Loaches Online Forum

I have a couple of real plants already. I was just tinking of adding some type of lilly and other plants to the tank and just wanted to know if they would be ok with my clowns. My other fsh will be ok with them just not sure about the clowns??????

i had an immitation lily floating at the top of the tank for a year and they ddin't seem to mind it.

Every Lily I've put in my Clown tank has ended up full of holes....

Apparently the loaches think popping holes in the leaves is a great time

... even though Echinodorus are swamp plants and have rather hard leaves, clowns just cut through the leaves when suspecting a snail or eggs on the other side. They don´t bother to go to the reverse side...

My clowns nibble on the base of leaves, specially when the iron content is getting low (young leaves turning lighter in color). But with some food (specially iron) given into the roots (=swamp plant) the leaves grow fast enough so a little damage does not really hurt...
Unfourtunately, my clowns don´t eat ANY vegies, except the Echinodorus, and except raw garlic (they chew around on it for a while and spit it out. I tried it once as a parasite prevention - the entire room was stinking...I think it also would not help anyway) They don´t eat any fruit neither - have tried EVERYTHING - including mixing with flakes etc. - no way - they eat spaghetti (but don´t get it, except once with deer-ragout...forgive me please)

Plants give additional cover, and create nice shadows.

When you get serious on plants you´ll get to a point, where air bubbles, drive out tghe CO2. I do not have any aeratation. I add CO2-gas, controlled with the lioght timer. I have a 4.5 hours lunchbreak (lights off), to minimize the ph-value differences day/night (plants emit CO2 without light)...

Its rather daring to post the following pics, due to very poor quality but I made them extra for you this evening... gives an idea though... you see the shadow of one clown...



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Any plants you put in now will not last when the clowns grow to their adult size. Marge regularly uproots XL Java fern motherplants like a bulldozer, and all of them punch holes in and tear off leaves. It's the same with Anubias. We just resign ourselves to replacing the motherplants every 4 months or so.

Emma

so far anubias fern and java fern are the only thing that lasts more than a month with my loach. they tear up everything and make beds out of it. then it makes more for me to clean especially in the filter. i have a bamboo tree in my tank and it doesn't get torn up. the bamboo leaves are a bit thicker than most of the plants you can get at the store.

Emma Turner wrote:Any plants you put in now will not last when the clowns grow to their adult size. Marge regularly uproots XL Java fern motherplants like a bulldozer, and all of them punch holes in and tear off leaves. It's the same with Anubias. We just resign ourselves to replacing the motherplants every 4 months or so.

Emma

... hmmm... so that´s getting worse than ... that is not really good news ... means, I will need to have a good reseve growing above the water to keep replacing ... goes good with some echinodurus plants (currently they drive "branches" out of the water, where new plants develop, which can be put under water)

Wolfram

wasserscheu wrote:... hmmm... so that´s getting worse than ... that is not really good news ... means, I will need to have a good reseve growing above the water to keep replacing ... goes good with some echinodurus plants (currently they drive "branches" out of the water, where new plants develop, which can be put under water)

Wolfram

Oh yes, all might be well at the moment, but bigger clowns will trash the plants. I wish Bob D (from Australia) was still writing on here because his large clowns (Basil, Sybil & co) do the same. I think he gave up with replacing his plants in the end! Here is a pic of Marge as she was uprooting a large Microsorium mother plant in 'bulldozer mode' (the plant is 18-20" high):



Emma

lol, bulldozer mode! caught red handed! my loaches will actually shred the plant stalks and make kinda strings out of the plants and pile it up into bedding where they sleep. its really annoying when i have to clean their cubby hole. there is all kinds of debree floating in there.

thanks Emma, its a great pic - in a not so great moment... however - seeing the nice fish - I´m getting ready to surrender

(... but first I may try some stainless "rabbit-wire-mesh" or acrylic glass around the roots, or covered flowerpots, .... and surrender later - as there still is the shredding-problem, they have been doing that since they were small, ... hmmm... breathing deep )

I also notized that my clowns are gardeners to some extend, they take influence in where they accept plants and bite pieces off, that are in their way... small plants with not so strong roots are hard to keep in the ground.

... Marge for sure owns the right "tools" to go her way... she appears very determined

Cheers

Wolfram

Since other plants are being mentioned and not just Lilys now....

I have luck with Java Ferns and Anubias tied SECURELY to Driftwood or larger pieces of rock....the Clowns still get to knock the driftwood around the tank, but the plants stay on it

I also, for some reason, have an enlarging stand of Asian Ambulia that is largely left alone??? I see Albert (Marge size) scavenge through it for food scraps, but it's still growing well enough that the base is growing and I have to trim it

My loach tank

Left side

I am sure that in our tank some of this plant-munching/destroying is connected to the fact that we have such a high number of relatively large clowns all living together. Sometimes the larger ones seem to take on a plant, one either side, to uproot it more quickly!!

Wolfram - we've placed small 'rock piles' around the bases of some of the motherplants in the past, but still they manage to get their snouts in and dig them up!

Emma

I have some with my clowns and they don't seem to care at all. They have not hurt them in any way nor any of my other plants.

Emma Turner wrote: ... seem to take on a plant, one either side, to uproot it more quickly!! ...

Emma

Hi Emma,

... you mean the large clowns work together? Thats fascinating, I love that. "So, I´m looking forward to my clowns, growing big and getting creative" ... we and our clowns ... what wouldn´t we sacrifice for "them clowns".

Cheers

Wolfram

So far I havent had any problems, an occasional hole punch here or there but nothing that matters. I surely hope they wont tear up my plants when they start geting bigger as they are only from 3"-5" long right now. My future plans will have a lot of heavily rooted plants that I cant see a clown pulling up. For example I have recently pulled out a couple of my red rubin swords out of my 75g tank (with flourite substrate) and it took quiet a bit of work for me to get them out! Thier roots were almost a foot long through the subtrate and even trying to shake and jiggle as I pulled I still took up a few pounds of gravel with the roots. What a mess in the tank that made. Wentii crypt plants I have also seen massive roots like my swords.