Tropical Fish Forum
Tropical Fish Keeping Help and Advice => Fish Tank Plant Advice => Topic started by: jesnon on May 01, 2013, 10:35:21 AM
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OK here's another one of those silly questions!
I'm generally quite clueless with plants, except for that I feed the fern on my bogwood with some fertiliser and it seems to be doing OK so far. Eventually it would be quite nice if I could swap my plastic plants out for some real plants in the rest of the tank too. Unfortunately I'm a little confused what I'd need in order to plant them in the gravel.
Since I just have a gravel substrate I'm guessing this isn't very good for growing real plants in and ideally I'd have to have another nutrient rich substrate? I'm only planning on getting more of the same that were first suggested to me due to my tank's poor light restrictions, so anubus, java fern, java moss etc.
How would I go about that with my current setup or is it impossible!?
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Anubus, java fern and java moss all grow on wood, stones, coconut caves, terracotta sticks etc so you could just stick with those and get a good hardscape framework with plants on. This does make it easy if you want to re-arrange things etc and gives the fish some things to swim through and hide under and play chase.
This here (http://www.plantsalive.co.uk/aquarium-plants/cat_43.html) is a place that does plants on wood, rock, etc so you might get some good ideas from them.
(http://www.plantsalive.co.uk/images/uploads/GoldenAnubiasnanaonCocoBridge.jpg)
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Unless you are going to get ambitious, gravel is fine. A lot of aquatic plants get their nutrients from the water column. Over time, there will be a build up nutrients in your substrate anyway. You can add root tabs if you wish to add supplements or you can dose liquid supplements to the water.
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Thanks for that Steve - I might add another plant soon before I get any new tank additions. I'm already dosing with liquid fertiliser because of my java fern and moss ball.
In terms of plants ON things, I do see where you're coming from Colin, especially in a tank my size, but the problem I have is that my tank is quite small and I already have a few larger items in it e.g. two smallish rocks, moss ball, two wood with java fern and all of the fake plants (that ultimately I probably want to get rid of anyway) so I think it might be a bit much if I get anything else in there, hence why I'm thinking along the lines of planting in the gravel.
However having said that the shop I got my Japanese Blue endlers from were selling java moss caves which I thought looked pretty cool (I've only seen them online) and which I thought would be good for my potential shrimp to hide in. Though the only problem with any hiding places for my shrimp is that my endlers will still be able to get in too!
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I've got Cryptocoryne wendtii 'green' in my tank (link (http://www.tfhmagazine.com/aquatic-plants/species-profiles/cryptocoryne-wendtii.htm)) and it grows easily in low-light conditions in gravel. It's about 15cm tall now and the fish love swimming in and around it.
I've got Dwarf Sagittaria (Sagittaria subulata) in my isolation tank (link (http://www.tropica.com/en/plants/plantdescription.aspx?pid=079)). It's about 4cm and it's done nothing much.... just sort of sat there. But Hey.... it's still alive!!!
I've managed to kill most other plants (except Anubias and Java Fern) and the Hygrophillia I have would be too tall for your tank.
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A heads-up about plants and shrimp - depending on the source, some plants are treated with snail killer which will also kill shrimp. I remember on the old forum that Chucklett had this happen with her amanos. The shop said their plants weren't treated but Chucklett's shrimp were not happy and she only saved them by removing the plants a doing a huge water change. I seem to remember she knew someone else who had plants from the same shop and in their tank all the shrimp died. After that experience, she didn't risk it again; she got some Underworld Polyfilter and ran a filter full of that in a bucket with the plants before putting them in her tank. Though keeping the plants in a bucket for a week and changing the water every day is usually enough.
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Ooh the first plant looks great Colin, will look into that next time I go to my LFS.
And Sue thanks for the heads up, will keep my plants in water as you suggest for a week until planting them