Plants with weather loaches

The forum for the very best information on loaches of all types. Come learn from our membership's vast experience!

Moderator: LoachForumModerators

Post Reply
Beee Haven
Posts: 12
Joined: Thu May 07, 2015 12:21 pm

Plants with weather loaches

Post by Beee Haven » Sat May 09, 2015 9:12 am

I'd really appreciate any advice anybody has with regards to plants in freshwater aquarium with weather loaches. Obviously they uproot EVERYTHING, so I bought a couple of pieces of bogroot with plants tied to them, one of which has been nibbled down to it's bare stalks, the other doing better but still fairly battered (I also have goldfish and ramshorn snails), and I'm looking into getting more plants to keep the nitrate levels lower for longer.

Am considering potting a few plants in those little basket type plastic pots and burying them in the slightly deeper areas of sand but have literally no idea of how to go about it. I've been reading that using the white media is asking for hairy algae, so am considering other types of substrate to pot with, though again, I've no idea which type would be best. I'm finding so much contrasting advice that my head's just getting a little fried with all the windows open and kind of going around in circles so any advice on what type of plants etc would be much appreciated.

I saw this neat little trick on youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-2XQbT_DJo and may try that with some sort of moss, also, this trick here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRfElzhaLms .... has anybody tried these with any success?

Sorry for the rambling post - I'm a tad confused!

Loachloach
Posts: 787
Joined: Mon Nov 05, 2012 10:11 pm

Re: Plants with weather loaches

Post by Loachloach » Sun May 10, 2015 8:00 am

I am not familiar with weather loaches but if they like uprooting, then plants with strong root systems are best such as echinodorus species and cryptocorynes. You can try putting stones around the plant until it roots properly. Once they do, the roots will spread all over the tank, it's hard for a human to pull them out.

Emergent plants would be a nice thing to do if you have an open top tank and light over them. Check "riparium" tanks for ideas what you can do. They'll give you the benefit of purifying the water without much hassle as long as you use ones that don't need humidity. Such plants are peace lily, spider plant, pothos, etc..
For substrate in the planters, whether you want to burry them or hang them on the side of the tank, you can use just normal top soil from the garden center, the most plain type that doesn't contain chemicals. I also put hydroponic clay balls at the bottom of each planter to aid with water drainage and water movement around the roots, then top up the planter with a bit of gravel.

Depending on what type of plants you want to go with, all these ideas from the videos you posted would work.

Beee Haven
Posts: 12
Joined: Thu May 07, 2015 12:21 pm

Re: Plants with weather loaches

Post by Beee Haven » Sun May 10, 2015 8:17 am

Thank you for your reply - extremely helpful. The emergent plants wouldn't work though as the wee weather loaches are escape artists so lid is absolutely necessary!

Going to attempt the stick on planter, have most of the 'bits', just waiting for the plants, will do the lid thing too, and stick some stones around too so they don't get 'dug' up. Thank you for the advice re substrate - no need for seriously expensive stuff then? Nice one!

Diana
Posts: 4675
Joined: Wed Jan 04, 2006 1:35 am
Location: Near San Franciso

Re: Plants with weather loaches

Post by Diana » Sun May 10, 2015 9:48 am

Goldfish are known plant eaters.
Feed them a rotation of vegetables to satisfy them, and use plants they normally avoid.
Java Fern, Anubias, Bolbitis are grown on wood or rock, and are generally avoided by Goldfish. But if the diet is not correct they will keep tasting the plants to see if they can eat them, thus tearing them up.
These are all slow growing plants and won't do much for NO3 levels.
38 tanks, 2 ponds over 4000 liters of water to keep clean and fresh.

Happy fish keeping!

Diana
Posts: 4675
Joined: Wed Jan 04, 2006 1:35 am
Location: Near San Franciso

Re: Plants with weather loaches

Post by Diana » Sun May 10, 2015 9:59 am

Just saw the other post=

In a 3' long tank the fish do not have enough room to explore, and so get into the same trouble over and over, thus digging up the plants (Golds dig, Dojos burrow) and nibbling the plants.

Get a tank twice the size for these species, and get smaller fish for this tank. I would suggest fish that do not get much longer than about 3-4" for a 3' long tank.
38 tanks, 2 ponds over 4000 liters of water to keep clean and fresh.

Happy fish keeping!

Loachloach
Posts: 787
Joined: Mon Nov 05, 2012 10:11 pm

Re: Plants with weather loaches

Post by Loachloach » Sun May 10, 2015 12:31 pm

no need for seriously expensive stuff then?
No, absolutely not.
The soil and clay pebbles work better than any aquarium dedicated substrates for plants.
The soil would normally contain a bit of organics in it that decompose once submerged and may produce ammonia, so if you are going to put quite a few planters at once in the tank, up the water changes. Normally, in a cycled tank it's all fine as anything produced it's either taken by plants or by the existing filtration but I'd just like to mention in order to be cautious. The soil will eventually mineralise and won't produce anything more than the normal substrate will.

Alternatively, you can mineralise the soil prior to putting in the planters. This is done just by soaking the soil, then drying it completely, both steps around 5 times each for complete mineralisation.
Or you can just bake the soil in the oven once which will do the same trick as the above :D
It may stink a bit though :lol:

Beee Haven
Posts: 12
Joined: Thu May 07, 2015 12:21 pm

Re: Plants with weather loaches

Post by Beee Haven » Mon May 11, 2015 9:14 am

Brilliant advice here thank you.

Am looking to re-home the goldfish and replace them with the rosy barbs, white cloud mountain minnows and/or zebra danios.

Ordered some wee clay pebbles, and have a tiny tank that I'll use to give any plants bought online a bit of a head start before putting them in the main tank as well.

SO glad I found this forum! You've been a great help x

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Bing [Bot] and 125 guests