Live Plants? Forget it.

[FINWIN]

I'm done. After wasting months and much money, I'm officially off the real plant train. The list of plants I've purchased goes as follows:

1. guppy grass
2. elodea
3. water sprite (potted)
4. hornwort
5. cabomba
6. octopus grass
7. amazon swords (potted)
8. red swords (potted)
9. red rosanervig reineckii (potted)
10. pothos
11. Duckweed

Guppy Grass. All out Deluxe salad...EVERY cichlid buzz sawed through it, stems, leaves roots and all. Average of three days to vanish completely. Survival rate 0%

Elodea. Grows good in my water but gets stripped and eaten when it does. A few remaining small pieces in the parrot tanks and grow out tank. Survival rate currently 30%

Water Sprite. Started off well, started to grow then got stripped/eaten. Leftover pots were used as dividers and barricades by the fish. Survival rate 0%

Hornwort. A nightmare of shedding, food collecting, mulm coverage, brief growth bursts, then rot. Clogged everything constantly. A few raggedy pieces still hanging around in the smaller tanks. Growth moderate but only with constant ferts. Survival rate 15%

Cabomba. Beautiful when bushy and green, does better than hornwort in higher flow. But clogs even worse than hornwort in a dense green mat, completely blocking filtration. Collects everything like a dust mop every day. Grew some, shed, got eaten some, then rotted. Have two gorgeous pieces left in Lazarus tank which I can't explain. Survival rate 5%.

Octopus grass. Grows well in my water but growth is slower than advertised and its expensive for tiny bundles. The fish leave it alone. If I had a dedicated plant tank I'd buy a lot and cultivate it. Great alternative to guppy grass. Survival rate 90%.

Amazon swords, both green and red. Did well for a while with constant ferts then melted. Survival rate 0%.

Red rosanervig reineckii. Beautiful red leaf bush plants. Lasted for awhile and grew until the hrps decided they were tasty. 6 plants stripped and eaten including stumps in two weeks. I removed the pots. Survival rate 0%.

Pothos. Submerged pothos eventually had a large percentage of leaf rot over time. Stems, vines and roots that adapted make nice floor pieces. These have some leaves still. Fish sample the roots and leaves off and on. Did not do well in the 125 but is fine in all the the tanks. Survival rate 40%.

Duckweed. This plant def lives up to its reputation of insane growth. It loves my water...in two months it went from 3 tiny leaves to 70% coverage in Lazarus tank.I scooped some out the other day and put some in the breeder. I hear goldfish are crack addicts to the stuff. Survival rate 100%.

So its creative fake plants for me and no looking back. Planted tanks are for gentle fish and minimal flow, not cichlids and the like. Fake plants have come a loooong way. The plastic ones are now soft as the silks and move in the water. I rescaped the 225 with some tall ones and the fish love it, swimming through and between and exploring. So if they're happy, I'm good with it.

The salad bar is done!

 

[duanes]

This is why I use separate sumps for my cichlid tanks.

180 gal Cichlid tank above, 125 planted sump below.

 

[fishhead0103666]

Did you ever try anubias? They’re particularly tough, I’m quite fond of anubias nana especially the mothers that occasionally come up for sale.

 

[fishguy1978]

Did you ever try anubias? They’re particularly tough, I’m quite fond of anubias nana especially the mothers that occasionally come up for sale.

I am a huge fan of anubias. So are my chocolate monsters. They destroyed several center pieces plants before I could pull them. Same with java fern. My H liberifer severum on the other hand doesn't bother plants.

 

[Jexnell]

Did you ever try Vallisneria. Give it some light and boom soon enough you got 6ft long plants.
This is what I started with. Five different jungal vals and 4 stem plants and 3 Amazon Swords.

Six months later, got so bad I had to pull all plants drop everything save the vals, since they Vals was starving the other plants of light.

I pulled all the plants, dropped all non vals and thinned out some of the vals about 30%. Some were already 6ft long

And the tank after replanting with just Vals

And again another six months the tank is so overgrown you can't see thru it at all.

 

[FINWIN]

Did you ever try Vallisneria. Give it some light and boom soon enough you got 6ft long plants.View attachment 1547223
This is what I started with. Five different jungal vals and 4 stem plants and 3 Amazon Swords.
View attachment 1547224View attachment 1547225
Six months later, got so bad I had to pull all plants drop everything save the vals, since they Vals was starving the other plants of light.
View attachment 1547226
I pulled all the plants, dropped all non vals and thinned out some of the vals about 30%. Some were already 6ft long
View attachment 1547227
And the tank after replanting with just Vals
View attachment 1547228
And again another six months the tank is so overgrown you can't see thru it at all.
View attachment 1547229View attachment 1547230

I wish you'd give me some of yours! I had three bunches that looked good (not as green as yours). They grew some, got bitten then disappeared. I think the fish just sampled it but didn't really like it.

