Experience native freshwater fish tank with plants

[Beezel]

Hi,

I am a newbie and need some tips and advice to add native freshwater plants to the system i have. I have started to look around for basic info about equipment like lights etc. but it is easy to get lost. Would appreciate any tips where i could find basic info about plants in freshwater tanks (books, web, forum older topics) before I dive into specific stuff for native plants.

To me, i am a lab tech at the Northland Polytech in Whangarei and spend the last year setting up an old system we had in the hallway just collecting dust and thought I can get it going again. It has two tanks basically both 98cm*58cm*30cm connected over a bridge for ripple effect an overflow at the end with a little tank underneath with a submerged pump for a bit of a current flow. I connected an external filter (Eheim 2075 pro3), chiller (Hailea HC300A) and a UV system (Emperor UV 40W).

The system contains at the moment some common bullies, redfin bullies,cran's bullies, inanga and koura and is pretty stable with the water quality.

Now I am looking for plants may be next year but one expert told me not to even try since it is expensive and difficult to grow plants a s well. But I like a challenge and thought first do a bit of research and reading and then decide, so any tips and advise are welcome.

Have a nice weekend everybody.

Daniel

[blueether]

Hi and welcome to the forum.

Have a dig around in the native section for some good info on keeping our native fish, my main tank is native.

As for the plants have a dig around in here http://www.fnzas.org.nz/?page_id=2379, and there is a good read on NIWAs site about native plants, and this http://www.thekrib.com/Plants/Plants/NZ/ which is more or less what is on the NIWA site.

one very common native is Glossostigma elatinoides - needs very good lighting

I have Lilaeopsis ruthiana growing - seems to be very slow growing under my lighting

another common one is Lilaeopsis novae-zeelandiae, but i'm not convinced that what is sold in the pet stores is L. novae-zeelandiae, probably L. brasiliensis.

I also have a Hydrocotyle sp. that i'm trying to get to grow emersed

another native I have that is doing ok is Elatine gratioloides

I also have 3 native mosses and 2 native fissidens in my tanks

I'll let the plant people talk about what is needed to grow plants, but what I will say is that the lake margin plants need lots of light and there are very few native plants from rivers/streams.

so all in all it is doable.

[Sophia]

hi newbie

[M@.]

Hi

Based on your location, I think someone has told me about your tank :dnc1: they were very impressed!

I’m a bit of a rookie, my plant knowledge extends to bunging them in and seeing what happens. Tends to work our most of the time though!

For native plants, I have some Glossostigma - it isn’t doing very well in the tank it is in (think the substrate is a bit too coarse) but does really well in my pond (probably due to better light and sand substrate). Another native I have is Riccia http://www.fnzas.org.nz/?page_id=2379&PID=RF1&EM=1 It grows really well if it has enough light, but needs to be tied down if you want it as something other than a floating mat, as it has no roots

One thing I will say is with Koura - be prepared for frustration and re-planting! My one loves digging them up and nibbling on them. Try tying them to rocks/driftwood, or wedging them between a couple of rocks that are too big for them to move.

[blueether]

I mist say that I only have moss and fissidens in my native tank, the kokopu and koura seem to pull out or blunder through anything I plant in there.

there is also Lemna minor and Azolla sp. that are endemic, and nitella sp. that is an algae.

[Beezel]

Hi people,

Thanks for the links blueether, i think I have seen them and just roughly overlooked them but worth having a closer look later.

Sophia thanks for the links with your tank, how is it doing? Looks colorful.

To M@, wow the word is spread fast I guess wouldn't thought of it as a really good example, but looks better than before empty with just plastic plants in it!

And yes koura are muncher and have a weakness for plants as lunch so i heard, I guess I have to figure out how to get around it because I would like to keep them they are pretty.

Thanks for the input so far from you anyway.

Cu

Daniel