matildanz Posted June 13, 2013 Report Share Posted June 13, 2013 After seeing Adrienne's fantastic tank I've gotten all enthused to tart up my tank. It's becoming quite obvious that if I have any chance of having a planted aquarium AND clowns that there's going to have to be some fakery going on! The brutes have destroyed an entire tank of twisted val and my poor sword is looking very sorry after being dredged up twice and is now weighed down with every fake rock/wood that I could find in the garage at 10pm last night - on the up-side, it's still planted this morning! The only things that has stood up to their brutal onslaught is Java Fern and Anubias Nana, although I'm willing to give live plants another go if anyone can suggest some other hardy plants (even if I have to anchor them down with rocks until they grow some decent roots) I know you guys are all for real plants and in an ideal world I'd much rather have live plants but feel I may as well just throw my money down the toilet and be done with it!! Does anyone know of anywhere that sells good quality, realistic looking artificial/silk plants? Not worried if it's overseas, as long as they're safe for the fish! Cheers guys Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adrienne Posted June 14, 2013 Report Share Posted June 14, 2013 Thank you! I am glad I have inspired you to plant your tank. I assume you are talking clown loaches? How big are they? I had another 5ft tank fully planted, mostly with stem plants I had either clown loaches in with the discus. They had lots of driftwood hidey holes behind and under the plants and left the plants mostly alone. I would go for a deep substrate - a good 5cm and plants which can be pushed right in to it. Sword plants are normally good, trim the roots down by half their length and push them in deep, either use fertiliser in the substrate or root balls The upside with swords is that once they do become established it will take more than a clown loach to move them!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Godly3vil Posted June 14, 2013 Report Share Posted June 14, 2013 I had big issues with clowns destroying plants in my old tank, the issue seemed to disappear once I added a few more clowns. Now they just torment each other lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matildanz Posted June 14, 2013 Author Report Share Posted June 14, 2013 Thank you! I am glad I have inspired you to plant your tank. I assume you are talking clown loaches? How big are they? I had another 5ft tank fully planted, mostly with stem plants I had either clown loaches in with the discus. They had lots of driftwood hidey holes behind and under the plants and left the plants mostly alone. I would go for a deep substrate - a good 5cm and plants which can be pushed right in to it. Sword plants are normally good, trim the roots down by half their length and push them in deep, either use fertiliser in the substrate or root balls The upside with swords is that once they do become established it will take more than a clown loach to move them!! Yes, clown loaches. I have 9 ranging in size from maybe 10-15cm. Substrate is Daltons with Silica sand on top. It's probably time to renew the Daltons and I'm thinking I'd quite like a darker sand as the white can look a little bright. I don't think it's quite that deep though. There's 3 large pieces of wood with attached java and anubias that they race laps around. I was hoping if I could keep some more swords planted long enough to grow some decent roots then they may just stand a chance! I have added another filter (just for some extra flow) that I'm hoping will keep them otherwise occupied! They're nosier than toddlers..... anything new gets a full investigation and taste test!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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