 

[Jexnell]

I wish you'd give me some of yours! I had three bunches that looked good (not as green as yours). They grew some, got bitten then disappeared. I think the fish just sampled it but didn't really like it.

I had a colony of HRPs in there. Started with two, ended up with

They never bothered the Vals at all. Too busy chasing the Platty fry I think.

For light it had a Finnex Planted Plus LED 24/7 light, plus as you see in the pics lots of indirect light and some late afternoon direct light.
The substrate was Caribsea planted plus



Edit no ferts or CO2 used just fish poo and light

 

[FINWIN]

I had a colony of HRPs in there. Started with two, ended up with

They never bothered the Vals at all. Too busy chasing the Platty fry I think.

For light it had a Finnex Planted Plus LED 24/7 light, plus as you see in the pics lots of indirect light and some late afternoon direct light.
The substrate was Caribsea planted plus

View attachment 1547262View attachment 1547263View attachment 1547264

Edit no ferts or CO2 used just fish poo and light

I've got the same lights on all tanks too and thought it would work. I only saw one bite mark but then they disappeared. The bunches I had were 15 inches. Just weird.

 

[Jexnell]

I've got the same lights on all tanks too and thought it would work. I only saw one bite mark but then they disappeared. The bunches I had were 15 inches. Just weird.

Maybe it was all the indirect and direct sunlight that helped so much. The half of the tank that was directly in the light was thicker than the side blocked by the wall, but not severely.



Late afternoon, direct sunlight phase

 

[Conchonius]

I'm jealous of that forest of vals - they're about the only plant I can't get to grow. Doesn't matter what I do, they start rotting from the roots up the moment they touch my tanks. My water is liquid rock, which is supposed to be good for plants, but maybe they've taken offense to it.

My other experiences have been more positive, I guess as a consequence of what I keep. Cichlids are gluttons and will nibble on anything if they can get their mouths on it, up to and including their keeper. Plecos are more discerning in their tastes.

If I had to rank the plants I've had, it'd probably be something like this:

1. Duckweed. Lord and savior of the aquarium, grows prodigiously in nearly any condition. As long as you don't mind being up to the elbows in the stuff, it'll zero your nitrates with gusto. Its only negative is that, left unchecked, that zero-your-nitrates function will starve your other plants.

2. Water lettuce. Duckweed in a slower-growing, easier-to-remove package. Over time, develops large root systems and becomes the kind of canopy preferred by nocturnal fish, e.g. featherfins like resting under them in the classic upside-down position. More susceptible to surface agitation than duckweed and will form a right mess if it goes under and rots.

3. Rotala rotundifolia. Fast-growing, good-looking, can be trimmed and replanted ad infinitum, and in good conditions will bud off plantlets for that purpose. Often uprooted by the nightly excavation that occurs in pleco tanks, but does just as well in the water column. If left alone for a couple weeks or so, its roots will be deep enough to survive the attentions of all but the largest fish.

4. Guppy grass. Can root, but I prefer to grow it in the water column. A big ball of this stuff is a great refuge for shrimp and smaller fish, if you aren't keeping hyper-aggressive devil-spawn that will pick them off for sport (see: cichlids). Has to be trimmed (or, more accurately, pulled out by the handful) weekly, otherwise it will happily strangle your other plants.

5. Cabomba. Functionally the same as rotala and even faster to grow, but I just don't like how they look. The finely split leaves will become a nursery for hair algae if you let them. Hornwort can be placed in this category as well.

6. Tiger lotus. Absolutely beautiful plant, not difficult to grow, and the splash of red looks striking in an otherwise green tank. But I'm more about function than form and it doesn't grow like wildfire, so it goes here in the "cool, but not essential" category.

7. Bucephalandra. The one plant that the plecos did take a liking to. I don't really name my fish, but I do have a buce named Lazarus that was found uprooted and half-rotted in at least five separate occasions before finally taking off. I believe that one was the Dark Afiqa, but once established they're broad-leaved, handsome plants no matter the cultivar.

8. Cryptocoryne wendtii. These would suit a taller tank, but mine are too squat to really let them flourish. In optimal conditions, they will send runners all over the place and cover the whole tank over time. In my conditions they're ground zero for BBA infestations, the sides of their leaves are the perfect growth medium for algae. They are, however, the plants I started fishkeeping with two years ago, which I guess is a testament to their hardiness.

9. Java ferns. My 55g might as well be called Mulmland. I kick up the stuff every week while vaccuuming the bottom, and the rhizomes of Java ferns are the ideal medium to capture all of it and form a big lump of dirt. The plants are happy, so I can't grudge them for it, but it's not a good look.

10. Vallisneria. Never had one last more than a month.

I've also had some ludwigias, anubias and homalomena for a while, but I haven't seen them grow enough to form an opinion on them. That said, clearly FINWIN's cichlids need sterner stuff. Red mangroves are cheap enough and can grow in freshwater, so maybe that'll be the last resort?