If I add some pothos to a tank with Uaru in a hang on container like this do you think it’ll survive? I’m thinking they will probably pick at it and eat roots as they grow through the holes. Hopefully not too much so that the pothos can survive.
Uaru and Pothos
- Thread starter Silvertongue700
- Start date
I kept and bred Uarus for a number of years back in the day. While they are indeed one of the worst fish when it comes to eating plants...even to the point of devouring such generally-unpalatable ones like Java Fern and Java Moss...I never had them eat the roots of any plants, neither aquatic ones nor the numerous terrestrial ones that I would temporarily suspend in a similar arrangement to yours.
I foolishly didn't keep terrestrials like that long term, even though I toyed with the idea that they were helping out with water quality. I was just lazy, and when we wanted to start some cuttings that was the way I did it. It worked with many varieties of typical house plants, as well as cuttings from outdoor plants. The cuttings were just hung into a ring made of cut-off ABS pipe, a few inches long, with the bottom completely open and the roots hanging free in the tank. The adult Uaru did sometimes manage to grab the cutting and pull it completely or partially down through the ring, and always ate the leaves they reached that way, but the roots and usually the stems were left untouched.
Strictly anecdotal, YMMV.
If you are worried, you could make the hanging "pot" a bit bigger, perforate it with smaller holes and then fill it with aquarium gravel. That would support the plant a bit better, and would allow an encourage a bunch of roots to grow inside the pot. Even if your fish did eat the ends sticking through the holes, the plant itself would probably live just fine.
I foolishly didn't keep terrestrials like that long term, even though I toyed with the idea that they were helping out with water quality. I was just lazy, and when we wanted to start some cuttings that was the way I did it. It worked with many varieties of typical house plants, as well as cuttings from outdoor plants. The cuttings were just hung into a ring made of cut-off ABS pipe, a few inches long, with the bottom completely open and the roots hanging free in the tank. The adult Uaru did sometimes manage to grab the cutting and pull it completely or partially down through the ring, and always ate the leaves they reached that way, but the roots and usually the stems were left untouched.
Strictly anecdotal, YMMV.
If you are worried, you could make the hanging "pot" a bit bigger, perforate it with smaller holes and then fill it with aquarium gravel. That would support the plant a bit better, and would allow an encourage a bunch of roots to grow inside the pot. Even if your fish did eat the ends sticking through the holes, the plant itself would probably live just fine.
My severums were the worst when it came to pothos. They would strip the leaves off the vine (mine were submerged). My acaras liked the leaves as well.