Keeping Plants with Cichlids. What had you done?

[Snowflake311]

Thanks guys. So Now I am thinking of turning my 100Gal into a planted tank and letting the 80 Gal go. The only Fish I am going to keep in the 100Gal that I know will be a problem is the Severum. My 80Gal tank is over grown and I would like to give my plants more space as weird as that sounds. My amazon sward plant is too big and I have had that thing for 5 years this is the first time It has gotten and it is giving off babies. I need more room for plants.

I do not want to re home my severum but I think it is time. He is 5 inches now and growing.
Maybe if he is the only plant eatter and the plants keep growing fast he will keep the plants from getting over grown.

Tomorrow I am going to start the project. I have to re-home my gold fish and 4 five inch silver dollars. I will give my severum a chance with the plants and see how long it lasts.

Maybe if I feed my severum more greens he will leave the plants alone??? He is one of the red homes and would look amazing with all the plants.

I have had many of the plant safe cichilds over the years. I have angle fish now. I have had Keyholes (I love them), Apistogrammas, Rams, discus, and festivums.

I think maybe it is time to keep different fish. Get away from the south american cichlids that I have loved for many years and will always. I have been keeping them for the past 10 years now. I do not know what to do. All I know I want to keep my plants.

Here is the over grown 80Gal.
80 gal before i broke it down. by Sarah Ireland, on Flickr

Yes I grow Phal Orchids out of the top of the tank. They love the aquaponics.

 

[Lilyann]

Thanks guys. So Now I am thinking of turning my 100Gal into a planted tank and letting the 80 Gal go. The only Fish I am going to keep in the 100Gal that I know will be a problem is the Severum. My 80Gal tank is over grown and I would like to give my plants more space as weird as that sounds. My amazon sward plant is too big and I have had that thing for 5 years this is the first time It has gotten and it is giving off babies. I need more room for plants.

I do not want to re home my severum but I think it is time. He is 5 inches now and growing.
Maybe if he is the only plant eatter and the plants keep growing fast he will keep the plants from getting over grown.

Tomorrow I am going to start the project. I have to re-home my gold fish and 4 five inch silver dollars. I will give my severum a chance with the plants and see how long it lasts.

Maybe if I feed my severum more greens he will leave the plants alone??? He is one of the red homes and would look amazing with all the plants.

I have had many of the plant safe cichilds over the years. I have angle fish now. I have had Keyholes (I love them), Apistogrammas, Rams, discus, and festivums.

I think maybe it is time to keep different fish. Get away from the south american cichlids that I have loved for many years and will always. I have been keeping them for the past 10 years now. I do not know what to do. All I know I want to keep my plants.

Here is the over grown 80Gal.
80 gal before i broke it down. by Sarah Ireland, on Flickr

Yes I grow Phal Orchids out of the top of the tank. They love the aquaponics.

Really nice plants, I would of been sad to take that down.
I would have a hard time deciding on fish outside of South American species as well. In the last 28 years Ive only kept discus, many varieties of wild tetras ( some African), corydoras, plecos, Oto's, and currently, geophagus. Seriously, I need to branch out as well.
I hope you get some good suggestions: It will give me some inspiration on a future tank.

 

[Snowflake311]

Really nice plants, I would of been sad to take that down.
I would have a hard time deciding on fish outside of South American species as well. In the last 28 years Ive only kept discus, many varieties of wild tetras ( some African), corydoras, plecos, Oto's, and currently, geophagus. Seriously, I need to branch out as well.
I hope you get some good suggestions: It will give me some inspiration on a future tank.

Thanks I was working on the tanks from 9:00am till 8:00PM today. After planting the 100Gal I am not going to risk my severum ripping it all up. I had discus years ago and thought About keeping them again. Maybe I will just take in people unwanted fish. Do like a fish rescue see what I get.

It is hard to think of a tank that does not have south american fish.

 

[NW Cichlid Keith]

What about Kribensis or Taeniatus - if you don’t want SA. I also just got some Keyhole Cichlids for the first time and are loving those. You could also do loaches and a red tail shark.

 

[Trimapit]

An old tank I had. Can't tell but is had the Oscar, a school of Tiger silver dollars, and a school of Tetras (can't remember what type)