Plants that won't be eaten!

TracyB · Posted: Tue Apr 19, 2005 3:28 pm Post subject: Plants that won't be eaten!

I have a 36" tank with 4 large Dolars, 2 medium pleco and a group tiger barbs.

I recently bought a package of plants to put in one corner of the aquarium. After a few days nearly all the plants have been eaten by my greedy dolars. The only plants they did not eat was the java moss and moss balls.

Here is a list of the plants that I recieved. 4 x moss balls 1 x 2inch ball of java moss, 5 x Stardust Ivy,5 5 x Crypt Nevilli, 5 x Vallis Corkscrew, 5 x Indian Fern, 5 x Red Ludwigia, 5 x Hygro Polysperma.

Can anyone advise me of what i can put in my tank that will not make a lovely meal for my dolars or am i going to have to go back to plastic plants.

Thanks

Tracy

Thom · Site Admin

TracyB, Welcome to the Fishkeepers Forum!

There are two main ways grow plants with herbivorous fish -

(a) get plants that grow faster than they can eat them;
(b) get tough plants that they wont eat.

I imagine that your success with java moss and moss balls are because they are not your typical plants - moss balls are actually an algae, and java moss is, well, a moss. Other plants your fish should not be able to make a dent on are:

Java Fern, which should be grown tied onto wood or rocks, and not buried in the substrate. This plant *apparently* tastes awful to fish, and they shouldnt go for it.

Anubias, which again should be grown in the same way as Java Fern. This plant is very tough, and your fish should struggle to make a dent in it.

Some Crinums may be able to withstand the attentions of herbivorous fish - such as Crinum thaianum, the Onion Plant.

Fitting into the plants that grow too quick to be eaten you could try elodea/egeria, normally hygrophilia I would recommend...but looks like you've tried that, and possibly creeping jenny.

Im afraid there are not really that many choices...but a larger list of possibilities can be found on the tropica website:

www.tropica.com

On there, do a search for plants not eaten by herbivorous fish.

Hope this helps,
Thom.

TracyB · Posted: Tue Apr 19, 2005 8:02 pm Post subject:

Thank you Thom

I'll have a look.

Tracy