Ctenopomas

[fish_fetish65]

i have a ctenopoma in a planted 10G tank. sadly, the few plants that my LFS carries are not cutting it. they continue to rot or just get loose from the gravel and float to the surface. i'm using 2 25watt incandescent bulbs in the tank. is this enough? i also use some liquid plant food by API.

anyhow, the plants that i have had in there include anacharis, cabomba, java fern, java moss, red ludwigia, moneywort, and green mondo grass. the anacharis and cabomba are particularly bad about floating to the top, as they don't have any roots to speak of. and the moneywort is the quickest to rot. i'm thinking of tearing all of the plants out and starting over. but i would really like to know what plants would thrive in the environment my tank is set up in. i have a heater, so the temp usually stays between 78 and 80 degrees. i would also like to find some plants that the ctenopoma will like, if they even have a preference?

also sharing the tank are 2 khuli loaches, an african dwarf frog, and 3 cories. i've considered the possibility that the cories are messing with the plants, but i don't ever see them doing anything other than scurrying about looking for food on the bottom or else chasing one another (so cute!). the african dwarf frog pretty much keeps to himself and hides.

i also have issues getting my ctenopoma to eat. i give him food but he refuses to eat it! i don't know how he's surviving... how can i get him to eat? i've litterally tried putting food directly in front of his face. he still refuses it. dumb fish.

 

[starrynightxxi]

i don't know much about plants, but I would imagine that if you are only using a pair of 25 watt incandescent lights, then part of your problem is that you are trying to keep plants in very very low light situations. you need flourescent lighting, and probably some other things, but those other things someone else will have to help you with

 

[Themuleous]

Yeh I would agree, the first problem here are the lights, incandescent bulbs are pretty useless for growing plants under water, so if you are able to change to lights designed for aquariums that would almost certainly help.

As to the plants, all the ones you have listed are easy to keep and undemanding, so just changing the light will probably help them out and you should notice a difference. The API fert is good so keep that up.

Oh and Cory's shouldn't do anything to the plants and neither should the loaches.

Cant help with the fish, have you tried one of the other forums? Poss the oddball one?

Sam

 

[Neal]

You can't ever expect Ctenopomas to get on dried foods, so you have to feed them live food or frozen substitutes.
Here's a website with lots of information on them.
Ctenopoma

Neal