Real or fake??

[morgan]

I am not a very experienced fishkeeper and I have some real plants and some fake. I find the real ones no trouble at all. They were looking a bit tatty when I did the last water change so I broke off some nice looking bits and just pushed them into the gravel and threw the grotty bits away. Result- nice new plants with no risk of new pesky little snails. The fish like real plants and I think it keeps the tank healthy.

 

[foty89]

It does add an extra layer of protection to your tank to have real plants. There is that much more of a buffer if things start to get out of whack. And some plants will root with clippings. Still, I'd start out with fake and get basic fish keeping down first.

 

[pnyklr3]

Real or fake should also depend on what types of fish you have in your tank. My clown loaches have made swiss cheese out of a few sword leaves!

 

[foty89]

Real or fake should also depend on what types of fish you have in your tank. My clown loaches have made swiss cheese out of a few sword leaves!

How many clown loaches do you have and in how big a tank?

 

[foty89]

Never mind, I looked at your profile. Is it a sand tank, or a gravel tank and do you have places for them to hide? They might be tearing them up when they are using them to hide in.

 

[pnyklr3]

Very small gravel, and I have caves coming out of my ears! I think that my clowns have a personality disorder . They eat from the surface of the water, and they never hide in caves (I always see them). They have tripled, or perhaps quadrupled, in size since I got them 6 months ago. I think they eat at my swords because I feed my cichlids a meaty high-protein diet, and they aren't getting their veggies. I started to add sinking tablets for them to eat, and they've left my swords alone for the most part; but they do like to taste the new growth!

 

[MXPX4318]

I personally am a real plants kinda guy but I did start with fake plants. here are fake plants:

then I went to live plants soon after so here's the tank with live plants:

o and as far as fake/real driftwood, the wood on the left is real wood and the wood on the right is fake wood so you can be the judge I like them both.

edit: all of my live plants besides the swords and banana plants are considered hardy low-medium light plants so any of those should do nicely in your tank. Also if you decide to go with real check out http/www.plantgeek.net for different types of plants.

 

[steelhealr]

Sure..go for it Foty. SH