Aquascaping vs. Fish-Only: Where do you draw the line?

[M075]

I mostly scape with wood, i do like the look of rocks but its too risky imo with some fish.

I build my scape before i add plants, because i like a lot of wood and little plants it makes it easier to find the right placement.

As far as plant eating and destroying fish go i have 6 satanoperca daemon wich love to dig and a pinktail chalceus that eats plants that hang above the Waterline (underwater it wont)

So as long as i anchor my plants or stick em inbetween the wood i have no issues really.

The only plant i got that leaves a lot of mess is a waterlily i have had for a while now that just drops leafs to grow new ones, nitrates are okay but i gotta keep an eye on doing water changes on time.

As you can see the 160cm tank doesnt have much plants but the wood still makes it looks natural.

Ps i really gotta take some new pictures since i moved some stuff around a bit but itll do for now

 

[tiger15]

With the right strategy, even the largest fish can be kept with plants. This guy from MEK set up a 600g monster fish tank with tough plants tied to upper level of a drift wood leaving the bottom open for cichlid to dig. The plants he used include anubias and pathos.

 

[duanes]

I also prefer to use water logged wood, because that where I fnd most cchlids collected, I suppose it might be different if I kept rift lake Africans.


There are few aquatic plants here, but many terrestrial plants with roots in the rivers.

I do fill sumps with nitrate consuming plants, to mimic the way plants act in nature.

Even using mangrove trees that root below the sumps water surface.

 

[sherlys]

Personally, it starts as a nicely aquascaped tank, but trimming becomes too much of a chore and after a few months, I just let it grow. I've also seen people trim stem plants and pull out the rooted stem and replant the top as they say the stem doesn't grow back as thick and it can become too bushy after awhile. It still looks nice, but it no longer looks curated as before. Best solution is to just focus on hardscape if you just want to focus on fish. Plants are always beneficial so easily low maintenance plants like Anubias and Java Fern works great to add some greenery. Also, it's good to decide what you want to focus on. Do you want to focus on the aquascape as the main conversation piece or do you want the fish to be the focus? With big fish, I would want the focus to be on the fish, so it was be in a hard scape aquarium with a few easy to maintain plants, like mentioned before. If the aquascape was going to be the main focal point, a small community tank of tetras, live bearers, bottom feeders, algae controllers, and snail controllers would be added.

That’s honestly one of the most realistic takes on planted tanks. A lot of aquascapes look incredible for the first few months, but keeping that “freshly curated” look long term takes way more maintenance than most people expect. Stem plants especially can turn into a full-time trimming project once they really establish themselves. I’ve seen the same thing with people constantly replanting tops to keep growth compact and healthy-looking instead of letting the lower stems get leggy. I also agree that deciding whether the fish or the scape is the main focus makes planning so much easier from the start. Big fish usually shine better in cleaner hardscape setups with a few durable plants instead of dense planted layouts they’ll eventually destroy or outgrow. Anubias and Java Fern are probably some of the best compromises because they add greenery without becoming a maintenance nightmare. That’s also why I like using plant databases like https://botanapp.com/plant/zamioculcas-zamiifolia when planning setups (like zamioculcas care for ex.) - it helps get a better idea of growth habits and maintenance before adding plants that might become too demanding later.

I mostly scape with wood, i do like the look of rocks but its too risky imo with some fish.

I build my scape before i add plants, because i like a lot of wood and little plants it makes it easier to find the right placement.

As far as plant eating and destroying fish go i have 6 satanoperca daemon wich love to dig and a pinktail chalceus that eats plants that hang above the Waterline (underwater it wont)

So as long as i anchor my plants or stick em inbetween the wood i have no issues really.

The only plant i got that leaves a lot of mess is a waterlily i have had for a while now that just drops leafs to grow new ones, nitrates are okay but i gotta keep an eye on doing water changes on time.

As you can see the 160cm tank doesnt have much plants but the wood still makes it looks natural.

Ps i really gotta take some new pictures since i moved some stuff around a bit but itll do for now

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That honestly sounds like a really smart way to approach larger fish tanks. Heavy wood-focused scapes tend to look much more natural long term with fish like Satanoperca because even if they dig constantly, the structure of the tank still stays intact. Rocks can definitely become risky with big diggers once substrate shifts around enough. I also like that you build the hardscape first and treat plants more as accents instead of the main feature - it usually ends up looking more mature and realistic than trying to force a dense aquascape with fish that clearly don’t respect it anyway. The pinktail eating only emersed growth is actually pretty interesting too. And honestly, a tank doesn’t need tons of plants to feel natural if the wood placement is done well. Large driftwood pieces with open swimming space often fit big South American fish way better than heavily planted layouts. Your setup sounds like one of those tanks that probably looks even better in person because of the scale and depth.

 

[tiger15]

I use lace rock and larva rock for plant attachment. These rock are light in weight and interlock tightly so there is no danger of falling. I use mostly small rock that I can easily move around for rescaping or taken out of the tank for re-attachment of fallen plants. I use tiny rock for attachment to Anubias pettitte to simulate carpet planting. The mobility of small rock is an advantage over big rock or big drift wood which is semi permanent not easy to move around. A planted rock scape provides vertical dimension to the scape and hiding places for cichlid.