Live plants for breeding?

[opie6701]

I am setting up 5, 10 gallon breeding tanks for convicts, guppies, mollies and another species tbd.

I was wondering if live plants would be the best way to go, or if i should go with fake.

If i were to go live what kind of live plants should I get?

And can I have live plants and UGF's?

[GulfCstAquarian]

Live plants with strong roots don't mix well with UGF (roots clog substrate, eliminating biological filtration). Live plants are excellent for breeding, on the other hand, because of the enriched oxygen and pollution free environment.

[125gJoe]

Originally posted by GulfCstAquarian
Live plants with strong roots don't mix well with UGF (roots clog substrate, eliminating biological filtration). I agree.. And also, when it comes time to clean under those plates....you may have to rip the roots from the plates.

[TwoTankAmin]

Yes you can do live plants with a UGF. However, it works much better if it is run as an RUGF. This requires a powerhead which will likely produce more current than you may want in a small tank. Also for a ugf/rugf to be most evvective, you should have a gravel bed on top of the plate that is 3 inches deep. That wont leave much room in a shallower tank. If you want substrate planted live plants, that gravel depth is needed as well. if you want to go the ugf route, then plants can be planted in clay pots to help contain the roots.

As for plants, you can use all ones that don't need to root in the substrate: najas grass and water sprite can be floated as can many other stem plants, java moss is attached to rocks and wood as are java ferns. All of these will do fine in lower light and with a well planted tank, provide great fry cover.

[Starry]

Hornwort (Ceratophyllum demersum) is great for fry. It also looks really good and doesn't root. If the light is very low, it will shed all of its little pointy leaves and it will make a mess! I've growin it in a 2-gallon tank with UGF in window sunlight and it did allright. The fry loved picking stuff off it.