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Planted tank... for catfish

tam

Member
Joined
5 May 2011
Messages
1,456
This is my parent's catfish tank, it's been around in various iterations since before I was (30+ years).

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It currently houses four Syndontis (angelicus, decorus, eupterus?, and something stripy) and a adopted clown loach we need to find a new home for with some clown loach friends. It looks rather empty during catfish nap time so I've promised to help my mum with a complete makeover and some plants!

These guys love rooting around in the substrate, so the plan is nothing gets planted in it and instead wood covered in anubias, javafern and moss.

My mum's picked some wood:

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The fish like to have their own hiding spots so the plan is to stand the wood up to create arches using egg crate and cable ties to keep it stable - any tips? Haven't tried using it before.

I think we'll keep the existing gravel as it's nice and rounded and don't mind the colour.

Going to need a background though, to hide the wallpaper - not sure if black would work with dark brown fish?

Can't find too many planted tanks with catfish, so hoping this plan will work and the plants will survive. Any ideas/tips/advice very much appreciated!
 
Some nice catfish there. Going by the bum of the syno in the middle, you have it right with eupterus.

I think your plan of java fern, moss and anubius should work well but consider bolbitis as well. You could even plant a few plants like cryptocorynes if you made a little pot for it to sit on.
Cable ties should be fine to keep the wood together and for attaching the plants but if you have some cotton it works well as well and will slowly decay after the plants have rooted onto the wood, so looks a little neater. Some sort of floating plant would add a little shade which the cats might appreciate. A few oak or beech leaves would make it look natural as well.

For the back you could paint a board with a different colour each side and then flip it to see which you like better or when you fancy a change. I painted my tank background black which I liked at the time but don't now and i'm not emptying everything to move the tank, scrape it and change this.
 
I had a Syndontis Angelicus & Synodontis Multipunctatus (I think) many years ago I seem to remember that I used ribbed rubber pond pipe stacked in trio's cable wrapped together & covered with Java fern & Anubius (I think I had a lot of crypts in the tank as well). What I would say is your lighting is possibly too harsh so would suggest you add some floating plants to defuse it & make them more comfortable leaving their pipes so you should see them more often.

If you have an automatic feeder & can set it up to feed small amounts at regular intervals while the tank is lit this should further encourage them so venture out regularly. As for background just tape some coloured crepe paper to the back of the tank (its cheap) & change as often as you feel like it. Good luck.
 
Thank you, added Bolbitis to the list. Painting both sides of a board is a great idea we'll try that. I'm not shifting the tank to paint, so definitely going for a board. I've held bits of paper behind but I think we'll have to wait until everything else is in to decide colour.

Scrubbed all the cover glass just before the photo and it suddenly got a lot brighter than usual. Once the plants are in that should help add more shade. I did throw some frogbit in awhile ago, but it didn't last long not sure if it was a fert issue or it didn't appreciate being nudged around. I've got some salvina in my tank I can pop in as a trial.
 
For a background you could try frosted vinyl backlit with an RGB led strip, you can then change the colour to suit with the press of a button (would also make nice diffuse night lighting)
As noted catfish love to dig, my humbugs quite happily dig their own shelters under the edges of pieces of wood and ignore provide shelter. As long as the wood is self supporting and they can get under the edges they will dig their own caves.
 
Thank you, added Bolbitis to the list. Painting both sides of a board is a great idea we'll try that. I'm not shifting the tank to paint, so definitely going for a board. I've held bits of paper behind but I think we'll have to wait until everything else is in to decide colour.

Scrubbed all the cover glass just before the photo and it suddenly got a lot brighter than usual. Once the plants are in that should help add more shade. I did throw some frogbit in awhile ago, but it didn't last long not sure if it was a fert issue or it didn't appreciate being nudged around. I've got some salvina in my tank I can pop in as a trial.

