Plants With Larger Fish

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pharmaecopia

Polypterus
MFK Member
Aug 21, 2010
1,601
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Ontario, Canada
I'm looking into adding more plants to my fish tanks. Had anubias and java fern until rather recently in most of the tanks till that started getting eaten. I believe I've sorted out who the culprits are and they will be getting moved.

I'd like to try something different this time around. The plants will have to be able to handle the abuse of being with some midsize gars and doradid catfish. I'm planning on planting the plants in pots with a plant specific substrate with a larger gravel overtop to try and minimize digging by the cats. I have a couple options as far as lighting, so that can be switched out to match the needs of the plants. No plans on incorporating CO2 into the setup.

I'd prefer taller plants as I'll probably be using a 150 tall for the setup. Myself I've been leaning towards Crypt balansae and crinum species. Thinking about possible aponogeton species but worried about the leaves getting damaged too easily.

Anybody have any ideas on other plants that could potentially work?
 
pharmaecopia said:
I'm looking into adding more plants to my fish tanks. Had anubias and java fern until rather recently in most of the tanks till that started getting eaten. I believe I've sorted out who the culprits are and they will be getting moved.

I'd like to try something different this time around. The plants will have to be able to handle the abuse of being with some midsize gars and doradid catfish. I'm planning on planting the plants in pots with a plant specific substrate with a larger gravel overtop to try and minimize digging by the cats. I have a couple options as far as lighting, so that can be switched out to match the needs of the plants. No plans on incorporating CO2 into the setup.

I'd prefer taller plants as I'll probably be using a 150 tall for the setup. Myself I've been leaning towards Crypt balansae and crinum species. Thinking about possible aponogeton species but worried about the leaves getting damaged too easily.

Anybody have any ideas on other plants that could potentially work?
Click to expand...

I keep aponogeton species in my standard planted tank. They will be to delicate for your tank.

Some other good choices are about any species of crypt. There are a lot of them out there to. Amazon sword plants are great. So are several of the other swords. Hygrophilia plants are also good choices. Like hygro corymbosa know as giant hygro. Or hygro difformis or hygro augnstfolia. Hygros also suck up the nutrients. If you have rock or drift wood you can attach java fern or anubias to it and it will grow on it. You could do one of the mosses grown on drift wood or rock like java, flame, peacock mosses. Most stem based plants won't do well. You could also look into vals.

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Aquaticfan said:
I keep aponogeton species in my standard planted tank. They will be to delicate for your tank.

Some other good choices are about any species of crypt. There are a lot of them out there to. Amazon sword plants are great. So are several of the other swords. Hygrophilia plants are also good choices. Like hygro corymbosa know as giant hygro. Or hygro difformis or hygro augnstfolia. Hygros also suck up the nutrients. If you have rock or drift wood you can attach java fern or anubias to it and it will grow on it. You could do one of the mosses grown on drift wood or rock like java, flame, peacock mosses. Most stem based plants won't do well. You could also look into vals.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using MonsterAquariaNetwork App
Click to expand...

My main though is that some of the other crypts might not give me the height I'm looking for. The tank is something like30" tall. Shorter plants are going to utilize the height. Had been considering swords as well. Already have a marble queen in my l. williwmsa vivarium as well as an amazon sword in a different setup. I've considered vals as well.

Anchovie said:
I just added melon swords to my tank. They are nice and tall and the root system is very wide. They might work in your setupView attachment 910430

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Click to expand...

Can possibly go with swords.
 
pharmaecopia said:
My main though is that some of the other crypts might not give me the height I'm looking for. The tank is something like30" tall. Shorter plants are going to utilize the height. Had been considering swords as well. Already have a marble queen in my l. williwmsa vivarium as well as an amazon sword in a different setup. I've considered vals as well.



Can possibly go with swords.
Click to expand...

I've got several crypts. Many of them get quite large. With as much height as swords. One of the taller plants out there is cryptocoryne balansae. I've got some more then 2 feet tall. I've got some crypt wendeti red that's easily 18 inches now and growing. There are some that stay short but many get big with time.

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I know about crypt balansae already. Had specifically mentioned it in the op. I actually picked one up already, and seeing some decent growth.

Picked up some jungle val today as well. Plants are looking kinda rough, hoping they come around.
 
I have seen what is described as "Brazilian show swords" they are really tall and I have used them in a lot of tanks. Look great. NEED to be in a pot for bigger fish. They don't have a big sturdy root system. I had to take it out of my gar tank and rock it down in my ray tank. In a pot I think it will be just what your looking for. I am going to get some for my 280 wide I am setting up.

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Picked up some more crypt balansae and should be getting some crinum thaianicum next week.

The pots are sort of working so far. The catfish are not digging the plants up so far. The main issue I am having is that the pots are knocked over very easily. Going to try to track down a dish of sorts and try and see if that works better.
 
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