I'm wondering, if an African tank is heavily planted, would this reduce the need for rockwork for cave dwellers? I'm thinking it would, provided the plants are permanent, and not moved around constantly. Any thoughts?
Replacing caves with plants for Africans
- Thread starter AfroCichlid
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I've gone that way with mine...removing huge amounts of rock work and planting...and seriously overstocking...but I don't think mine would be working out without my facility to return fish to LFS whenever I want....but then mine is a sort of peculiar set-up.
My gut tells me that the less rockwork you provide, the more fish you need to stock so as to manage aggression...I'll think on that some more though and post back.
My gut tells me that the less rockwork you provide, the more fish you need to stock so as to manage aggression...I'll think on that some more though and post back.
I have found that several of my fish have chosen certain areas containing plants as their territory. The plants are dense, and form borders much like rockwork does. So long as the arrangement isn't constantly changed, I would think them to be equal to caves.
As far as stocking levels go, I would imagine it would depend on the Africans in question. Mbuna need to be stocked at such high levels I would think a densely planted tank would be comparable to one with a lot of rockwork. Moving the plants around would probably not be a bad thing, preventing the fish from establishing permanent territories. With Haps or Aulonocara, the rockwork is an afterthought to swimming space. In my case, Tanganyikans typically are a bit less dense fish-wise, and seem to prefer a set landscape and small but well defined territories. If planted correctly, I think that it could work with a minimal amount of rockwork, so long as there are breaks in the line of sight between the fish.
As far as stocking levels go, I would imagine it would depend on the Africans in question. Mbuna need to be stocked at such high levels I would think a densely planted tank would be comparable to one with a lot of rockwork. Moving the plants around would probably not be a bad thing, preventing the fish from establishing permanent territories. With Haps or Aulonocara, the rockwork is an afterthought to swimming space. In my case, Tanganyikans typically are a bit less dense fish-wise, and seem to prefer a set landscape and small but well defined territories. If planted correctly, I think that it could work with a minimal amount of rockwork, so long as there are breaks in the line of sight between the fish.
Totally agree on what you say regarding the tangs.
I think people sometimes worry about whether such a tank would allow the fish to demonstrate natural behaviour. However, once you put them in a glass box, unless its a verrrrrrry big one, that somewhat goes out the window.
In my own case, my tanks is just slightly too short of length to be ideal for a group of mbuna, so requires constant juggling to keep stable and is not the perfect set-up by any means. What I can say is though is that I never get a particular fish claiming one particular cave; or at least when I do I know that trouble is on the way because he's close to deciding he wants half the tank to himself and it is therefore nearly time to re-adjust aspects of the set-up.
I recently took out a ton of rockwork, and planted up, because I wanted the cover/breaks in line of sights/swim routes, but with less water volume taken up by hardscape and more swim space - has worked nicely with no ill effects so far.
I think people sometimes worry about whether such a tank would allow the fish to demonstrate natural behaviour. However, once you put them in a glass box, unless its a verrrrrrry big one, that somewhat goes out the window.
In my own case, my tanks is just slightly too short of length to be ideal for a group of mbuna, so requires constant juggling to keep stable and is not the perfect set-up by any means. What I can say is though is that I never get a particular fish claiming one particular cave; or at least when I do I know that trouble is on the way because he's close to deciding he wants half the tank to himself and it is therefore nearly time to re-adjust aspects of the set-up.
I recently took out a ton of rockwork, and planted up, because I wanted the cover/breaks in line of sights/swim routes, but with less water volume taken up by hardscape and more swim space - has worked nicely with no ill effects so far.