Plants

[Akasha72]

Hi all, I'm still very new to this so excuse my inexperience. I've had a read of the pinned topics first but can't find anything that answer's my question.

I have quite a few live bearers and had little success with a breeding trap so decided to plant my tank up as densely as possible and hope some of the next lot of fry survive the hungry jaws of my guppies.

Anyway, I have 2 large Amazon Sword plants in each corner and some twisted vallis next to that .. then it's a mix of cabomba and elodea to fill up the entire back of the tank - or at least it was this morning but not now.

I've come home to utter plant deverstation.

They've pulled up all the elodea and cabomba, eaten half of it, the rest is either in my bin cos it was too short to rescue or is floating round in tiny bits.

What am I doing wrong? Am I not feeding enough? Is that why they've eaten everything? Am I using the wrong plants for the fish I have? My Dad says my gravel isn't deep enough and that's how they're pulling things up but I'm more bothered about them eating everything!

My guppies seem to be the most destructive but one or two of the platies are nibbleing the plants now.

Can anyone offer any advice before I buy anymore plants? I don't want to keep throwing money at plants to come home and throw half of it in the bin!

thanks all - Akasha

 

[DrRob]

You're probably not doing all that much wrong. Your fish will eat anything that looks like food, no matter how much you feed them.

That would fit with my experience. Cabomba seems to be very tasty (it's apparently quite edible for humans too). Elodea seems to die back in warmer tanks. All stem plants suffer badly if things start eating them, but it's often how they propagate, bits fall off and root down somewhere else.

Vallis can be variable, I've had tanks where it went crazy and tanks where is sulked badly.

Fish eat plants. It's very annoying, but they do.

For low tech, I've had good success with crypts, anubius and hygrophilias. Also moss. Livebearers like moss, great place for the fry to hide. I've never had much luck with amazon swords, but that's just me.

I'm not convinced I'm that sure about either cabomba or elodea as good starter plants, and I'm sure they've been responsible for a lot of people being put off planted tanks.

If you have a quarantine or spare tank anywhere I often grow on broken off bits of stem plants and use them to restock where required. I've swapped a few bunches of them for fish food at the lfs as well once they'd grown on. Got tanks to fill at the moment though so none going that way.

I'm sure you'll get quite a few posts offering better suggestions that I can't think of right now as well.

 

[Akasha72]

Thanks DrRob. The Elodea isn't doing so well - it seems to rot quite easily in my tank. I'll see if I can get some of this moss from somewhere - not seen any at any of my lfs but I'll keep my eyes open. I'd really like some of the fry to survive. So far I've had 2 platies and 4 guppies give birth and all the babies have been eaten

 

[DrRob]

There's quite a few people offering moss on the classifieds here, and of types that's difficult to find in the LFS. I'd send you some but I have none spare that doesn't have algae in it. For the LFS, you'll be looking at java moss mainly. You can also buy online from various places.

 

[Akasha72]

okay, thank you

 

[Akasha72]

I've just had a look at this stuff on the net and I'm sure that's what they have down the road in P@H. It's in a round tennis ball sized ball ... would that be right?

If so I'll get some next week and give it a go ... from what I can make out on google it grows quite rapidly so if the fish decide that's food too it shouldn't matter too much ... or am I just wishful thinking there

 

[DrRob]

At a guess that's a moss ball. They're not bad, but I was thinking more of

http/www.aquaessentials.co.uk/aquafleur-java-moss-bunch-p-2816.html

rather than

http/www.aquaessentials.co.uk/aquafleur-chladoflora-moss-ball-p-2813.html

 

[Akasha72]

Thanks DrRob, that makes it much clearer. I can think of one other place in my area that may have some proper java moss but as it's ultra expensive I would normally avoid it. I'll take myself for a little drive one day next week and see if they have some. If I can't get any locally then getting some from here becomes my option.

I've taken down the names of the other plants you've suggested also. I know my lfs stock them all so they're not a problem. I guess I could ask them to try get me some java moss ... could be an idea.


Meanwhile, I'm sat watching both my guppies and platies destroy what's left of last weeks plants ...

 

[DrRob]

If you grow crypts, expect them to melt back and then regrow. Mind you, amazon swords do the same, for different reasons.

 

[Akasha72]

Update:

I've just tried to give my tank an overhaul (weekly water change etc) and found when it was time to switch my filter back on it was coughing a spluttering so I had to lift it out of the water to try and work out why ... the bottom was full of bits of cabomba .. in fact every surface hole, slot, indentation was full of the stuff.

Needless to say I've now removed it all from the tank and I'll never buy it again .. horrible stuff.

I've just got 3 amazon swords, a couple of bunches of twisted vallis and a bit of Elodea left now. I've given up trying to get any java moss in this area so right now I'm waiting to see how things go.

I'm surrounded here by various pet shops and two specialist fish stores and I reckon very little to any of their plants. Until I find somewhere that impresses me with a good variety of healthy looking aquarium plants I'm leaving well alone.

The other thing that annoys me is they have these plants but don't give you a clue what they are - and the staff generally don't know either. Think I need to get a degree in plant diagnosis before spending anymore money just to find it gets eaten and blocks up my filter lol

 

[This Old Spouse]

Do you still have the plant that's in the lower left of the photo in your signature? If so, it's not an aquatic plant, but a sansevieria, a houseplant, and needs to be removed before it starts to rot.

 

[Akasha72]

Seriously? I got it from the aquatic centre ... grr removing it right now. Thank you

The purple thing is plastic though. I've tried to get a good updated photo this afternoon but they all came out bad

 

[This Old Spouse]

I don't know why they keep selling those plants as aquatic. They're good in other tanks but not with water!

 

[Akasha72]

Thanks for the heads-up. It's in the bin now

 

[This Old Spouse]

I just potted mine and it's been on the windowsill since.