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fast flow tank which plants?

Mr Loach

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20 May 2018
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36
Location
west midlands
Hi new to forum, can anyone help? Keep a Juwel Rio 350 tank and keep fish requiring high flow and oxygen levels, Big Clown Loach, Dennison Barbs etc. Tank filtered by inbuilt JUWEL filter with venturi & large EHEIM Professional 3e 700 external. I have Anubias on bogwood but the loaches have bitten holes in the leaves and the leaves are covered in algae. I appreciate the tank is probably NOT PLANT FRIENDLY but is ideal for the fish so don't really want to change it. Has anyone any suggestions of suitable plants which will do ok in this set up and wont become loach food? many thanks
 
If you have Anubis's with holes in and algea then the issue is probably too much light and maybe nutrient deficiencies.

Your ehiem 700 has an output of 1850lph which wouldn't be classed as fast flow for plants in your size tank even with the internal filter you have.

So more details would help like what lights you using length of photo period and what ferts are you adding.

Pic would help too
 
Vairous Java fern, Crinum, Anubias, Bucephalandra and Vallisneria would probably be ok with high flow, no idea if the fish would eat them tho.

Post some photos of your setup!
 
Hi Zeus 2 Juwel T5 nature and 2 JUWEL T5 Day. Use TNC fertiliser which tints water slightly. thanks
 
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I appreciate the tank is probably NOT PLANT FRIENDLY but is ideal for the fish so don't really want to change it. Has anyone any suggestions of suitable plants which will do ok in this set up and wont become loach food? many thanks

I have a similar set up, clown loaches and denison barbs. They do just fine with normal flow ...around 10X.........I've had the loaches for years, the barbs are perhaps about 2 years old and fully grown now.

The tank is unplanted for a reason :p

There's one plant they don't touch and it's crinum calamistratum. The anubias got chopped down to stubs. All leaves got destroyed. My clown loaches lived in tanks with plants before and it was never that bad besides the holes clicked on the anubias so I think the culprits are the denison barbs because as they grew, the issue with eaten plants got obvious..I had had my loaches for several years and I had never seen anything like it....

But it's worth trying. The flow is not a problem as to the type of plants. All will be fine in high flow...
 
I can't keep plants with my clown loaches either due to them either digging the up or biting holes in them. I don't think it's anything more than bored loaches having a bit of fun but they used to strip stuff as soon as it was added so I now only add excess plants for the loaches environmental enrichment (that and I have silver dollars which then dispose of the plant remains).

If java fern and anubias aren't surviving I don't think you will have much luck as they are about as tough and unpalatable as you can get. The only thing I think might work if the loaches aren't big yet is to mass plant with a dense coverage of things like java, vallis and anubias but that could be an expensive mistake if they don't like them. The other option might be to go for something like water wisteria or guppy grass that are just as happy floating, which means they won't be dug up and are more likely to be ignored.
 
I've seen several (densely) planted scapes with S denisonii but no idea what the "trick" may be

Jurijs mit JS has a client with these fish - look for the "corkscape" on his FB page (I tried the search term but many photos & updates failed to show so you may have to just scroll)
Note it's coming up for a rescape this summer

Corkscape
 
I could be wrong who the culprit is. I don't know. I haven't seen any fish doing it. Whoever was eating them, was doing it when I don't look. I am only coming from the logic that the clown loaches and my big anubias plants came from the same prior tank, only the denison barbs were an addition. I've also seen many planted tanks with denison barbs so I am not really sure...

The plants had chunks/bites taken out of them and were gradually eaten literally...I think they would have eaten the stalks if I left them. If you do a google search for denison barbs eating plants you'd get a few positive hits, that's why I suspected them. I feed daily 50/50 NLS omnivore wafers and algae wafers and they've been raised on that diet.....I don't really feed terrestrial vegetable matter much anymore.

No fish touched my crinum calamistratum, not even a chunk out of it, although the plant is suffering for other reasons.....
I've since grown my anubias back in another tank and I am thinking to try it again....

The other fish I have in their are SAEs, harlequin rasboras, corys, kuhli loaches and a pleco.

Either way, its either the clown loaches or the barbs or both in combination so having those fish in the same tank will not yield a healthy planted tank...

If anyone has come across another plant that fish don't eat let me know..
 
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As everyone else has said your flow isn't high.
I'm running a smaller 300L tank and have an external pump running 4000Lph

Egeria densa and java ferns are pretty bomb proof and meant to be reasonably nasty tasting.

If you can improve the conditions for the plants they will hopefully grow faster enough to survive a bit of more damage.
Have you thought about adding some form of liquid carbon like Seachem flourish excel also a complete fertilizer like the TMP (above) or personally I've had good results with Evolution Aqua Complete Liquid Plant Food.
 
You could try combining tougher, less appetising plants with cuttings of something tender and fast growing, like Najas or Hygrophila,or whatever grows well for you. If you could grow those in another tank and use the trimmings in your Denisons' tank, they might eat the soft plants and leave your Anubias, Java Ferns, etc alone. I've had that work with other species, but never kept Denison's Barbs myself.
 
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