I am thinking about setting up a tank for some pike cichlids. I have not decided which species and am in the early planning stages. I would like to know if anyone has any experience with keeping pikes with plants. If so, what species of plants and what species of pikes.
ive kept dwarf pikes with a variety of plants. id say with the larger pikesm you will need plants with solid root systems. alot of the time ive tried to add plants to tanks with larger pikes, ive found that the plants end up floating around alot.
If its a heavily planted tank your Saxatilis group and dwarf group pikes would work superbly in it. Lugubris group pikes tend to dig a little more and are more robust in their forays for food, so they do tend to uproot things from time to time. Its definitely doable with all pikes though, as they generally won't eat or purposefully destroy the plants. They will actually appreciate the extra cover and probably be more active/natural in their behavior.
What size tank are you thinking? That will also limit the pikes you will be able to work with.
100 gallon tank gives you alot of options for the species of pike you can add to your tank.
id say having dwarf pikes would give you the most options for compatible tank mates and compatible plants. most species will max out around 4" and wont really dig up your plants. also they are much less destructive to plants than the lugubris species so it helps with some of the plant species that dont have extensive root systems to hold them down.
for the larger pikes such as the saxatillis and lugubris (ill group them together but the lugubris will be larger). i think your going to have less options for tank mates and plant species. id shoot for plants that have larger root systems or ones that are fairly large. ie, id go for crypts, nymphea sp., and amazon swords.
ive kept alot of my pikes with silver dollars and other cichlids. both dont work well in a planted tank as SD's will eat most of your plants and cichlids like to dig alot.
