Bitter Plants

Marala

Marala

Where's Nemo?
May 2, 2005
149
0
16
College Station, TX
I have been trying over and over with out success to keep live plants. A lot of the time the reason is because my fish eat them. I was talking to a fellow fishy friend about this, and she said that I needed to find bitter plants that the fish didn't like and that the only way to find out which plants were bitter was through trial and error. There has to be a better way than that! I do have a few herbivorous fish (silver dollars) but my friend has Silver Dollars also and has had no trouble keeping her plants in good shape while mine look as if the got run over by a lawn mower! I don’t think it from lack of vegetable matter in their diet either because I give them boiled lettuce once or twice a week. Can anyone advise me on this? Also, what is the best fertilizer that is cheap? Thanks!
 
I don't know about the bitterness but Anubias are supposed to be pretty tough. Other option is to try to grow plants that grow faster than fish eat them ie Egeria najas, Hornwort.

Least expensive ferts are at "gregwatson.com". He's also very helpful if you have questions. Great service too.
 
I agree that the anubias variety of plants are very tough, particularly anubia afzeli. As for bitter plants, I don't know about that because I havent had to experiment. My plants are left alone.
 
Marala,

My son's tank has silver dollars and they do not touch the plants I have in there: anacharis, Amazon sword, Java fern, Radican sword, Ruffle plant, Narrow Leaf Temple plant and red rubin. All of those are low to moderate light and rated "easy" to care for. The temple, rubin, and the ruffle don't do as well as they should (probably not enough CO2 for them to really thrive), but it's not from the fish.

I did put in two plants that I got at a LFS that they obliterated :) Unfortunately I don't know what they were and they were gone before I had a chance to research the internet for ID.

Hope this helps,
Roan

PS
This is Marala from Practical Pet Care, isn't it? :)
 
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Hornwort is pretty tough and grows rather quickly without any fertilizers, so I would try that... If your fish can devour hornwort I don't know what else to reccommend :) .
 
Roan Art ~ Yep its me! Nice to see you! Thanks I will try that!

I am not a nebie when it comes to fish, but I know very little about live plants. What is CO2, and how do you add it to the aquarium?
 
I have tried a bunch of amazon swords, but I am not sure of the names of the other two I tried. I think one of the second biggest(the first being the fish) reasons they died is because I didn't add anything special to the water for them. I have read about a bunch of products that are supposed to work, but which ones actually do? The fish that I have caught eating my plants are my black skirt tetras and my guppies. The Black skirts will be moved to a tank with plastic plants soon, and the guppies just won't get any more plants. My other fish have just nibbled here and there, but haven't caused too much damage. I would like to do this right for my new 40 gallon. I have wasted quite a bit of money so far! Grrrrrrrr. My lighting is good, I know that, but what else do I need to do? Thanks!
 
Marala said:
I have tried a bunch of amazon swords, but I am not sure of the names of the other two I tried. I think one of the second biggest(the first being the fish) reasons they died is because I didn't add anything special to the water for them. I have read about a bunch of products that are supposed to work, but which ones actually do? The fish that I have caught eating my plants are my black skirt tetras and my guppies. The Black skirts will be moved to a tank with plastic plants soon, and the guppies just won't get any more plants. My other fish have just nibbled here and there, but haven't caused too much damage. I would like to do this right for my new 40 gallon. I have wasted quite a bit of money so far! Grrrrrrrr. My lighting is good, I know that, but what else do I need to do? Thanks!
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Hi,

What do you have for lights (wattage, type and reflectors) and size of tank. Basic fertilizing includes dosing macros N,P and K which is easiest IME to do using KNO3 and KH2PO4. You also need to do trace fertilizer like Seachem Flourish (make sure you get the one that just says Seachem "Flourish" not "trace" or anything else). You dose them on different days because of the way they interact. You can get them all cheap at "gregwatson.com".

If you have more than 2 watts per gallon you'll need to use CO2. I'll wait to see what you have to go into that. Under 2 wpg you can still use CO2 if you like for extra growth. You could also use Excel which will give you some carbon which is what the plants are getting from the CO2. It is simpler. But if you don't have more than 2 wpg you can skip the CO2 altogether and enjoy slower growth with less work and money.

Good luck, Bill
 
Marala said:
Roan Art ~ Yep its me! Nice to see you! Thanks I will try that!

I am not a nebie when it comes to fish, but I know very little about live plants. What is CO2, and how do you add it to the aquarium?
Click to expand...
Lemme see if I can explain it properly. I'm pretty new to this stuff as well. I'm sure (I see veterans posting in your thread) someone will correct me if I'm wrong.

Animals breathe in oxygen and expell carbon dioxide. Plants breathe carbon dioxide and expell oxygen. When plants are underwater, they have to get their source of carbon from the water itself. We added oxygen, for the fish, by aeration of the water via the filter and airstones (if used). In order for many plants to flourish well, they need to have diffused carbon gas mixed into the water for them to breathe. This is what CO2 injection does.

There must be other sources of carbon dioxide in the water for any plants to grow. Since most fish breath oxygen by passing it over their gills, it stands to reason that they give off carbon dioxide as well, ergo a source of life for the plants. When we aeration the surface of the water with filters, et al., we are also releasing gasses from the water and there is a loss of carbon dioxide.

I read somewhere that plants actually give off carbon dioxide at night and that aquarium plants lose some of their "air" due to the surface agitation during this process. This make sense, anyone?

Okay, all this is from what I've had time to read, plus what I've experienced with my own tanks. My Eclipse 6 (6 gallon) betta tank has VERY little surface agitation. It has 5" (yah FIVE) inches of flourite as the substrate, three java ferns, 1 large clump of floating anacharis, 1 planted clump of anacharis, 1 plant I have no idea what it is, and 1 Varigated Japanese Dwarf Rush. All of these plants are doing extremely well -- TOO well. I had algae bloom like MAD last week and added Molly Maid (my travelling pl*co) to clean things up a bit. No special lighting, just the light that came with the tank. It looks like a desktop jungle, but Jakers the betta is quite happy.

My son's tank, the one with the silver dollars, has the standard light that came with the hood. One thing of note, however, is that the light is on from 9pm until 11am in the morning and off during the day. The room is rather dark during daylight hours. He's young (4 years old) and likes to watch his fish as he falls asleep. It doesn't seem to have had any determental affect on the fish at all and I don't know if this has affected the plants either.

My bowfront is too new to see any real growth, I think, but the plants seem to be doing well in there. I have the standard hood with 1 light strip, but I replaced the light with a Life-Glo 2 20 watt 6,700K flourescent. From what I've read here I need at least a basic 2 watts per gallon. With a 36 gallon tank, in order to get that with the same type of lamps I'm using, I need to replace the hood or light strip and install two lamps for a total of 40watts.

I am awaiting the test kit(s) I just ordered that have iron, CO2, O2, and so forth, which will give me a better idea of how my tanks differ.

Is this correct? Hope someone can tell me :)

Roan
 
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