with rearing fish rather than fitting out planted ). Using our resilient Stendker discus fish that have adapted over many generations to the German tap water values, aquascaping with wonderful plants and colourful discus fish can be achieved. The result of this venture was as follows. In October 2012, we began with the project of aquascaping our private discus fish tank. Everything we did was to be replicable by anyone and everyone and involve as little effort and expense as possible. We wanted to try and set up something that we could recommend and pass on to all those interested in discus care. The wellbeing of our discus fish was of particular importance in implementing our plan, i.e. providing sufficient space for swimming and optimum oxygen supply values as well as excellent filtration had to be guaranteed. Since Hamburg Mat Filters had proved a great success in our fish rearing installation we used them also in our private 450 litre fish tank, operated by a pump, the Turbelle nanostream 6045 (5 to 7 watts) with a GF plastic pipe. Strong filtration is

AF 233 67 Wonderful in-depth view through skilful design necessary, after all, for such a dense fish population.

In our fish tank, twelve fully grown discus fish were to be cared for. And they were to scintillate by their attractive colour contrast against the green of the underwater garden. And they were not to be alone but live in the company of a group of Red Neons, Paracheirodon axelrodi, and a few fire-striped Denison Barbs Puntius denisonii, red nibblefish Garra rufa and as cleaning squad.

A heater, two for oxygen supply, standard lighting, a nightlight (LED lighting bar), a thermometer and CO2 facility represent the basic technical equipment. The CO2 facility should be used as little as possible (in our case one bubble every 14 seconds). The following water equivalents have proved to be most appropriate in our discus fish breeding facility at Warendorf: total hardness 15o German hardness, carbonate hardness: 8o German hardness, pH 7, electrical conductivity 800 μS/cm, water temperature 28 to 30 oC. We set our new fish tank also to these values.

For the floor area, we used a fairly fine, very bright gravel, though this was replaced later by . On the left-hand side, three large stones separate off the additional sand area which we set up as extra feeding spot and which therefore remained unplanted.

Apart from further granite blocks, it was above all a forward facing, stilt- type root construct which enhanced the depth effect of the fish tank and provided our discus fish with hiding places and shelter. When choosing the plants, we had to find those able to thrive long-term in the water conditions necessary for discus fish, in particular at the relatively high temperatures. Filter planting: Microsorum pteropus ‘Narrow’, root planting: Anubias barteri var. Nana, grass carpet-type bottom cover

68 AF 233 Fish tank with fish population

Echinodorus tenellus (though this formed too many ), plants at the front: Cryptocoryne parva, behind the root: Aponogeton crispus, Bolbitis heudelotii on the root did not become established.

Plants growing on roots and other tank furnishing can be designed like a stage set. Ferns Freshly planted filter wall with their rhizomes are best suited for this purpose, such as Microsorium pteropus ‘Narrow’ but also like Vesicularia dubyana and the dwarf Anubias Anubias barteri var. Nana. While the mosses gradually overgrow previously naked root areas, thus creating a rather romantic impression, ferns can be planted in the sponge material of the filter. After a while, they will grow to form a dense green fish tank side wall. Meanwhile, our fish tank has been in operation for almost a year, has proved its worth and become our very personal ZEN underwater garden. We replace a third of the water by fresh, cold water weekly and clean the glass and the tank bottom. The plants are trimmed fortnightly.

We feed our fish thawed Stendker frozen feed twice or three times per day and add some flake feed for the small accompanying fish although they also eat our beef heart mix. We spend about one hour a week on looking after our fish The following are available from us: tank, including - Discus fish (top quality, 21 colour nuances) feeding our fish. Filter wall after 10 months - Discus feed (our own recipe) Have you by chance - The Discus Handbook (free of charge on our homepage) tried out caring for Stendker discus in an attractively planted fish tank? From 1st November, you are invited to take part in a ”Plants and accompanying fish for your discus fish tank”, photographic competition to find the most beautiful discus fish ”Keeping discus fish healthy” and lots more can be found free tank. There are attractive prizes to be won. Pay us a visit on of charge in 6 languages on our homepage as we would like Facebook or our website. We hope you enjoy taking part and our discus fish to do well everywhere and you to get lots of look forward to receiving your pictures! enjoyment from them!

Our discus fish are resilient and easy to keep as they are used to German tap water!

Our discus fish are sold through specialist retailers. To find our lists of retailers, go to: www.Diskuszucht-Stendker.de

Diskuszucht Stendker GmbH & Co. KG Am Holzbach 18, 48231 Warendorf, Tel.: +49(0)2581/60627 E-mail: [email protected] AF 233 69