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Here is my 125 gallon mixed Amazon blackwater Biotope. 2 Tefe green discus (5 1/2 inches) 1 Nhamunda blue discus (5 1/2 inches) 1 Rio japura green discus (6 inches) 2 dozen cardinals 3 coral red pencilfish 6 glowlight tetras 5 otocinclus 3 L134 1 L137 3 L333 2 L14 4 L201 2 L10a german true red lizards.

Nice work!
Tell me about that large piece of wood at the top. Is that fixed in there?

the large piece of wood is an oak root from a creek in new hampshire it was even larger but I had to reduce the size due to the buoyancy exerted on the glass cover. The plecos munch the exterior and it helps with the water softness and beneficial bacteria.

BTW it is free floating within the tank.... I was trying to mimic a root snarl within a river

A floating piece of wood can look very pretty, but most wood will sink eventually

I once had a piece which remained floating for almost a year - but no more

You might want to hang it from something to keep it in the upper part of your tank.

very nice looking tank, my only fear is that you stand a huge chance of hybrids within the plecos you are keeping...

nvcichlids wrote:my only fear is that you stand a huge chance of hybrids within the plecos you are keeping

I wouldn't say so, as they are all pretty different (, , Xingu , , Orinoco , ). The only risk would be the two , and you would certainly notice if that happened, as the fry would look very odd indeed.

I would actually be more concerned about the discus hybridising ...

biotope69 wrote:2 Tefe green discus, 1 Nhamunda blue discus, 1 Rio japura green discus

I was more referring to the 201 and 333

Yeah, that would be the risk, although as I say, the fry would be unmistakably hybrids, and therefore easy to spot as such.

Now mixing the white/black Xingu Hypancistrus species--that would be a different issue altogether!

[Just used the bofw tags for the fist time on "Xingu". Cool feature!]

This was a thought of mine when I purchased the L201's and I have actually been contemplating removing them from the main tank and having them in a 20 long. My main goal right now is getting my new male L134 to pair up with one of the females in the tank. I increased the cave spawning sites and added fieldstone slabs to the tank. The discus I am less concerned with; since variations of Discus species vary greatly in the wild and hybrid green/blue would still exhibit nice coloration. A heckel on the other hand I could agree with.

variations of Discus species vary greatly in the wild and hybrid green/blue would still exhibit nice coloration

The green, blue/brown, and Heckel's are actually each different species of discus (scientists agree on this). Crossing them is not something I would do, but probably many of the domestic varieties have been hybridised in the past.

Larry (Apistomaster) will certainly have more to say of this matter, being a bit of a discus buff.

This, I am very aware of. I have studied numerous writings of the godfather of discus, Jack Wattley and of Dr Eduard Schmidt-Focke. The reason we have so many crazy color morphs is because of selective breeding. The heckel discus is a different species while the blue/brown are the same the green is it's own as well....so there are 3 distinct species. The same can be said for pleco's; distinct Loricariidae groups but varying species within that taxon. Hypancistrus is a prime example of that variability. I have always been a Discus pleco nut to the point of obsession.