Floating plants in cichlid tank

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
OSCARLOVER

OSCARLOVER

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Feb 6, 2006
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Omaha, Ne.
I took some water lettuce from my pond and placed them into my 150g. It looks really cool and provides lots of cover for my fish. Im suprised that my oscars and plecos have not torn them to pieces as they do with all my plastic plants. I was curious if anyone else has done this. I havnt seen any other tanks with floating plants in them is there a reason for this? I dont see how it would affect the water quality or health of my fish, so if im wrong then someone please correct me! Thanks!!!
 
It tends to get cought by the current of the filters and get sucked into the filter but outher than that i bet it looks nice... my oscar tank has like 8 fake plants on the bottom and fake lili pads at the top it looks awsome... my oscars seem to love it :) good luck
 
Actually it does affect water quality....for the good though. It will help with ammonia and nitrates.

Chad
 
Yeah plants do a good thing for the tank..and they look reall well...I have real lilly pads..and they look wicked nice..
 
plants look cool in the tank but i use plastic the real ones shed and i get to clean the filter intake everyday so it did not last long with me.
 
I really love the look of them. Looks more natural. I never knew that it would actually benifit my water quality. I appreciate all the advice and info! Thanks!! BTW I will try to get some pics up soon!
 
The only other reason I could think of would be excess growth, leading to excess shading, leading to a somewhat darker tank. If anything though I would think that many cichlids would love it, and if they do nibble on it that is actually good for them. I'm sure that my boys would love a setup like that...so long as it didn't interfere with homer's feeding times :) Looking forward to the pic's, I bet it looks great.
 
I put a floating plastic plant in my oscar tank since anything plastic or real I ancored in the bottom he eventually tore up and he seems to enjoy swimming under and through it should have put real but thought it would add to the cleaning of the tank which is already quite a chore oscars are soooooo messy!!!!
 
I used giant duckweed in my tank, the only problem is it grows too fast and the powerheads constantly blow it around.
I works really well in discus tanks ie low flow rate and dim lighting.
 
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