Spinach Garden.
By Rob Charite
19-03-2000

His royals spinach garden.
I am browsing trough some photos of well planted tanks and I am really
amazed how much spinach you can put in it !! Believe me, I am not against a well planted aquarium ( the so called Dutch tank ) but discus with a front garden of 150 x 50 x 50 seems to me a little over done.

Every time I see this I get a little suspicious !! I mean " either the discus become complete vegetarians or their bosses seems to misunderstand". Don't get me wrong, there are plants in there which, with the thought of 28 degrees or higher, jump over the rim of the tank
to seek shelter. And I didn't even mention the substrate where their little ( feet) are!

It is amazing !! People keep discus and drop some (nice) plants in with them or have a well planted tank and drop some discus in it because it looks so beautiful !! Wrong !!!!
If you want to go there you better plant some roses, they look really nice next to the African marigolds !!

If you want to keep a well planted tank you have to dig up some very important info about the several territories which they are growing in or live in like the discus. What is the first thing that occurs to you ???? Well ??? Well ???? Right !!!! Some plants have to much trouble growing in extreme situations, in fact plants are very lazy, they don't do things on their own. They even use a third party to help them to have some offspring (sorry I got a little out of control).

To keep discus you'll have to create a environment which plants aren't fond of and vica versa !!
Of course the modern discus can stand a mistake, sometimes even two, but is it esthetical ??? Oh well, never mind, you are old and wise enough to make your own decisions ! My tank ??? Oh, just some java fern... well it looks nice :-))

Rob Charite