Plants are AWFUL

[anewbie1]

This is my non-sense 120 which i mostly don't pay attention to - it has the following fishes:
4 angels
8 krobia
5 or 6 pleco (largest is around 4 1/2 inches full grown)
and 3 of these weird catfishes Orinocodoras eigenmanni.

This is a scratch aquarium that used to be my main aquarium before i moved - after i moved stuff that was left over just got stuck in there. The plecos are all very old and i expect some time age out soon (2 397, 1 yellow bn, 1 L208, 2 snowballs, and a partridge in a pear tree). the krobia someone recommended and turned out to be a horrible fish which got stuck in here (they constantly breed).
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Anyway i used to see all the fishes all the time and then around 2 years ago i planted this test plant. And for a while it was a small plant that barely grew and then there were two of them and they both got larger. Then 4 and they keep getting larger and larger and one day they were so tall the fishes realize they could hide in there. So instead of seeing 8 krobia and some cat fishes every day - all i ever see are the 4 angelfishes - i mean they don't even bother to show themselves at feeding time waiting for food to fall below the plants. I can't even find them with a flash light - but now and then i see the grass moving in the wrong direction and know danger lurks below. I posted an earlier photo of this tank somewhere and if you compare it to this one you will notice that the grass has gotten a lot taller:

 

[CaptainBarnicles7]

Looks like cryptocoryne and I think it's fabulous

 

[anewbie1]

Looks like cryptocoryne and I think it's fabulous

I guess i tis a crypt - a crypt of skeletons and lost fingers.

 

[GaryE29]

Plants like that - awful. I would use a controlled burn in the tank. Dig a ditch to protect the open part and use matches to light the plants.

 

[anewbie1]

Plants like that - awful. I would use a controlled burn in the tank. Dig a ditch to protect the open part and use matches to light the plants.

You clearly do not watch enough horror movies. The hero always ends up a skeleton when they attempt to burn the field of grass. Didn't you see Children of the Corn ?

 

[CaptainBarnicles7]

I guess i tis a crypt - a crypt of skeletons and lost fingers.

I thought I was the dramatic one

 

[anewbie1]

I thought I was the dramatic one

So here is an interesting tid bit:
The genus of Utricularia which consists of carnivorous plants is larger than the genus of Cryptocoryne... with more than 200 known species.

 

[gwand31 147]

Well that’s a meaty subject!

 

[anewbie1]

Well that’s a meaty subject!

Well besides being meaty it means it is easier to eat the evidence than burying it.

 

[GaryE29]

I need some time to digest this information.

Maybe, with a bit of luck, those awful plants will give way to proper Cyanobacteria and pond snails, and your tank can look like what the other kids have. With black clump 'algae', some stinky green slime stuff and transparent thin shelled pond snails, you too can create a model of the future world.

 

[anewbie1]

I need some time to digest this information.

Maybe, with a bit of luck, those awful plants will give way to proper Cyanobacteria and pond snails, and your tank can look like what the other kids have. With black clump 'algae', some stinky green slime stuff and transparent thin shelled pond snails, you too can create a model of the future world.

I think i need to visit some Utricularia.

 

[Kreps]

Honestly this sounds like one of those tanks that accidentally turns into a near-natural ecosystem while you’re barely paying attention to it. The plants probably made the fish feel way more secure, especially the krobia and catfish, so now they’ve decided there’s no reason to interact with the outside world anymore. The “grass moving the wrong direction” line killed me though - that’s exactly how heavily planted tanks become, you stop seeing fish and just see evidence that something alive is lurking in the jungle. At this point the angelfish are basically the public relations department for the entire aquarium.

 

[anewbie1]

Well I don't know if it is natural but they certainly enjoy hiding. Not sure what I iwll do if that stuff continues to creep right - so far it covers about 2/3 of the bottom but i still have 1/3 left !!!