Getting RTM to come out of his shell

[mrrobxc]

Yes I do use it a lot.
I also use moss.I grow it attached to wood near the surface and let it spread across the surface of the tank.

Christmas tree moss starting to spread

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I also use it on rock and parts of the substrate

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If you want something to work quickly,hornwart grows very fast and will soon cover the surface.
It is a very wide spread plant and can be found in some central American waters.

Here I used it with firemouths.I used it here to provide refuge for livebearer fry.

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I also use duckweed.A very invasive plant that requires regular removal or it takes over.
I find the look of duckweed very natural and it provides the fish some cover.

I have also used water hyacinth in amazon set ups.

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Great tips Stanz! How do you keep the hyacinth? I've always lost it due to insufficient lighting.

To the op, my favorite is dwarf water lettuce.

 

[Stanzzzz7]

Hi mrrobxc,
I had no problems apart from leaves getting scorched by my lights.
I had a couple of t8 tubes and blue and white led lighting.

 

[mrrobxc]

Go to know. It could be because of the distance of my lights to the plants since Ive suspended them over a foot above the tank. My finnex LEDs don't have the same light intensity with distance.

 

[JoeBoxer]

so any issue with me adding more gravel tonight for him to dig in? Will he like that more? No difference? Just hate seeing the bottom of the tank!

 

[fernie831]

so any issue with me adding more gravel tonight for him to dig in? Will he like that more? No difference? Just hate seeing the bottom of the tank!

More than likely he's digging because he's making it his home. Kind of like redecorating. I don't think it would make a difference if u ad more gravel. With my RTMs the male moved a lot of gravel to one side of the tank and when I would even it out next morning he moved it back I did that a few times and just gave up lol

 

[MonsterFishCreeper]

so any issue with me adding more gravel tonight for him to dig in? Will he like that more? No difference? Just hate seeing the bottom of the tank!

I wouldn't add a bunch of gravel that's just going to trap more waste. He will probably dig to the floor either way. My GT actually digs a little less now that I took a few pounds of sand out which was only because he would pile it up against the front of the acrylic super high and I didn't want to have a bunch of scratches.

 

[JoeBoxer]

For sure. I previously had a very very thin layer. As thin as I could get away with without seeing the bottom. I just added the rest back last night, maybe a more natural look to the tank and maybe gives him more "material" to decorate with. I really dont mind if he moves it all to one side, whatever it takes to make him as comfortable as possible!

Thanks again for the input!