What Are Some Nice Looking, Yet Hardy Plants That I Could Put In With

[Jackiee]

Hello
I have a Blood Parrot and a Turquoise Severum, along with a Sailfin Leopard Pleco in a 90 gallon aquarium.
The parrot is about 5 inches long, and the severum is full grown at 7 inches. My pleco is about 9 inches.
What types of plants would be well-suited and hardy enough for these guys? They aren't too rowdy in the tank in the first place,
and they never mess with my fake plants much, except for the occasional bump and charge by the severum when they get in his way.

Also, if I decided to get something along the lines of hairgrass or some sort of moss planted in my substrate and
make a sort of 'carpet' look in my aquarium, would that be okay with my cichlids, or is this not recommended for
any reason...

Also, will the addition of the live plants lower my PH? and the plants would actually benefit from the fish's waste, correct?

Any advice?

 

[Caprichoso]

You could try anubias, java fern, they are very hardy plants. Someone also told me that their cichlids don't touch hornwort. Not sure how durable the moss would be, especially if your fish are moving the substrate around a lot. Plants benefit from fish waste, so does your water quality. If you really want to lower your pH, invest in a piece or two of bog/drift wood. The tannins from the wood release over time, softening the water. Just be aware that the tannins will turn the water reddish brown.

 

[Jackiee]

Even though cichlids are supposed to be notorious about moving around gravel and burrowing, neither my severum or BP have ever touch the gravel or tried rearranging it.
Also, I have two pieces of driftwood in my tank, a very large piece, and a small piece, I posted a forum on here and had people tell me that it is Mopani Driftwood. Do you know
if this type of wood lowers PH?

 

[Caprichoso]

Yes, mopani would works nicely to add tannins to the water, thereby lowering the pH. I find this wood makes the water the most red (compared to malaysian drift wood) Since your fish leave the gravel alone, you could try to plant some java moss(adhere it to a flat rock, (like slate), with some fishing line or sewing thread. It's very easy growing moss, even in lower light. Mind you, it won't grow as fast but if you place a few clumps in, you should start to get a nice mossy carpet. I would probably just try one piece first just in case your fish rip it apart! No sense in going to too much trouble just to have it eaten. As far as other ground cover, pygmy chain sword is a hardy plant. It takes continuous browsing from my gourami, betta and platies. Not sure how it would hold up with your fish. Just experiment a bit and you might find a few more things to put in your tank.

On a side note, my mom has a goldfish tank (notorius plant eaters) and has some marimo moss balls in there. They leave the moss balls alone. The thing with moss balls is if you don't turn them, they start to flatten out and form a carpet on the substrate....soooo, you could always try some moss balls too and get a carpet that way!

 

[Jackiee]

Thanks for the info! And does it matter how old/how long the Mopani wood soaked before adding it into your tank? Because the wood was already previously used in someone elses tank for a long while, and then before I added it into my tank, I soaked it multiple times in hot water. Does that in any way "use up" the tannins that reduce the ph? When I first put the wood in, it did tint my water a tiny bit, but not much, and the tint was gone within a few days. Now there is no tint to the water at all. Just curious. and as I said, my fish don't seem to bother the substrate too much. The only time they really even pay attention to the gravel is after feeding time when they go look to see if any food dropped to the bottom, or to try and steal my Pleco's food. I forgot to mention, I also have a blue crayfish in there. He hardly ever budges from his cave though, and when he does, he just makes his quick rounds around the aquarium, grabs food, and runs back into his hide out with it to eat. I've heard they can mess with plants sometimes, but just depends. I'll have to just try some things out and see if any of it works.

Oh, and also, what you said about the java moss, would I get a clump or two of it, and seperate it into smaller clumps and sparsely place it throughout the bottom and wait for it to spread and grow together? or would I buy a few whole clumps, let's say three perhaps, one for the left side of the tank, one for the center, and one for the right side, and put them in the tank "as is" and let them spread?

 

[Caprichoso]

Your mopani wood may not have many tannins left in it from what you said but will still lower the pH slightly with natural decomposition. It's not going to have a drastic effect on pH but it's really good if your water is very hard. Keep in mind though that every time you perform a water change, you are in essence diluting the effects of the wood. Water changes are necessary though, so I wouldn't opt out of doing them weekly. It's good that you boiled it to remove any contaminants so I wouldn't have done anything differently there. Get another piece if you like the look of the reddish water and not using carbon will keep more of the color in the water (if you like that).

As for the java moss, I would only attach it to a flat rock because it will otherwise just float around your tank and attach itself to your plants and ornaments. 1 clump of java moss can go a long way.(Just cut it into pieces or pull it apart). You can have several flat rocks with just a thin spread of moss on each and just place them on the substrate or you can wiggle the rock down in the gravel a bit, just so you don't see the edges of the rock and it will start to grow and spread out. This won't happen very quickly, so patience is a virtue there but you will be happy with the result over time. I would test it out on one rock first, just to make sure your fish don't eat it or destroy it. If the first java moss rock survives your fish after 1 week, I would make up the other rocks then. Eventually, if it works out for you, the java moss will grow very dense and long and you trim it with scissors and the trimmed pieces can be used in other areas of your tank.

 

[Jackiee]

Alright, will do!
Thank you for the help!

 

[Caprichoso]

You are very welcome!