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Can you successfully grow aquarium plants with fish?

13 years ago

I have had fish aquariums for years now, but want to grow plants in the aquariums. I have anacharis and cabamba and underwater grass I brought in and cleaned from the ponds. I have been reading you have to use a special substrate to grow plants successfully, but with those types of substrate, can my fish still survive? Until spring, I have baby koi in my 30 gallon tank where I want to grow these plants.

Also read where you have to add lots and lots of nutrients. Is that harmful to fish?

If I have to set up a seperate tank, I can do that, but would rather grow the plants in the living room where I can watch them.

Thanks for all your help!

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Comments (2)

garyfla_gw
13 years ago
Hi
Of course you can grow plants with fish.Koi ,Goldfish are bad choices as they will snack, constantly up root them.. The tough part is providing enough light in an aquarium. They make special fixtures for this purpose but there are plants that tolerate very low light .
As to substrate there are plants that require none at all. They either float or attach to driftwood ,rocks.
Check around the net for "planted aquariums" tons of info as well as many pix. good luck gary
Nick_
13 years ago
Substrates that provide nutrients are typically a non issue. Some of the plant substrates (I believe the ada among others) will leech ammonia initially. With some planning, you can avoid issue.

For an example, I have a 10g tank at 4+wpg with 2-3" of high humus topsoil covered with 2-3" of pea gravel that grows anacharis, corkscrew val, and algea very quickly. I throw cuttings from both into lower light, inert substrate tanks with some success. Both types do better in a 55 with an 80watt shoplight at 6500k.

The amount, and temperature of light matter quite a bit for plants (And algea. Expect to have a bit of both)

Your best bet may be duckweed - Common Duckweed, Lesser Duckweed, Lemna minor(resembles tiny lily pads ~1/4" across ) . Many aquarists hate it, but supposedly goldfish/koi/omnivores love it. Odds are you can get enough to seed the tank for free (It won't take much at all, and is near impossible to get rid of - just a heads up come transfer time ;) ) It's a small floating plant that grows beyond fast with good conditions. Being on the surface allows it to utilize much more light from your fixture (PAR values drop fast as you go deeper into water).

Might be worth checking into. 1 small duckweed lily is capable of reproducing, so odds are your lfs wouldn't bother charging more than a buck or two for a whole bag. (Read, I've known people to dislike it that much. They'd be scooping it out weekly because they had fish that ignored it for tastier foods - though the dangling roots are great for fry)

Hope it helps. ^_^
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