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Posts Tagged ‘tropical fish’

When we first started keeping freshwater tropical fish – we did have one major disaster which wiped out the whole tank. It was a particularly grisly state of affairs which we could have circumvented but I didn’t count as “our fault”…

We had gone away for a long weekend and yes, you’ve guessed it, the thermostat on the aquarium heater broke, the temperature of the water soared – fish tank extinction ensued…and my family and I were in tears on our return…

I was so shaken by the situation that for a while we kept only plants in our aquarium as we didn’t have the heart to start again.

Slowly as time passed we realised how brilliant a properly planted tank can be and how exotic the plants can make the whole aquarium look, a properly landscape tank adds enormous visual impact. And of course, when you add fish, plants play an important role in aquarium life as they add oxygen to the water and help to absorb nitrites that are toxic to the fish.

Light plays an important part…

The sun is the most significant factor in the life of a plant, and in a freshwater tropical fish aquarium, lighting is equally as central to maintain the health and beauty of the plants.

Wayne Vandre, Horticulture Specialist, comments that light is the all-important source of energy used by plants in photosynthesis. But light is not just one simple, well-defined entity. Plant growth and activity are strongly influenced by the intensity quality and duration of the light source. It has been proven that the best growth of plants in an aquarium is under cool fluorescent light.

Fundamental to the quality of plant growth is the quality of the lighting that is provided, giving the tank a much better overall quality.

Different species of plants

Landscaping a tank can be fun and it is essential to get different types of plants to give the tank that exotic look. There are many diverse ranges of aquatic plants. Tubers need to be anchored by the root to the bottom of the tank. Floating plants do what it says on the tin – they float! They do not need to be fixed to anything and dont require special food. Rooted plants, like tubers need to be anchored to the bottom of the tank normally tied to pieces of rock or wood. These species usually grow to be fairly tall and will help to fill the aquarium.

Normally, the water and the fish in the tank will supply the nutrients and fertilizers essential for plant growth. Adding extra nutrients is rarely required. The filtration system is crucial to maintaining healthy plant life in the tank. Under gravel filters restricts the composition of the gravel in which the plants are rooted and produce a steady flow of bubbles that disturb the surface. All other kinds of filtration systems should work well for plants and it is good to keep water movement in the tank, but not too mush disturbance at the surface as CO2 is lost, essential to the survival of the plants.

Our fish are all content and fit in amongst our colourful water vegetation.