what first, plants or fish?

If you were starting anew with plants how would you do things?

  • Get the plants established first

    Votes: 54 73.0%

  • Get the fish thing going first

    Votes: 3 4.1%

  • Do it all at the same time

    Votes: 17 23.0%
  • Total voters
    74
phoenix

phoenix

Space Cowboy
Nov 30, 2004
100
0
0
44
www.pbase.com
I tried this question out in the general forum but got no responses, I'm hoping for a little better response here.

If you were new to plants and starting up a new aquarium, would you wait until the plants had been established before adding fish, or would you get the fish up and going and add the plants later?

P.S.
I'll be stocking a 20H and would like to have 8 rummynose tetras, 1 betta, 3 ottos, and something else in the tank by the time i'm finished, maybe some shrimp. Is there any chance cories could be added to this mix, or would that overstock the tank?

The tank has an eheim ECCO 2232 for filtration, flourite substrate, 65 watt aqualight and a nutrafin co2 system. I would like to add driftwood to the tank and I'm planning on adding the following plants:
Ludwigia repens
Ludwigia gladulosa
Alternathera
Rotala Indica
Anubias nana
glosso or eleocharis as foreground
(will this tank have too many redish plants?)
 
I would definitely go plants first, as if you plant heavily from the start, and then add the fish in, you might not even see a cycle (provided again, you plant heavily).

I'm not sure about the number of red plants you have, but they should be okay, provided you do a fair job in aquascaping :)
 
my tank that is going to be tech with good light and CO2 will be plants first for several weeks till I get a stable fert schedule going. I want a handle on the plants first without having to worry about accidently getting to much CO2 for the fish. when I have things stable I'll consider adding fish.
 
I would add the plants (add a lot to start with, as many as you can), then add the fish a few days or a week later. If you're worried about an ammonia spike, don't add all the fish at once.
I wouldn't add fish first because you will make a mess of the tank when you plant so many plants at once, especially if you have a substrate like flourite. Also, the plants will have a better start at rooting into the substrate if there aren't any fish to uproot them.
This doesn't mean it can't be done all at once, I just outlined a few reasons to go with plants first.
 
This is only my first post, so I know it may be disregarded, but I have had much healthier results starting with plants first. I have a 15gal tall right now with Amazon Swords (some dwarf, some normal) that I only put fish in after it had been established for 3 or 4 months - you don't have to wait that long. I now have 4 happy beautiful adult guppies and 4 happy beautiful baby guppies :) . I'll probably add more fish later - like kuhli loaches.
 
thanks for the feedback everyone. I'm trying to fight the compulsion to just go out and buy the fish... I just wanted to make sure I had a good reason for fighting it. :D
 
Just think Pheonix, if you plant first, you won't have to worry about your fish surviving the trauma, cloudiness, turbidity, etc. Much less hassle to add fish to plants than vise versa.
 
I think most people try fish first, simply because they're intimidated by plants, or they simply don't find them as "interesting". Anyhow, having successfully kept both, I'd have to say that plants would be a better thing to start with. Without getting too technical (and lord knows there are other people better suited for that) plants will tell you if they're lacking something(ie, red leaves, yellow leaves, brown leaves, algae-ridden, stunted growth, etc) which, if you do enough research, you can pinpoint your problem before much damage is done(in theory), since most plants don't just die overnight. Fish, on the other hand, usually are less forgiving. A small discrepancy in the pH, ammonia, nitrite, CO2 level and/or a handful of other factors, can get give your fish a 1-way ticket to the toilot :(
 
I did a fishless cycle on both tanks, then the day of bringing home fish, I simply siphoned out as much water as possible, planted, filled very slowly so as not to cloud the water, and then stocked once the temperature reached equilibrium at 78.

I've never had an unplanted tank- so far I've had great success with ambulia, wisteria, java moss, and hygro. I'm thinking of somehow MacGuyvering a CO2 system and putting in some amazon swords... The only plant casualties I've had were lost in transport from home to school- I accidentally left water in the container, and the sloshing tore them to shreds.

The plants have needed minimal care, just trimming every couple months, and biweekly Flourish. I blame the plants and stellar water quality for my algae-free (crossing fingers) tank and astonishing growth of my severum.
 
Last edited:
On other sites, they say to ad fish first I think that is advice for people who only want a few plants. I have a heavily planted tank and I started out with the plants but I did have a mature substrate and filter. In this case you should definitely do plants first and then add some cories. Otos tend to have trouble initially adapting because they are wild caught. I keep rummynose and you should never have rummy nose be th first fish in the aquarium. They are very delicate at first. They too are wild caught. Make sure that the tank is cycled and that you have the PH and temp stabilized before you add them.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom