A question about plants

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Owensdad74

Owensdad74

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Jul 12, 2014
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As I was watching the fish in our tank just now, I was day dreaming about the plants I would like to add eventually.

And wondered- do the added plants take away space that can be occupied by fish?

i was thinking of starting simple, like adding amazon sword and some amazon frogbit for our platys to hide under. But when they mature they will obviously get bigger. Will this reduce the number of fish we can keep based on the volume of the plants?

Always learning,

Bri
 
TL1000RSquid

TL1000RSquid

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Well I've never really thought about it, plants do take up some space but unless you're overstocking the fish, plants should make no difference really.
 
SnakeIce

SnakeIce

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It depends on the fish, some love to have cover and will be in even clumps of stems with no problems. Other fish prefer open water. For platys I think it won't matter much. In general the benefits of healthy plants outweigh any space they take up.
 
Rbishop

Rbishop

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Some fish eat plants...just saying...start with low light hardy plants....learn as you go....
 
Owensdad74

Owensdad74

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It was kind of a random thought I would put out there.

We currently have platys, a couple mollies and fancy guppies. Oh, and a Julii Cory cat (long story). Oh, and two neon tetras. The tank got off to a bad start.

Anyway, the platys seem to like cover most of the time. The tetras like to hang around taller plants. The mollies and the cat, well they are all over the place.

I know having the right plants benefit the fish, just didn't know if certain species of plants would crowd the fish out.

More a question of curiosity than anything!

thanks for the input!
 
Glabe

Glabe

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I had that same worry when I started having plants and asked that. I found out it's hard to get too many plants unless you have like a 10 gallon.

What size tank do you have?
 
Owensdad74

Owensdad74

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Hey Bob,

Are your fingers sore from answering my questions? ;-)

Adding plants is down the road a bit. Stable water quality and a proper filtration system are up first. And add to that phasing out crappy substrate...

I'm definitely in the learning phase before I leap this time...

Bri

Rbishop said:
Some fish eat plants...just saying...start with low light hardy plants....learn as you go....
Click to expand...
 
Owensdad74

Owensdad74

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Hi Glabe,

we we have a 45 gallon tank. It's pretty tall...

Glabe said:
I had that same worry when I started having plants and asked that. I found out it's hard to get too many plants unless you have like a 10 gallon.

What size tank do you have?
Click to expand...
 
WhiskeySunday

WhiskeySunday

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Live plants almost always are beneficial to a fish tank. Plants with sufficient lighting, nutrients (either in liquid form or substrate), and C02 will provide oxygen to the water that your fish are living in. Plants release oxygen as a byproduct of photosyntheses. This will actually "allow" you to have more fish comfortably because there is more oxygen in the tank than without. Now that doesn't mean just throwing in plants automatically equals more fish right off the bat. In short hand plants are positive and most fish love them as hiding places or simply to graze on. Amazon swords are great to start off with because they require low light and are a broad leaf plant that can withstand the pecking that mollies and platys do. Join the green thumbs. :thm:
 
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