Some floating plants don't do very well under cover glasses due to condensation, so if the glass is fairly tight all round that might be the problem. As an alternative something like najas guadalupensis aka guppy grass might be another option. It's a floating stem plant and good for nutrient removal but easy to look after.
 
Some floating plants don't do very well under cover glasses due to condensation, so if the glass is fairly tight all round that might be the problem. As an alternative something like najas guadalupensis aka guppy grass might be another option. It's a floating stem plant and good for nutrient removal but easy to look after.

That could be it then. Other than the triangle in the corner for the pipe work it's all sealed. I've dropped some salvina in to see how it does. The guppy grass sounds like it could be a better option, the big guys produce a lot of 'nutrients'.

Mr Clown Loach has just left for his new home in a big tank with some friends.
 
Plant stem plants through a circle of firm filter floss buried in the substrate stops loaches and other substrate diggers uprooting plants.
 
Cyanoacrylate is safe for aquarium use, so as long as it says that on the superglue you are ok. You'd be better doing it outside of the water ime.
 
Love this and can't wait to see progression.
Always loved the catfishes and Plecos.
 
I always use gel type and try and get the surfaces as dry a possible before glueing.
 
I might would use large smooth river stones to help hold the wood down until it becomes water logged .
Lot's of anubia and or bucephalandra attached to the wood with the super glue.
Stem plant's might be hard to keep in place with the actions of the catfish and loach while foraging for foods or just digging cause it suit's them,but vallisneria might grow fast enough to withstand the fishes normal behaivor's.
Plants mentioned thus far would not need much light, and so maybe a floating plant such as duckweed,or frogbit might be consideration without harming growth of plant's below .
Spanish tile(used on roofs) can make for interesting cave's for fishes to retire to along with existing caves seen in photo.
Would try and find stones mentioned that are close to same color as the wood for purely aesthetic reasons.
 
Ordered the super glue. Just need cable ties now... and the rest of the plants to arrive.

We've got some nice big cobble/pebbles in/about our pond so I will nick a few to use as weights. I think there are some browner ones - they'll match the gravel if not quite as dark as the wood.

I've ordered some of the bigger narrow leaved anubias to use in place of stem plants at the back - did try vallis and it wasn't sturdy enough. They get blood worm once a week, so they have a really good nose around everything picking it up. I think the bigger grade gravel makes it tougher for it to root sturdily enough as well.

Plant list so far:
Anubias Nana
Anubias Nana Golden
Anubias bonsai
Anubias spieces
Anubias barteri
Anubias congensis
Anubias lanceolata
Anubias crispus
Fissidens fontanas
Bolbitis heudelotii

Need to decide on which type of java fern.

I can't decide whether to include bucephalandra - they are a bit expensive if they decide to rough them up! Might save those for a possible later addition.
 
You could use Hornwort for a stem plant, it doesn't root, so if the catfish move it around there's no damage and you can put it back in position if necessary.
 
Had a cable-tying wood to egg crate session - it's not as easy as the internet makes it look. Everything stands up by itself now though (well the biggest bit of wood is going to have a tunnel wedged behind for extra stability but that should sort it).

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Brown cable ties blend well!

Plants are all here, nice big anubias:

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Planting (glueing) day today! Been at it all afternoon. Here are some in progress whilst the tank settles.

Bit of photoshoping and this is the rough plan:

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All ready to start:

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Half done:

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I super glued moss to my fingers, so I'm literally green fingered at the moment so hopefully it will all grow.
 
And here we go..

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The catfish seem to love it, we've seen a lot more of them today hanging out under wood on the left and generally meandering around.

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Not sure if the lights will be ok, it's an old LED strip not a plant light and it's making some slightly weird colouring/rainbows in places.

The salvina I put in has disappeared, I think maybe the filter outflow is splashing it/driving it under. I'm going to try an airline hoop anchored the other end. I've just got some Hygroryza aristata in another tank and I wondered if I could just tie some thread around it to anchor it the left end.
 
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