# Plants pissing me off



## ezlife (Jan 25, 2003)

In my tank now, i have an oscar and arowana, i suspect the oscar is digging up the plants at night and when the arowana swims fast it pull them out of the gravel.

If you had these two types of fish in a tank, would you have plants in there? i am thinking of just removing all the plants period.

EVERY day i have to stick my hand in the tank and fix it and a few hours later it will be all moved and pulled out again.

Also:

1) would you take all plants out? (arowana, pacu, oscar, pleco, type setup)

2) when i buy plants, they are held together with foam material and lead weight, but over time, the leaves would come apart or one at a time, any way to fix this? i am tired of seeing little leaves fall apart and after a few weeks there is nothing left of the "plant".

3) do you use any special "plant food", etc. in your tanks?

Thanks.


----------



## Judazzz (Jan 13, 2003)

I wouldn't remove all the plants: they're too useful (they convert CO2 into oxygen, and absorb harmful chemicals from the water) to get rid of, and make the tank look a lot better as well.

I have the same problem, as it ticks me off sometimes as well, but I haven't given up. I just plant the greenery as firmly into the gravel as possible. Perhaps it helps to position a rock or piece of wood so that it somewhat pins the plants down a bit. Also, you could look for java fern or anubias plants: you can attach these plants directly to rock or wood (with a piece of fishing line or whatever you find useful), and they'll be fine.

Good luck!


----------



## Winkyee (Feb 17, 2003)

My Oscars made a concerted effort to undo any decorating that I tried to add to my tank. If they could move it , it was moved,Plants didn't stand a chance , they would grab them with their mouths and just tear them out.
I was amazed how efficient they were with their own style of decorating.
I'd was usually left with floating plants, gravel and rocks piled everywhere I didn't want it . I just gave up.


----------



## mort (Mar 14, 2003)

Plants looks fine, but they are not necessary to make you fish happy/healthy









I also tried alot of different plants, but some fish always destroys the settings...


----------



## Sir Nathan XXI (Jan 29, 2003)

you need a different type of plants, I hate bunched plants, you should use rooted plants like annubis and swords, they will do better for you, try putting them out of the swimming lanes as well.


----------



## Innes (Jan 13, 2003)

winkyee said:


> I was amazed how efficient they were with their own style of decorating.
> I'd was usually left with floating plants, gravel and rocks piled everywhere I didn't want it . I just gave up.


 I often find this with cichlids, I just leave them to it and add a few fake ones, as they stay in the gravel a bit better because of their bases.


----------



## rong666 (Mar 5, 2003)

i had the same problem.....anubias ,java fern, and java moss....tie it down...no more problem.


----------



## RhomZilla (Feb 12, 2003)

Im currently having the same prob too!! I had live plants before with my Ps, but then they would nibble on it from time to time. Now I have plastic plants that they're uprooting. I just cant win with these guys. They like decorating on their own.


----------



## Petzl88 (Feb 5, 2003)

I have two 7 inch reds and they are always redecorating. At times, I'm like, "Ok, I'll place a few back in there." But recently they've been uprooting almost all of the plants in my tank and it pisses me off. I really love live plants and I'm not going to get fake ones. Potted plants won't come uprooted so I have 3 of those. Swords are good. Place big rocks around the base of the plants and they're harder to uproot. Also make sure the plants are out of their swimming lanes as Nate said.

You just have to find the live plants that work.

It really pisses me off at times, but I'm not going to give up. I suggest that you don't give up either.


----------



## NIKE (Jan 27, 2003)

my o's used to pull the plastic plants out all the time, so i just let them stand on top and they would move them arround daily then i just took them out. now they are into pulling my 12'' airstone all over, i figure it has to get preety boring in there so what ever!!!


----------



## WebHostExpert (Jan 16, 2003)

I gave up, and the fake one I bought look just as good without the mess. I had a really big problem every time I fedthe suckers live food they would go in a pack of 20-30 chasing the fish plow right though the plants ripping them apart, unrouting them. bad. I am very happy with my fake plants.

MAD


----------



## mort (Mar 14, 2003)

I also have invested in some fake ones as well!


----------



## Croz (Jan 29, 2003)

this is what i did with one of my swords i took one of the lava rock you can get at any LFS with a hole in the middel and put the plan in there then filled the rest of the hole with gravel. works very well and the plant grows more in there than it did just planted in the gravel.


----------



## Judazzz (Jan 13, 2003)

Crozy said:


> this is what i did with one of my swords i took one of the lava rock you can get at any LFS with a hole in the middel and put the plan in there then filled the rest of the hole with gravel. works very well and the plant grows more in there than it did just planted in the gravel.


 Pretty clever: I should remember that one :smile:


----------

